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Bring joy and play into children's lives through books.

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Home » All categories » Create a Library Dramatic Play Area

Create a Library Dramatic Play Area

May 13, 2015 •

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The Playful Preschool Series  theme this week is book celebration.  We try to celebrate books every day in our house!  My boys had so much fun coming up with and executing this idea.

Create a library dramatic play area for preschoolers from Growing Book by Book. Includes free dramatic play printables.

 

Dramatic Play- Library

Why We Chose This Activity

dramatic play area library at the Magic House

A few weeks ago we visited the Magic House in St. Louis and my boys had a great time playing librarians and patrons in their library room.  It was a kid sized room full of all the things you would find at the library.

My kids have wanted to recreate the room at home so since this week’s theme was book celebration we decided it was perfect timing.

Setting Up

Materials Needed: lots of books, 2 free printables (found below), chairs, tables, play phone, real cell phone, and basket or box

dramatic play display area

1.  Arrange the books on shelves or create a book display.  My kids faced the books out on the couch of those that were new releases.

dramatic play library area for return bin

2.  Set up a return books area and a check out area.  Use these free printable library signs  to label your areas.  You will want to include a return basket or box.  We used a laundry basket.  Have a play phone available to take patron calls.  The cell phone set to camera makes a fun scanner for checking books in and out of the library.

3. Print and cut these free library cards.

4.  Add any other areas to make your library unique.  My oldest son wanted a Lego club just like our library so we had a section set up for that activity.  We also added bean bags for a story time activity.

Time to Play

checking out books at dramatic play area

My kids played most of the day in their library.  They took turns being the librarian and patron.  I also pretended to call in and order books for them to hold on the reserved shelf.

When they tired of shelving books, we had fun in our Lego club.

Then, we gathered the stuffed animals for story time.

They had so much fun and wanted me to take pictures to show the librarians the next time we visit the real library!

Related Posts

Reading Picnic Gala

Backyard Literacy Water Park

Keep reading.  Visit the links below for more great book celebration ideas from the #playfulpreschool team!

Non-Fiction Book Scavenger Hunt by Rainy Day Mum
Tips for Reading with Special Needs Kids by Life Over C’s
Preschool Invitation to Make Books by Mom Inspired Life
Early Reader Book Sorting Fun by Capri + 3
Parts of a Book Playdough Mats by Learning 2 Walk
Tips for Story Time at the Library by Tiny Tots Adventures
Make a Reading Star Book Counting Chain by The Educators’ Spin On It

Did you get your free list of Books Kids Will Beg You to Read?

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Filed Under: All categories, Reading Fun Tagged With: printable

About Jodie Rodriguez

Jodie Rodriguez is a mom of two young boys and an early childhood/elementary educator with over 20 years of experience. Jodie's passion is helping parents, teachers, librarians and anyone else interested in nurturing and reaching ALL of our youngest growing readers.

Comments

  1. Rebekah Gienapp says

    May 14, 2015 at 9:36 pm

    I can’t wait to try this with my son! Especially now that we’ve been going to library storytime each week, I think he’ll have lots of ideas.

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      May 19, 2015 at 7:52 am

      Yay, enjoy!

  2. Danielle says

    May 13, 2015 at 10:44 am

    This is so much fun! My son would love it. Thanks for the printables too. That makes setting this up even easier!

  3. Theresa says

    May 13, 2015 at 8:16 am

    What a fun dramatic play activity. Our kids would love this. We will have to give it a try.

  4. Natasha says

    May 13, 2015 at 7:20 am

    I wanted to do a fun library setup but didn’t get to it. I am printing up library cars today for this weekend .

  5. Cerys says

    May 13, 2015 at 4:32 am

    This is so much fun and it was one of my favourite things to do as a child – a lot of mine and my husband books that we have kept still have our ticket holders and date of return pages that we stuck in inside them from our childhood.

Trackbacks

  1. Awesome Ideas That Will Make Community Helpers Fun says:
    June 17, 2019 at 3:33 pm

    […] Growing Book by Book shares how to Create a Library Dramatic Play Area not only to learn what a librarian does but for hours of play. […]

  2. Parts of a Book Playdough Mats says:
    May 13, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    […] Invitation to Make Books by Mom Inspired Life Early Reader Book Sorting Fun by Capri + 3 Dramatic Play Library by Growing Book by Book Tips for Story Time at the Library by Tiny Tots Adventures Make a […]

  3. 10+ Tips for Reading with Special Needs Kids says:
    May 13, 2015 at 8:14 am

    […] Life Early Reader Book Sorting Fun by Capri + 3 Parts of a Book Playdough Mats by Learning 2 Walk Dramatic Play Library by Growing Book by Book Tips for Story Time at the Library by Tiny Tots Adventures Make a […]

  4. Preschool Invitation to Make Books - Mom Inspired Life says:
    May 13, 2015 at 7:05 am

    […] Early Reader Book Sorting Fun by Capri + 3 Parts of a Book Playdough Mats by Learning 2 Walk Dramatic Play Library by Growing Book by Book Tips for Story Time at the Library by Tiny Tots Adventures Make a […]

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