Setting Up Your Santa's Workshop Dramatic Play Center

Fancy seeing your students turn into real-life elves, helpers, and maybe even Santa? Well, sprinkle a little magic, add a cup full of dramatic play, and you'll see your very own learning environment transform into Santa's Workshop itself! Don't have faith in the magic? Carry on reading to see how you too can get the Santa's Workshop dramatic play center of your dreams. 

First off, you will need to get your hands on a copy of my Santa's Workshop Dramatic Playset. Once you have instantly downloaded your copy, you can start hunting for the props you need. I recommend looking for props such as toys, wrapping paper, Santa sacks, baskets, elf costumes, and anything else Santa or Christmas themed that might catch your eye. The beauty of Santa's Workshop is that because it fits into a festive theme, most educators will already have in their bag of tricks some Christmas resources they can use. I encourage reusing, and creatively sourcing props to use alongside my dramatic play sets because a) it's fun and b) it's cost saving. 

Once you are all set with props, print out your Santa's Workshop Dramatic Playset, laminate it for durability if you wish, and then set it up however you please. Remember to mix it up. Use the photos for inspiration, but know that there are no hard and fast rules around how you should set up your center. It's fun thinking that no two ways of setting it up will be the same and that there will be tones of different setup variations out there all across the world.

I recommend setting this up before the students arrive and not when they can see what is going on. This adds an element of magic and excitement to the center the first time they see it. You can either prepare them or surprise them with this setup. 

Once the students (or should I say elves) have had their initial look at the center all set up, you can introduce the different elements they can play with. Give them all their Job ID cards and set them to (pretend) work. Santa's got a sleigh to fill people! 

I hope you've enjoyed this blog about my Santa's Workshop resource. Please note that in all the photos the bunting, labels, ID cards, and Job cards have been printed at two per page instead of the normal one per page. For me, this was to save on the space needed as I homeschool my preschooler and don't have much space. Depending on your own learning environment size you may want to do this too or to have it at full size if your area allows such as in a traditional classroom. 

Enjoy!