5 Must-Have Features in a Kindergarton Floor Supplier

Starting a childcare center for the first time? It’s normal to feel a mix of excitement and overwhelm, especially when it comes to navigating a long daycare supply list.

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Between must-haves and nice-to-haves, it’s easy to get lost in endless daycare equipment lists (and worry about your budget, too). But don’t stress! We’ve got you covered.

Our ultimate daycare supplies and equipment list breaks down exactly what you’ll need for infants and toddlers, so you can shop smarter, not harder.

Ready to check off your list? Let’s dive in.

The Importance of Daycare Supplies

For little ones, play isn’t just fun, it’s how they learn. Infants and toddlers thrive on hands-on exploration, where every touch, movement, and interaction helps them grow.

Such an environment is so important that it’s backed by regulations, too! The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requires childcare centers operating for more than 3 hours a day to provide well-equipped interest areas. These spaces encourage creativity, problem-solving, and social skills, helping children develop physically, emotionally, and cognitively—all at their own pace.

That’s why choosing the right supplies for daycare isn’t just about filling shelves; it’s about creating an environment where curiosity leads the way.

Daycare Supplies Checklist

Every great daycare runs on thoughtful and intentional supplies. Here’s what to look for when stocking up:

‍✔ Variety and Inclusion: Rotate materials regularly (indoors and out) to spark curiosity and celebrate diversity—through culture, race, gender, and ability.

‍✔ Safety and Accessibility: Choose age-appropriate, high-quality items that are well-maintained and within easy reach for little hands.

‍✔ Developmental Fit: Match supplies to each child’s growing skills, so learning feels fun, not frustrating.

‍✔ Flexible Play: Organize spaces for mixed-age groups, encouraging solo exploration, teamwork, and everything in between.

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102 Must-Have List of Items Needed to Start a Daycare

Ready to stock up? Before you start shopping, here's one crucial step: Always cross-check with your local state requirements. Regulations vary, and the last thing you want is to invest in supplies that don't meet compliance standards.

Once you've verified the rules, use this comprehensive checklist of 102 essentials to build a daycare space that's safe, engaging, and perfectly equipped for little learners.

Drama activity materials

Props such as soft dolls, doll accessories, toy telephones, and play buildings encourage children to expand their creative horizons and repurpose the materials to get their imagination running.

1. Culturally diverse action figures and adult figure dolls
2. Soft animals with building accessories, like a barn or a cage
3. Cardboard boxes to build props such as furniture or a crown for a king
4. Caps and costumes for different weather and jobs
5. Flags of different nationalities
6. Cultural artifacts such as blankets and fabrics
7. Child-sized pots, pans, spoons, stoves, dishes, and ladles
8. Child-sized bucket, mop, broom, dust pan
9. Toy
10. Prop boxes for themes such as a vet’s clinic, restaurant, hospital, or a campsite

Fine and gross motor supplies list

Grasping and manipulating small and large objects helps a child engage in developmentally appropriate practices. While kids can boost their fine motor skills by exercising smaller muscles, they can improve their gross motor skills by making large muscle movements required for sitting, crawling, and running.

11. Stacking rings and shape sorters

12. Teething toys for infants, such as a rattle

13. Beads and balls of different colors and sizes

14. Measuring cups with rounded edges and lids

15. Board games and puzzles

16. Wooden straws and sticks

17. Pegs to hang on the walls

18. Child-safe sewing materials like buttons and wool

19. Mittens and gloves

20. Riding toys like scooters and a tricycle

Block activity daycare equipment List

Interlocking or metallic blocks of different colors, shapes, sizes, and textures can activate the children’s senses and help them build what they envision, making it a must-have choice for daycare supplies.

21. Small interlocking blocks for building a castle, a building, and a mode of transportation

22. Medium or large interlocking blocks, like Lego

23. Magnetic blocks, like Tinker Toys

24. Lightweight, soft blocks for infants that may or may not make noise

25. Foam containers

26. Discarded crates

27. Hollow blocks with both sides open

28. Cardboard blocks

29. Wooden blocks

30. Building block action figures

Preschool equipment for reading zones

Apart from ensuring you’ve age-appropriate material in the reading zone for preschoolers, a couple of child-sized chairs, soft pillows, and green planters can enliven the room and motivate them to curl up with their favorite book.

31. Comfy seating, like floor cushions

32. Storage options for your books

33. Indoor plants

34. Wall shelves

35. Bookcase

36. Preschool supplies like behavior charts to brighten up the reading room

37. Soft rugs and mats

38. Bean bags

39. Fur throw

40. Mood lighting for extra ambiance

Music and movement supplies

Dancing can be accompanied by playing songs to give the children a pause between activities. However, they shouldn’t be left on as background music since it’s shown to affect memory tasks in toddlers adversely.

41. Rattles, windchimes, and toys with bells inside them

42. Headphones

43. Cultural dance videos

44. Cultural music in diverse languages

45. Music tapes carrying age-appropriate song genres like nursery rhymes, folk songs, classics, blues, and jazz tunes

46. Culturally distinct costumes worn during local dances

47. Music boxes or musical mobiles

48. Child-appropriate musical instruments like guitar, harmonica, banjo, piano, xylophones, drums, tambourines, and cymbals

49. Pompoms for daycare dances

50. Scarves and capes

Math and science daycare materials

A daycare supply list is incomplete without materials that allow kids to explore quantity, size, and shape and discover flora and fauna in the natural world. As children age, you’ll need to start investing in more STEM toys to boost their academic temperament.

51. Balance scale and weights

52. Magnetic shapes and numbers (or numbers and shapes books)

53. Games like dominos, number lotto, playing cards, and dice

54. Ruler and a meter tape

55. Geometry set

56. Calculator and stopwatch

57. Natural items like flowers, shells, rocks, sand, twigs, branches, and terrarium

58. Globe, atlas, and a map

59. Worm composter

60. Magnifying glass

Health and safety gear

When you’re running a daycare, the safety and well-being of the kids are your number one priority. By buying the right daycare materials, you will be prepared to avoid any untoward incidents or accidents.

61. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

62. First aid kit, comprising a thermometer, gauze, bandage, antiseptic cream, disinfectant, etc.

63. Electrical outlet cover

64. Fire extinguisher

65. Child lock for cabinets and shelves

66. Child-safe door knob cover

67. Safety gate

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68. Ice pack

69. Hand sanitizer and a liquid hand soap

70. Disposable hand gloves

Kitchen and cleaning equipment

Let’s be real, kids are walking mess magnets. Between snack time spills, sticky fingers, and all those "oops" moments, your daycare needs a solid cleaning system to keep things fresh and sanitary.

High-traffic areas like kitchens and bathrooms deserve extra attention with commercial-grade cleaning supplies.

71. Glass and multi-surface disinfectant cleaning liquid

72. Vacuum cleaner

73. Bleach

74. Dishwasher

75. Cleaning cloths

76 .Cooking utensils

77. Eating utensils like knives and forks

78. Paper towels

79. Sippy cups for children

80. A week’s supply of food stock preserved in a freezer

Daycare equipment list for furniture

Ensuring you have ample furniture for your daycare is essential to running it smoothly. Suppose you have more children than chairs in a classroom. In that case, chaos can quickly ensue, with children fighting over seating.

81. Cribs and strollers for infants

82. High chairs for adults and low chairs for toddlers

83. Tables of appropriate height for children to write, draw and eat

84. Storage space for children’s belongings

85. Booster seats

86. Nap mats

87. Step stools

88. Child-safe mirrors

89. Soft blankets and pillows

90. Wheelchair or a walker to make the daycare accessible for all

Childcare technology

Technology can drive much-needed innovation in childcare centers, engaging kids in key skills such as computational thinking that will empower them to become global digital citizens of tomorrow. It can also help eliminate manual tasks that eat up a teacher’s or an administrator’s time and pull them away from their center of attention: children.

91. Interactive screens

92. SMART Boards

93. Augmented reality games and toys

94. Digital camera

95. iPad, tablet, and smartphone

96. Play-based digital language tools, like talking books

97. Digital word banks

98. Word processors

99. Computers

100. Printer

101. Bluetooth-enabled speakers

102. Daycare management software like illumine

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Need More Guidance in Starting and Managing a Daycare?

Here are a few more in-depth articles to help you out:

A step-by-step guide on how to run a daycare

How to Streamline Daycare Reporting

Daycare Business Financial Planning: Using Data-Informed Decision-Making

How Childcare Centers Can Use AI for Lesson Planning

How Facebook Lead Ads Can Help Boost Childcare Admissions

Optimize your childcare business with illumine

Between registration forms, parent updates, and safety logs, childcare administration can swallow your entire day. That’s where illumine comes in.

Our automation platform quietly handles the repetitive tasks (attendance, billing, compliance tracking) while you focus on what really matters: nurturing children and growing your business.

Join 3,000+ centers already using illumine.

✔ All-in-one tool: Handles daily reports, tuition collection, attendance, parent updates, and registrations, freeing your team to focus on the kids, not paperwork.

✔ Flexible and multilingual: Works with any curriculum (Montessori, EYFS etc.) and supports 20+ languages for easy communication.

✔ Futuristic AI: AI-powered writing for clear communication, translations across 20+ languages, instant lesson plan generation, AI-powered observations, and more.

Whether you’re running an in-home center or a franchise childcare business, one thing’s for sure: your daycare supplies list is incomplete without Illumine. Get a free demo today to streamline your childcare center operations.

This blog was originally published April 22, , and was updated on July 30, , with new information.

Creating a list of daycare supplies and equipment is vital to opening a new child care center. In this comprehensive checklist, we’ve outlined 100 of the most important daycare supplies you should consider for your center, why you’ll need them and how to make the most out of them.

Every area of your center is covered, from the kitchen to the craft table! You can download this daycare supply list, print it out and use it as a shopping list for your center.

What are Daycare Supplies?

On top of the considerations of child care building design and furniture and decorations, keeping your center well-stocked with child care supplies and equipment is essential to a well-functioning center. By “supplies,” we mean the things you’ll need to buy other than furnishings and fixtures to keep your center running: books, craft supplies, cleaning supplies, toys and so on. 

When making purchases, consider the quality and appropriateness of the materials to your center. All your supplies should be high-quality so they will endure wear and tear without breaking or posing hazards. Materials for children should be age-appropriate and interesting or attractive to kids. Finally, make sure your supplies are well-maintained and in good working order with regular inspections — anything worn out should be replaced.

100 Must-Have Child Care Center Supplies

Daycare Materials

Safety Supplies

Safety supplies consist of everything you need to keep your daycare center and the kids in it safe and healthy. Consider fire safety, first aid and medical emergencies, carbon monoxide, falling/stair safety, building security, room security and outdoor play safety when acquiring supplies.

1. First aid kit
2. Fire extinguisher
3. Smoke detectors
4. Carbon monoxide detectors 
5. Safety gates for doors/stairs and child-proof locks for cabinets
6. Safety mirror

Kitchen Supplies

In addition to the fixtures in your kitchen, you’ll need a number of supplies — not to mention, a generous stock of food! It’s best to have at least a week’s supply of food on hand, just in case of supplier issues or other emergencies. 

7. Pots and pans
8. Cooking utensils
9. Eating utensils (forks, knives, spoons, etc.)
10. Plastic cups, including sippy cups
11. Paper towels
12. Food and condiments

Cleaning Supplies

Now more than ever, hygiene is a crucial aspect of running a child care center. Make sure that your center is well-stocked on cleaning supplies at all times — especially hand sanitizer. Kids can spread illness at the best of times, so you’ll want to do everything you can to keep the daycare environment sanitary. For more cleaning items, check out our printable daycare cleaning checklist!

13. Disinfectant sprays
14. Hand sanitizer
15. Towels
16. Cleaning cloths
17. Mop and bucket
18. Scrubbing pads and sponges
19. Soap and cleaning solutions

Child Care Supplies

These cover the basics you’ll need to provide care for kids, especially infants. Most centers ask for parents to send along their own diapers and wipes, but it’s always handy to have extra! Baby wipes are especially useful for wiping up sticky kids.

20. Diapers in varying sizes
21. Wipes
22. Hand soap
23. Baby bottles and formula
24. Cots and cribs, including a portable crib
25. Blankets and pillows

Child Learning Materials (by Activity Area)

Reading Area Materials

The reading area should be a cozy, quiet zone with plenty of comfortable child-sized seating, indirect light and soft pillows to help kids get in the mood to relax and read. Use educational displays such as alphabet posters to reinforce the development of literacy.

26. Pillows and rugs
27. A wide variety of books and magazines, including fiction and nonfiction, for various age levels
28. Audio player/listening station with headsets
29. Audiobooks 
30. Written materials from daily life (such as calendars and books)
31. Paper and writing materials

Block Activity Materials

Blocks are a classic activity for kids that engages their fine and gross motor skills, creativity and problem-solving. With a variety of age-appropriate blocks, themed mats and figurines, the sky’s the limit on what they’ll build.

32. 200-250 standard wood building blocks
33. Large hollow wooden blocks
34. Large plastic blocks
35. Foam blocks
36. Cardboard blocks
37. Figurines for block activity play (such as people, vehicles, animals, roads and traffic signs, city-themed play mat)

Fine Motor Activity Materials

This activity center gives children the chance to develop their fine motor skills by manipulating, structuring and sorting small objects. Consider how these activities can be connected with other educational objectives, such as teaching math and science. 

38. Texture and visual puzzles (foam, plastic, wood, etc.)
39. Beads, bead pattern cards and strings
40. Child-safe sewing materials
41. Pegs & pegboards
42. Pop beads, gears and other small connecting objects
43. Shape sorters
44. Connecting straws/sticks
45. Small themed toys for sorting, such as fruit

Gross Motor Activity Materials

This is likely to be the most active, hectic zone in your center, so it’s important to have plenty of space! Separate it from quieter zones and protect kids from hard falls with soft mats. Some of these items, such as bats and balls, are best used outdoors for safety reasons.

46. Balls (variety, and sports)
47. Soft tumbling mats
48. Catcher’s mitts and plastic bats
49. Riding toys such as tricycles and scooters
50. Helmets
51. Wagons
52. Hula hoops
53. Crawling tunnel
54. Parachute

Sand/Water Activity Area Supplies

Sand and water play are a fun, but potentially messy way for kids to get creative and engage their senses. Make sure to have easy-to-clean flooring under these areas, as well as dedicated toys for sand and water, so that they won’t spread mess when moved to other areas.

55. Sand boxes and tables, bins, tubs and sinks
56. Sand, modelling sand and/or pellets
57. Sprinkler and hose
58. Aprons for protection from water 
59. Trowels, shovels and scoops
60. Cups and spoons
61. Spray bottles, containers, pails and sand molds
62. Sand and water wheels
63. Natural materials such as driftwood, seashells or stones
64. Figurines and vehicles for dramatic play

Dramatic Arts Materials

Dramatic arts materials include everything kids need to get their imagination running wild. This can include play props for games, dress-up clothes, toys and everyday items that can be repurposed into dramatic play. When stocking your dramatic arts area, try to be as creative as a child’s imagination!

65. Play sets, such as kitchen and house
66. Furniture and accessories: tables, chairs, pillows, blankets, storage and a mirror
67. Play food and play eating/ and cooking utensils
68. Play house items: bed/cradle, bottles, telephones, toy iron, toy vacuum cleaner/sweeper, clocks, radios
69. Baby dolls, stuffed animals, figurines for doll houses
70. Doll houses and furniture
71. Dress-up clothes and costumes
72. Prop box for themed dramatic play, such as doctor’s office or salon

Math and Science Activity Supplies

This area of your center gets kids discovering the natural world through their minds and senses, as well as learning basic numeracy and quantity skills. Educational displays such as maps, number lines, species charts or diagrams of the earth’s crust can round out the scholastic atmosphere.

73. Measuring tools such as rulers, measuring tapes, measuring cups, scales
74. Shape puzzles and displays
75. Number cubes and rods, abacus and other counting tools
76. Math games and puzzles, such as dice and dominoes
77. Class pet, terrarium or plants
78. Timekeeping items: clocks, stopwatches, kitchen timers
79. Magnets, prisms, kaleidoscopes and color filters
80. Lenses such as binoculars, magnifying glasses or a microscope
81. Natural materials: labeled rocks/minerals, plant clippings, pine cones, seashells

Music/Movement Supplies

Music appreciation can unite the domains of creativity and gross motor skills. Listening to music can be a quiet activity, but it can also get kids up and moving! A great music area has supplies for both types of musical fun.

82. CD player or other device that can play music (such as a dedicated smart device)
83. CDs or playlist of a variety of music, including children’s, classical, jazz and other
84. Musical instruments such as kazoo, glockenspiel, maracas, tambourine, recorder, drums, toy piano, etc.
85. Props for dancing and rhythm games such as batons, ribbons, balls, etc.

Arts & Crafts Supplies

Arts and crafts are an everyday favorite of all kids, and this area is one of your opportunities to provide the most fun and excitement for the kids in your care. Arts and crafts supplies will need to be restocked regularly as needed. Have fun with your choices, but don’t forget the cleanup required for some craft supplies such as glitter! 

86. Easels and canvas or large cardstock for painting
87. Child-safe paint
88. Paintbrushes, paint cups and palettes
89. Smocks, aprons or paint shirts
90. Variety of paper: drawing paper, construction paper, tissue
91. Crayons, markers and colored pencils
92. Various colors play dough or plasticine and tools such as rolling pins, cookie cutters, etc.
93. Child-safe scissors
94. Glue
95. Craft materials such as sequins, feathers, foam, pipe cleaners, glitter, cardboard tubes, paper plates, fabric, buttons, pom-poms

Child Care Technology

Today, child care technology is an essential aspect of the classroom. Take advantage of the versatility offered by smart devices to provide educational opportunities such as videos, music and even virtual field trips. For teachers, smart devices are a great way to manage drop-offs and pick-ups, keep track of your classroom and easily send updates to parents.

96. Smartphones, tablets and/or digital cameras
97. Computer
98. Printer
99. Speakers (Bluetooth)
100. Procare!

Manage Your Child Care Center with Procare

A Procare Solutions survey showed that44% of early childhood education programs not using child care management software rely on paper and pencil to run their programs. 

This finding, along with other relevant data related to the current state of the child care industry’s use of technology, is part of the  Child Care Management Software Industry Trends Report. 

You need a software system that simplifies paying bills, tracking expenses as well as handling budgeting and overall financial reporting while making profitable business decisions based on revenue flow.

There’s no need to stress about administrative tasks with the Procare all-in-one solution that is designed to meet the unique needs of child care providers! Procare helps you streamline and automate child care administration, lowering your operating costs and making your center more profitable and easier to run.

Convenient automated payments make it easier to collect tuition from parents, establish predictable cash flows and to ensure your operating costs are covered every month.

Procare saves you time and money by streamlining core administrative functions while raising the bar for the parent experience with professional communications, easy-to-access portals and the opportunity for real-time updates.

Procare can be configured to meet every need. Want to see how much time and money your child care center could save using Procare? Enter your number of staff, number of students and type of program into our online calculator to learn how much time and money you could save with Procare!

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