Co-Creating Our Drama Centre

At the beginning of October, the students and I co-created a McDonald's Restuarant in our Drama Centre. I collected many cups, boxes, bags, trays, Happy Meal toys, play food (including hamburgers, fries and chicken nuggets) and other props. The children set-up our ‘lemonade stand’ to be the drive-through window. I added the McDonald's logo to hats and shirts to be uniforms for the students to wear.

The students worked hard at organizing and making their McDonald’s centre very authentic. They organized where everything should go (e.g., cups, boxes, bags, trays, etc.) and made labels to help them to remember. The children created a sign for the drive-through window and also created a menu with pictures and prices for each item. The students used their knowledge of letters and letter sounds to spell and print the words. 

Many children engaged in dramatic play at our McDonald's centre. The students took orders, filled orders and gave the customer their orders. The children counted out the correct number of chicken nuggets for the box and ensured that the customer received what he/she ordered. The cash register was a popular prop. The students were taking money or swiping debit cards as payment of orders and giving change. 

Here is a slideshow of photos from our centre:

At the beginning of November, I started the process again of co-creating our Drama Centre with the students. I started by asking the students for ideas of what we could turn our Drama Centre into.

Here are their ideas:

• Pet store
• Castle
• Fairies
• WalMart
• Tim Horton's
• Grocery store
• Dancing
• Beach

On the next day, the students voted on their favorite idea. The centre that received the most votes was the Tim Horton's Centre.

On the following day, I asked the students to list items that we need for our Tim Horton's Centre.

Here are their ideas:

• Coffee, tea 
• Coffee maker, tea pot
• Timbits, donuts, cookies, sandwiches
• Hot chocolate, smoothies
• Tim Horton's cups, bags and boxes
• Tim Horton's shirts and hats
• Cash register and money
• Tim Horton's sign
• Drive-thru window

Last week, the students enjoyed exploring and using the new items in the new Tim Horton's Centre. 

This week they are making the signs and labels for the centre.