This flower shop dramatic play sure rose to the occasion! With spring in full bloom, it is the perfect time to set up a flower shop in your classroom. As always, dramatic play is an excellent way to incorporate learning through play! The kids don’t even know the essential skills they are building as they plant seeds, create bouquets, and fill out cards for their loved ones. Check out our Flower Shop Dramatic Play!
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you by linking to Amazon.com. See the full disclosure here.
Garden Lesson Plans
Flower Shop Dramatic Play
Ideas for Setup
First things first, gotta set up your flower shop. We used cube shelves as the main furniture (they just work so well to hold all the things). Check out these ideas for getting it all set up:
- Use tin cans as vases or sturdy vases from the Dollar Tree. Note: The tall, skinny ones tip easily. Either tape the labels on the front of the vases or tape them onto your table.
- I am obsessed with these plush flowers I found online. If these are too pricy for your budget, grab silk flowers from Dollar Tree. They always have all of the colors for a price that can't be beat!
- Sort colored pompoms into a tray divided into at least 8 sections. We used the wooden box from our Melissa & Doug vehicle set. Add the colored seed labels to the box.
- Punch a hole in the name tags and add lanyards to make them sturdy enough for toddlers. Use a Command Hook to hang them from any surface.
- Use a clothespin photo display to hang the bunting sign or just tape it along the wall.
- Hang the Florist Checklist on the wall.
- Place the Flower Order Form on a clipboard or in a clear dry-erase sleeve. Because, well, kids love clipboards. Use a string to hang a dry-erase marker. That way, the marker doesn't get lost.
- Add felt flower pots with brown crinkle paper to make planting seeds fun.
Materials:
- plush flowers or silk flowers
- tin cans or vases
- colored pompoms
- lanyards
- dry erase sleeves
Flower shop
Pretend Florists
One way to encourage sustained dramatic play is by offering a list of activities to partake in. This visual checklist for the florists is a great way to model what to do in the dramatic play center and can provide children with ideas as they interact with friends.
One of the main jobs of a florist is taking orders! Add a dot on the order form for each color of flower that the customer wants. Then, circle the total number of flowers at the bottom for some counting fun before building each colorful bouquet!
So many fun ways to learn through play in the flower shop dramatic play center!
Materials:
Planting Seeds
Flower Shop Dramatic Play
As a florist, the children get the joy of pretending to plant seeds and watching them bloom into beautiful flowers. To make it more exciting, we used brown crinkle paper as soil and kid gardening tools.
The kids planted pompom seeds in little pots, watered them with an empty spray bottle, and waited for them to grow into beautiful flowers. Once they bloomed, they used plastic scissors from a doctor’s kit to snip and arrange the flowers into gorgeous bouquets.
And when they were done, they sorted the seeds back into their container to start again. It’s a fun way to incorporate color sorting that your kids will love!
Materials:
- gardening tools
- gardening gloves (Dollar Tree)
- felt pots
- pompom seeds
- tray for seeds
- brown crinkle paper (Hobby Lobby)
- spray bottles
Pick Your Own Seeds
Sort by Color
If you give a preschooler a container/bag/box, they will fill it… with leaves, rocks, scraps of paper, half-chewed erasers, and any other tiny object they find. And then, Mom gets the lovely task of sorting through these “treasures” and secretly throwing them either outside or in the trash.
In the flower shop this week, we actually encouraged our little ones to make a collection with these pompom seeds.
We left out little bags with the label “Pick Your Own Seeds” for them to collect seeds to take home to plant in their garden. They were so excited to pick out the colors they wanted and pack those bags full!
And the best part: the kids (not Mom) had to sort them back into the container when they were done so the next group could pick their own seeds.
Materials:
- small plastic bags
- colored pompoms
- tray for seeds
Flower Shop dramatic Play
Delivery Van
The pain, the sweat, the agony of setting up a realistic flower shop for my kiddos, and guess what they did? They ended up selling flowers straight from the cart.
Seriously, the rest of the flower shop collected dust as my little entrepreneurs set up a mobile flower shop about halfway through the week. I get it; pushing a shopping cart is cool, but really?!?
I’m not saying ditch the flower shop idea. I’m sure your students will love and appreciate all of your hard work setting up a flower shop.
What I am saying is that if you have a cart that you can turn into a delivery van, DO IT!
And if they’re really into it, they’ll trace their routes from the flower shop on the map to different locations around the city that they can deliver flowers to, like the school, hospital, or someone’s house.
Materials:
Flower Shop Customers
Pretend Money
Last but not least, your preschoolers can pretend to be customers in the flower shop.
Not only do they get to take advantage of the great sale (Buy 4 Flowers – Get a Free Vase), but they also get to choose all of the colors in each bunch of flowers.
Tip: The long, clear party favor bags at Dollar Tree are perfect for wrapping up your bouquets with some tulle ribbon!
Plus, I am always thinking of ways to spice up writing! These cards gave the customers the opportunity to write notes to their loved ones and sign their names. Perfect letter formation practice without sitting down for formal writing time.
And finally, show me the money! Your customers get to count and pay for each flower in their bouquet using the flower bucks in this flower shop set.
Materials:
You might also like...
MORE Garden Activities for Preschoolers
This flower shop dramatic play is such a hit every time we bring it out! Hopefully, you and your little ones will blossom with all of the learning opportunities wrapped up in play with this one!
