The Flower Shop Dramatic Play That Sneaks In Lots of Learning

If your kids love pretend play, they’re going to be all in on this Flower Shop Dramatic Play setup. With just a few simple materials (and a super handy printable set), you can turn your dramatic play center into a full-blown flower shop—complete with bouquets, deliveries, greeting cards, and even a DIY laptop.

It’s fun, it’s full of learning, and it’s surprisingly easy to pull together. Let’s take a look!

Why Try a Flower Shop Dramatic Play Center?

A flower shop dramatic play setup is a perfect fit for spring and summer themes. But don’t limit yourself to the warm seasons! Use fall favorites like mums and sunflowers to create a fall flower shop, and make poinsettia bouquets during the winter.

A make-believe flower shop works beautifully during a unit on flowers or plants. You can also set it up around Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day when kids love making and delivering “bouquets” with extra care.

Materials and Props Needed

Here are some props that you can use to set up your flower store. Don’t worry if you don’t have everything. Kids love getting creative!

• cash register
• silk flowers in several colors (look at the dollar store or thrift store for inexpensive options)
• plastic cups or small buckets to hold flower inventory
• plastic vase or plastic cups
• a pool noodle
• pipe cleaners & tissue paper to wrap bouquets
• wagon, pedal car, or tricycle to serve as adelivery van
• color pom-poms or beads to use as seeds
• planting pots with shredded paper as soil
• trowels
• watering cans
• garden gloves

Note: If you don’t have silk flowers, no worries. You can make DIY paper flowers and add them to pipe cleaners.

How to Prepare Your Flower Shop Dramatic Play Center

Here are some tips and tricks I learned from setting up a flower shop dramatic play center.

Flower Shop Dress Up Clothing

You don’t need special dress-up clothing when creating a flower shop dramatic play center, but kids love to dress up, and it really encourages them to get creative.

I added logos to the printable set so you can easily create uniforms for the employees. Cut out the logos and attach them to hats, aprons, vests, or shirts to make the perfect uniform.

Are you tired of arguments over responsibilities? Add the role cards to lanyards and use them to assign clear roles and keep the peace. Use the employee schedule as a sign-up sheet. It helps manage turns and gives kids extra name-writing practice.

How to Prepare Flowers

I purchased flowers in different colors from the dollar store. Generally, you get 4 or 5 flowers per bunch. When I got home, I noticed that I had a few empty stems because the flowers had fallen off. So, take a minute to make sure you buy a bunch without any missing flowers.

You can also find inexpensive silk flowers at thrift stores, used art supply stores, or from friends and family.

To prepare the flowers, I used snips to separate individual stems from the larger bunch. To keep kids from pulling them apart during play, add a dab of hot glue or super glue to the base of each blossom and where the leaves connect to the stem.

Sort the flowers by color and place them in plastic cups or small buckets with a color label attached. The dollar store had large white plastic cups that were perfect for the job.

Make Bows for Your Bouquets

I attached some gift bows to craft sticks to create bows to add to the bouquets. This makes it really easy for kids to stick a bow in each bouquet they put together.

How to Prepare Vases

I used plastic cups that I found at the dollar store to serve as vases. You can also save and clean out plastic bottles or yogurt cups to use as flower vases.

I cut sections of a pool noodle and duct-taped them to the bottom of each cup so kids can stick the flower stems into the foam noodle as they design their bouquets. I love that this is also a fun fine motor activity. There is also enough room to stick a bow between the noodle and the cup.

Add Signs to Your Center

Signs might seem like a small detail, but they make a big difference in a dramatic play center because they create opportunities for early literacy learning.

In a dramatic play flower shop, signs help kids connect written words to real-life situations. They start to recognize familiar words, learn new words, learn how print works, and feel more confident using language during play.

In the set, you’ll find all kinds of signs—banners to set the scene, Open/Closed signs for managing the shop, price signs, and word cards in two sizes to label everything.

These signs don’t just make your setup look great, they create a print-rich environment.

Get Ready to Sell Bouquets

If you’re setting up a flower shop, you will need a way to sell flowers. Kids can use the printable order forms to select the number of flowers and the colors that they desire in their bouquets.

Print money to add to your cash register. You can also print a bank card and a machine where kids can scan or tap to process their payments.

I love creating technology components to add to my dramatic play sets. To make your DIY laptop, print the keyboard and monitor and slip them into the covers of a 3-ring binder. Turn the binder so that the covers are facing up and tape a block or box to the back of the “monitor” so that the laptop stays open.

Kids can use it to place bouquet orders or order supplies from the flower farm. Don’t forget to print off some cellphones, too. Customers can call in to place an order, and the delivery driver will need a cell phone to contact customers.

Make Cards for Your Bouquets

The set includes 12 different greeting cards that kids can color, sign, and add to their bouquets. It’s a perfect way to sneak in some extra name-writing practice! The set includes everyday cards like:

• Happy Birthday!
• Congratulations!
• Get Well Soon!
• Thank You!

I also included some cards for all seasons of the year so you can switch up your center and use it at different times of the year.

• Happy Winter!
• Happy Spring!
• Happy Summer!
• Happy Fall!
• Happy Valentine’s Day!
• Happy Mother’s Day!
• Happy Holidays!
• Merry Christmas!

How to Set Up a Delivery Service

Your kids will have lots of fun playing in a pretend flower shop. It will be even more fun if the flower shop offers a delivery service!

Don’t worry…it’s easy. Attach the delivery van signs to a toy shopping cart, a wagon, a tricycle, or a pedal car, and you have an instant delivery van. Kids can use a delivery form to write the address or directions, and the delivery driver can use a printable map to find the correct location.

Don’t forget to set up the reserved parking sign for the delivery van!

Additional Ideas for Your Center

Here are some activities that you can include as part of your flower shop dramatic play area, or you can use them as separate learning activities.

Planting Station or Flower Farm

The seed packets are one of my favorite parts of the flower shop dramatic play set. After assembling and laminating, the seed packets are perfect for a little planting station.

You can use small pom poms or pony beads as the flower seeds and use shredded brown paper as the soil. Add some flower pots, a hose, a trowel, a spray bottle, and a watering can, and you are all set to grow flowers for the flower shop.

The little seed packets are great for pretend play, but they are also PERFECT for:

• Pincer grasp fine motor activities
• Sorting activities – sort seeds by color and place them in the appropriate packet
• Counting activities – roll a die and add the quantity of seeds to a packet

Flower Life Cycle

Create an interactive flower chart life cycle by printing and laminating the flower life cycle chart and circles. Then, cut out the circles along the dotted lines and add hook-and-loop tape to the back of each circle and to the chart. You can also use magnets instead. Kids can then attach the pieces to the chart as they learn about how flowers grow.

Flower Sorting Cards

I love open-ended sorting activities. There are no rules here, just let kids take a look at all the flower picture cards and sort them anyway they wish. The printable set includes 24 flower sorting cards and 3 sorting mats. All you have to do is cut the cards out and encourage kids to sort them on one of the mats. Here are some sorting ideas.

• Sort by color
• Sort by preference
• Flowers that are symmetrical vs non-symmetrical flowers
• Single flowers vs. multiple flowers on a stem
• Single-color vs multi-color
• Images that show leaves vs images without leaves
• Color of center

How many ways can you think to sort the cards?

Design a Bouquet

Let your kids get creative. Supply crayons or markers, and they can

Purchase the Flower Shop Dramatic Play Printables

Are you ready to set up your flower shop in your dramatic play area today? Stop by the store to get all the printables.

Purchase the Flower Shop Pretend Play Printables on TPT

Do you prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase the printables in my TPT store.

Additional Dramatic Play Ideas