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A Learning Center is an area of the classroom that has been set up for a particular activity or group of activities and usually is defined by physical boundaries and specific materials. Learning centers give order to the classroom, provide freedom within limits, allow children to make choices, and provide opportunities for children to move freely and independently.
Learning Centers also permit teachers to meet the individual needs of children and to encourage them to do an activity for a maximum period of time with minimum interference. Learning Centers invite children to see, taste, touch, smell, and feel the environment in the room. Through these hands on experiences children relax and enjoy their learning experience creating a more absorbent mind for learning to take place.
Book / Reading /Language Center
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Stimulate new ideas
·Clarify and organize existing ideas
·Foster aesthetic appreciation
·Name, describe, and classify materials
·Develop listening skills
·Verbally express feelings
·Build positive self-image
·Increase vocabulary
·Encourage literacy
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Home Living Center
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Reenact what he/she sees in his/her own environment
·Foster language and communication skills
·Develop organizational skills
·Problem solve
·Be creative
·Release emotional tension and frustration
·Develop eye-hand coordination
·Develop pro-social skills
·Explore varying roles within our world
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Sand/ Water / Sensory Center
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Be creative
·Develop readiness skills for math
·Have sensory experiences
·Promote concepts such as pouring, dumping, floating, sinking, measuring
·Develop eye-hand coordination
·Develop social skills
·Stimulate curiosity
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Science / Nature Center
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Work independently
·Experiment with different tools and materials
·Increase observation skills
·Develop vocabulary
·Develop sensory skills
·Use problem-solving
·Explore and discover the beauty of God’s world
·Learn through firsthand experiences
·Stimulate curiosity
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Puzzles/Manipulative Center
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Experience success
·Learn to work independently
·Learn the concepts of size, shape, and color
·Develop eye-hand coordination
·Enhance problem solving
·Learn the relationship of the parts to the whole
·Develop fine motor skills
·Build math readiness skills
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Creative Art
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Develop social skills
·Foster eye-hand coordination
·Release emotional frustration
·Stimulate creativity
·Enhance independence
·Foster cognitive concepts
·Learn cause and effect principles
·Encourage literacy
·Learn to use different mediums and materials
·Make decisions
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Blocks and Construction Center
This center provides each child with an opportunity to:
·Choose size and shapes
·Foster reasoning
·Enhance mathematical skills and science concepts
·Foster problem solving
·Learn to take turns
·Learn organizational skills
·Strengthen gross motor skills
·Learn concepts of weight, balance, and basic physical science principals
·Extend vocabulary
·Foster creativity
·Foster self-confidence
·Share his/her own ideas
·Develop sensory discrimination and eye-hand coordination
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