ART CENTER
Art experiences should be provided and encouraged in all early childhood classrooms.  Creative expression is important during a child's development.  A variety of art media, which provides choice, stimulates a child's self expression.  Craft projects are NOT art.  A well designed art center encourages children to strengthen fine motor skills, problem solve, and build positive self images.

BLOCK CENTER
The block center allows children to design and build structures.  As they work together in small   groups, children learn to collaborate and work problems with their structures and with one another. A well designed block center encourages shapes, size, measurement, and distance.

DRAMATIC PLAY
Early childhood educators have always realized the value of dramatic play for children.  These situations allow the child to role play real-life situations.  It becomes "practice" for them in a non-threatening, non-judgmental setting.  As children work together in the dramatic play area, they learn negotiation skills, conflict resolution skills, and cooperation, to name a few.

MATH MANIPULATIVE CENTER
Children are involved in a number of activities on a daily basis as they interact with their environment.  Number sense is greatly strengthened when children are given interesting objects to sort, classify, count, match, sequence, and measure.  In addition, a well designed math center provides opportunities for problem solving as children interact with these hands-on materials.

READING CENTER
Research indicates that children who are read to and have many pre-reading experiences become readers.  As part of the whole language philosohpy it is felt that the theme-related reading materials provided to children will assist with this process.  A well designed reading center provides opportunities for the following:

to see written language

to become failiar with "sense of story"

to listen to stories on tape

to develop book handling skills

to become aware of details in illustrations

to be exposed to a variety of literature

to experience ingoyment in hearing/reading books

SCIENCE CENTER
The discipline of science lends itself beautifully to hands-on experience for children  Current trends call for children to be more actively involved in science materials.  A well designed science center encourages children to make observations, gather data, problem solve, and record findings, all of which lead to true discovery learning.

WRITING CENTER
Children learn to read and speak in stages.  They also learn to write in stages.  Frequent writing experiences are required to allow these skills to emerge. A well designed writing center provides oppurtunities for the following:

experimentation with written language to create pictures, lists signs, postcards, notes, etc.

experience with writing stories/books

exposure to a variety of writing instruments and different types of paper