I went to the Dollar Tree a month before Valentine's day and saw an entire wall of fake flowers and I had the idea to transform my play area into a flower shop for Valentine's day!

So I filled up my basket with every color of fake flowers that the Dollar Tree offered and headed home to set up the perfect Valentine's Day pretend play center for my little learners!

The Set Up:

Before the kids can play, we all know there is a lot of printing, cutting and laminating involved. I prepped my banner, flower shop price list, pretend play money, a Valentine's flower check list and labels for each color of flower.

Believe it or not each bucket on the stand only has one set of flowers from the Dollar Tree. Which means all those flowers in the picture cost me less than $10. I did have to spend some time cutting and separating the flowers but it was worth it!

Time To Play!

Now that everything is set up it is time to play! I let the kids explore the center before I direct any of the play. They spent a LONG time playing with all the new flowers and had so much fun filling up vases without any direction from me.

Directed Play:

After the littles have explored on their own, and have lost a little bit of interest that's when I step in. I prepped a check list, price list and play money that helps me to prompt play. Instead of just letting them pick flowers and add them to a vase I am now asking them for specific colors as well as asking them how much each flower cost. This takes up a lot more time of play! :) 

Build a Bouquet

The last aspect of the dramatic play area is the build a bouquet area. I added some mesh, ribbon, and twine for the kids to tie the flowers together to build a beautiful Valentine's bouquet! 

Want a closer look? I made a Tik Tok showing you exactly how I set up this dramatic play area! 

@preschoolpackets Replying to @sfolkers13 Full set up of the Flower Shop dramatic play center for Valentine’s Day! #dramaticplay #dramaticplayideas #inhomepreschool ♬ Flowers - Miley Cyrus

If you want to set up this Valentine's Flower Shop for your own kids, you can find everything you need in my Valentine's Activity Week!