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Math and manipulatives. In early childhood classrooms, manipulatives refers to small objects that children can handle—and associate—in meaningful ways. Manipulatives are important to fine motor control as well as to emerging math and number sense.

Puzzles, Lego® bricks, nesting boxes, sewing cards, colored cubes, counting bears, collections of keys or buttons, lotto games, and simple board games are standard center equipment. They give children opportunities to investigate number, shape, color, and size. Equipment like this also invites children to build their fine motor skills while gaining visual acuity, dexterity, and strength.

Place the manipulatives center out of traffic paths. Store materials in plastic bins on low shelves to allow children easy access and invite independent cleanup. Make a variety of manipulatives available every day and rotate materials regularly.

Blocks. Researchers and experienced caregivers have noted that children tend to move through four distinct phases of block play. Starting at about 18 months, children with access to blocks first simply carry them from place to place. Once children are familiar with blocks’ textures and shapes, the favored activity is to pile blocks and lay them flat on the floor—there is no structure. Again, with increasing familiarity, children connect blocks to create structures and eventually make elaborate constructions, often with additional props.

Educators have an array of block types to offer children. The standard types in early childhood classroom are unit blocks and hollow blocks. (See “Block play: Classroom essentials,” Texas Child Care, Summer 2009 or www.childcarequarterly.com/summer09_story2a.html).

A key to satisfying block play is having enough blocks—more is better. A classroom of 15 children, for example, should have around 300 unit blocks in a variety of shapes. Provide accessible props to enhance block play: human and animal figures, signs, vehicles, and materials that encourage children to construct their own props.

The block center demands a large space and a flat play area. While carpeting may reduce noise, its textured surface guarantees toppled structures and frustrated children. Locate the block center out of traffic paths. A corner of a room is ideal.

Store blocks on low shelves for easy access and cleanup. Draw templates of each block shape and tape to the shelves so children can sort and store the blocks independently.

Dramatic play. Children need opportunities to explore social roles and interactions. A well-equipped dramatic play center invites children to try on aspects of a grown-up world with vocabulary, activity, and interaction. The center allows children to explore their emotions, solve problems, and practice the art of negotiation and compromise with friends. Importantly, it invites children to develop and use symbols, which are essential to cognitive and language development.

The dramatic play area best contains both standard equipment that supports self-help skill development and rotating props to facilitate a specific type of play. Basic equipment and materials should include the following:
clothing (shirts, shoes, jackets, and skirts)
cleaning supplies (broom, mop, and dustpan)
home-living equipment (child-sized stove and refrigerator with pots, spoons, and plastic food)
dolls
table and chairs
a mirror

Provide storage shelves and coat hooks so children can easily locate materials and return them to their proper places.

Assemble prop boxes that contain materials for specific kinds of dramatic play. These might include a restaurant, grocery store, doctor’s office, museum, camping trip, and pet store. Rotate these prop boxes as children’s interests dictate. Some may inspire children’s play for several weeks, while others will last only a couple of days.

Reading and writing. Books, books, and more books—and equipment to practice writing. Such a simple center, and so vital to children’s cognitive, social, and literacy development.

Place the reading and writing center in a quiet area of the classroom. Add comfortable reading chairs or soft floor cushions and a small table and chairs for writing.

Display books so that children can access them easily. Separate fiction from nonfiction by shelf or a color code. Rotate featured books often and try to associate books with other classroom activities. Provide books about germs, hospitals, and medical checkups when the dramatic play area is dedicated to a doctor’s office, for example.

Choose books and magazines carefully to avoid stereotypes and bias, both gender and racial. Begin building a permanent library by developing a list of books you’d like to have. Ask the children’s librarian in the local library to guide you to the best children’s books on any topic. Then scour yard sales and used book stores to find books on the list. Invite families to celebrate children’s birthdays with a donation to the class library.

Equip the writing table with an assortment of papers, including self-stick notes, postcards, and envelopes. Make booklets by stapling sheets of paper together along one side. Include markers, pencils, and crayons.

Science. Theorists, researchers, and teachers agree: Children need hands-on interactions with the environment to construct their own knowledge. Rather than being told why or how, they learn best by investigating, manipulating, and exploring real and concrete objects. Workbooks, worksheets, and teacher-led experiments don’t give children the tools they need for meaningful learning.

A well-maintained science center helps children ask and answer questions like “What do you think would happen if…?” They can investigate physical properties of materials and compare size, shape, and function. They compare, classify, sort, and sequence. And they develop the basic skills of scientific inquiry: observation, description, measurement, prediction, hypothesis, analysis, interpretation, and communication of results.

The science center offers children experiences with the physical and biological world. They investigate physical phenomena such as space, weight, motion, and force. Equally important, they have opportunities to feed and care for pets, compare leaf shapes, and watch tadpoles grow. Both types of experiences engender respect for the environment and helps children deepen their appreciation for the natural world.

Because children need to explore and experiment, teachers need to provide materials and invite experiences. Position the science center in a quiet area of the classroom. Proximity to the book center encourages children to associate science with research. Natural light from a nearby window or a safely placed lamp provides lighting essential for activities like using a magnifying glass and reading a thermometer.

A well-equipped science center contains items found in nature like rocks, empty nests, and leaves. In also includes purchased or donated items like magnifiers, a balance scale, prisms, flashlights, and thermometers.

Ask families to help you gather consumable materials like discarded pots and potting soil, plastic cups and bowls, measuring cups and spoons, sifters and colanders, locks and keys, pulleys, and appliances that children can safely dismantle. Add materials and props as children’s interests dictate, and rotate materials to sustain interest.

Music and movement. Too often creative expression is limited to the art area. A center for music and movement invites children to explore sound, rhythm, pattern, and emerging physical skills like balance, stamina, agility, stability, and fluid movement. Additionally, music is a mood enhancer. It can calm, energize, and relieve stress.

Teachers tend to use music in two distinct ways: (1) as a signal for transitions or to focus attention and (2) to invite creative expression. Both have value but come with the caution that constant background music, whether classical orchestrations or the AM radio, is distracting and impedes children’s ability to focus on tasks. Use music wisely—and purposefully.

The best music centers contain equipment that children can use independently. Recorded books and headphones invite focused concentration. Small MP3 players are easy to operate and can be set up to allow children a limited number of choices, such as music or the spoken word. Include recordings of folk, country, and classical music as well as action songs, nursery rhymes, and music from international cultures and ethnic groups.

Modify classroom space to accommodate large- and small-group music and movement activities in your daily routine. Introduce rhythm instruments—sand blocks, drums, bells, and triangles—to small groups of children. Play musical games with large groups both indoors and on the playground.

Provide props like scarves and streamers to enhance movement activities. And remember finger plays can be effective any time during the day, not just at large group circle time.

Resources and references
Gould, Patti and Joyce Sullivan. 1999. The Inclusive Early Childhood Classroom: Easy Ways to Adapt Learning Centers for All Children. Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House.
Isbell, Christy and Rebecca Isbell. 2005. The Inclusive Learning Center Book for Preschool Children With Special Needs. Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House.
Warner, Laverne; S. Lynch; D.K. Nabors; and C.G. Simpson. 2008. Themes for Inclusive Classrooms: Lesson Plans for Every Learner. Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House.