Enhancing Home Corner/role Play

[Guest terrydoo73]

We have a home corner which at present consists of lovely wooden items for a sink, cooker and larder as well as the microwave. Then we have set out a table and 2 chairs with the usual plates, cups and mugs/cups/glasses which we swap around each month. In the larder we tend to have "real" items such as the tomato ketchup jar, butter container etc etc. We would usually swap around a few items each month - say toaster and wooden bread one month, then say a saucepan and more real looking food with the usual utensils to do with this. Also in this area is a telephone and directory plus address book. We have put in menus from local restaurants etc and there are dolls a plenty with their little clothes, brushes, mirrors and baby food tins etc etc. We again would swap around by having a high chair one month then a cot another month, a baby carrier the next and a baby bed for another time. We do put out a small dishwasher for a month and then change it to say a vacuum cleaner. We have below the sink an array of cleaning materials - sponge, dish and drying cloth, spray cleaner jar etc. We try and have food out - sometimes substituting with the real thing and they have a session cutting vegetables etc. Then we have put out cooking tins for the oven with pretend buns and swapped it with pizza and the cutters etc. I feel this is a good area but to me a lot is continuous provision and you could keep it out month after month so I want to mix things up a little ... but how? Should I just have this as an area where yes we do little swap arounds but pretty much keep it as it is? We do have the role play separate and that can involve say a garden centre or perhaps a vets or a post office around Christmas time but they are in another area away from the home corner. Any advice?

[Panders]

I do feel that to reflect a true home corner, Terrydo, you need, if you can storage would obviously be an issue for some groups, to have out your "home resources" all the time, I wouldn't swap them about, a child could not sequence say a whole routine if some items are only out once a month and then anyway another vital piece of the equipment has gone missing. It can be a hard area at tidy up time - but once the children are used to tidying it up with adult help it's done fairly neatly. I would add items to the home corner periodically, such as our birthday box - all things they would need to have a pretend birthday party, at Christmas they get decorations and a little tree etc, so that is when we add things to the continuous resource of the home corner. You are especially lucky to have a separate area you can use for specific role play, some groups can't do this.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Panders

[Guest]

Panders love the idea of the birthday box.....somethings are so obvious that you've never thought of them before thanks

 

Hey terrydoo, we have all home corner related stuff accessible all the time, as panders said, and then enhance with real food, such as fruit, veg, breads and butter, seeds, pulses, pasta, baking materials, etc(allergy permitting). They love water, washing up liquid and tea towels.......it can get messy but the children are so absorbed in their play and learning opportunities are massive.....its amazing to watch

[zigzag]

Ohh love the birthday box idea we will use that one thankyou!!! Any more ideas like that?

[finleysmaid]

one of the favourite things we have done is to make a tv! we also sometimes change the home corner for another room in the house...bedroom/lounge etc....haven't done a bathroom yet !!!! :blink:

[Guest]

Please post how it went when you do....you can demo it for us all

[Sox]

one of the favourite things we have done is to make a tv! we also sometimes change the home corner for another room in the house...bedroom/lounge etc....haven't done a bathroom yet !!!! :blink:

 

Our kids loved our t.v., they decided that they needed a remote control! So out came a leather glasses case!

[Poohshouse]

Just to add to ideas we have a working door bell, push button light (the battery ones), digital scales (not food scales), a clock, torch real food (potatoes) teabags etc. Plan to add vinyl to floor and wall paper to display boards soon.