Apple Stand Dramatic Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Inside: One of our favorite fall activities is the apple stand dramatic play center. Our toddlers and preschoolers love pretending to sell apples, packing baskets and ringing them up on our pretend cash register. Fun for the fall theme!

Every October we look forward to setting up our apple stand dramatic play center!

We turn our dramatic play area into a market, complete with a scale and cash registers, and handy bags and baskets for carrying the apples.

And, of course, a phone to take orders! Our apple stand is a fun part of our apple theme, along with making apple prints and enjoying homemade applesauce!

Apple Stand Dramatic Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Our dramatic play area is an important part of our toddler and preschool classroom. We change it every 1-2 weeks. We open this are during our centers time, which is the first hour of our toddler and preschool schedule.

There are 4 different classes in our small preschool, and we share our materials. When we plan our school year, we make sure each class has a different idea happening each week, so that each class has a turn with the materials. When we were finished with our dramatic play apple stand, we passed all of the materials on to the pre-kindergarten class. When every class is finished with that idea, we box it up for the next year.

Related: How to Store Classroom Materials

What we used in our apple stand dramatic play area:

• Pretend apples
• Cash registers (our two favorites are this one, and also this one)
• Scale
• Baskets and bags with handles
• Berry baskets
• Assorted tin pans

Welcome to our apple stand!

Our toddlers wanted to place one apple in each section of a muffin tin. (1:1 correspondence happening during play.)

And, of course, they wanted to carry as many apples as they could at once.

Our scale was handy for weighing the apples.

How many apples can fit in one basket?

Once the apples were selected, it was time to pay for them.

Phone orders were taken, too.

During this time, we asked our preschoolers to bring in one apple. We sorted them by color during circle time.

Our sensory bin was filled with cinnamon and clove scented oatmeal, burlap bags, apples and tongs. (You can see a similar apple sensory bin here.)

This apple stand dramatic play area was loved for 2 weeks, until we turned it into a pumpkin stand.