With warm spring days on the horizon, Grace McGinley, Special Education Teacher of the Foxes classroom, decided to brighten students’ days by opening a fresh-cut flower shop where the children can learn through play.
“I’ve been trying to switch-up the dramatic play area. I really like for them to play with some different ideas,” Grace said. “We’ve done a dentist shop, a vet shop, a bakery, and now a flower shop. It just makes it more exciting for them.”
The shop came to life in the dramatic play area of the classroom. It’s a designated corner large enough for a rug, table, cabinets, and a few chairs where students can take turns playing and taking on different roles. Dramatic play encourages preschoolers to develop social-emotional and academic skills while engaging in the activity that is most natural to them—play.
The Foxes’ flower shop is decorated with coloring sheets completed by the children as well as colorful cut-outs of various flowers on the walls. There is also a price list posted with the shop’s inventory, including bouquets, roses, tulips, daisies, and cacti.
A table with a flowerpot and cash register allows students and their teachers to act out scenarios and learn new words. As teachers and students make purchases, the shop keeper—donning a sharp black apron—heads to a side table, grabs a bouquet of artificial flowers and changes money.
During these interactions, teachers prompt students with phrases such as, “put in,” “smell the flowers,” and even “hold the flowers,” as the children completed their transactions.
Another flower shop activity, which quickly became a favorite, was playing with a fine motor toy, where students stack flowers of different shapes and colors and place them on a grass-colored path. While building, the students were focused on the tasks at hand.
The flower shop activity aligns well with the “Signs of Spring” unit the classrooms, which began schoolwide in late March. The unit is several weeks long and focuses on introducing students to markers of seasonal change. It covers spring animals, spring flowers, spring weather and foliage.
So far, the children have been loving their daily “shifts” at the flower shop. Teachers plan to keep the shop open until the end of April and plan on bringing real flowers to class so the children will benefit from the extra sensory boost of smelling fresh-cut blooms.