Many young children love "make-believe" or "pretend" play. By ages 3-5, this evolves into dramatic play, where children act out roles, interact with one another in those roles, and plan how the play will go. How do you keep dramatic play fresh and fun? Carefully watching the actors and their interactions will help you to know when it is important to offer verbal cues (“What does your role do?” “What happens next?” “What if …?”) and when it is best to let the children direct their own play.
By acting out a role over a long period (ideally 40-60 minutes) a child cannot simply give in to impulsive behavior. It is necessary to maintain a certain behavior — to play a role — in order for the play to work. And the play depends on everyone playing their part. For example, acting the role of a cook means the child will have to remember to be a cook and to act and talk like one throughout the play, not the waiter or the customer. Learning in this way to control their own behavior is a valuable ability that children will need in many future situations. In a play, children also have to remember what their roles are; they have to wait patiently for their turns in the play — this improves memory and patience. They learn to plan ahead and then to carry out their plan. They learn to cooperate with others.
Dramatic play can be stimulated by the teacher’s timely questions and suggestions, but too much intervention can result in a teacher-directed activity and the children’s initiative will be crushed. How can you carefully stimulate but not smother children’s play? Tools of the Mind offers nine interventions that foster more mature levels of play.
- Make sure that children have sufficient time for play. Uninterrupted extended time periods are necessary to develop the themes and roles characteristic of rich, mature, imaginative play. You may need to start out with just 20 minutes and work your way up to the full 40-60 uninterrupted minutes.
- Provide ideas for themes that extend children’s experiences and enrich the play. Children’s ideas for different roles will be limited by their experiences and knowledge. Field trips, walks in the neighborhood, and informational books can be used to expand children’s repertoire of roles. It may involve the teacher pointing out and demonstrating a role to the whole group. For example, during a visit to a petting zoo, the teacher may point out the various roles of the people they encounter and their functions and props: the ticket-taker, the various animal handlers, the animals themselves. This provides a great selection of roles for future dramatic play.
- Choose appropriate props and toys. This
does not mean that the center should purchase a wide variety of
commercial costumes and their accompanying props! The play area should
have props and toys that have a wide variety of uses — for example,
several large colorful pieces of material can serve as a princess gown,
a superhero cape, or a blanket; a soccer ball becomes a crystal ball.
This fuels the children’s
imaginations. And some props can be made by the children: for example,
“tickets” can be colored and cut out of paper, clay can be molded into
a bowl.
- Help children plan their play. It’s
best to plan the dramatic play right before it is to take place. When
children talk about their plans, it helps them to organize their
thoughts, confirms general agreement, and they see themselves working
all together as a group. Sticking to the plan is not a
goal in itself — developing the plan is simply a means of realizing
continuity.
If you see conflict coming, support their play by saying (for example), “There is only one _______, but two of you want it. How will you work this out?”
Reviewing the play at the end (after cleanup) is also a good idea. It may enable the continuation of the play for the next day, if the children choose.
- Monitor the progress of the play.
Watch the children intently and ask yourself if they are grasping the
idea of their roles and the play. If you see a child
who does not seem to be playing a distinct role, ask something like
“Are you the
farmer or are you the storekeeper?” or something appropriate. Help the
children to recall their roles and functions if they forget — sometimes
holding a prop will help. Use pertinent questions, statements, or
actions to encourage interaction between the children. If they are
stalled, suggest a new scenario.
- Coach individuals who may need help.
Are some children avoiding the group dramatic play? Look at their level
of play and find ways to include him or her.
- Suggest or model how themes can be woven
together. Perhaps dramatic play about a farm on Monday could
evolve into dramatic play about a grocery store on Tuesday. Show the
relationships between things.
- Model appropriate ways to solve disputes. Imaginative
play can be a small version of society and of course there will be
disputes
and disagreements among the participants. Frequently, an outside
person (the teacher) will be necessary to resolve problems.
- Encourage children to mentor each other in
play. If you are lucky enough to have a mixed age group, you
will have a ready-made source of “play-mentors.” Even children who are
simply more mature in their play can mentor those who are not. Child
mentors are always much more effective than teacher mentors, because
inserting the teacher in any great degree into imaginative play makes
it into teacher-directed play.
However tempting, do not turn dramatic play into a mini-lesson (“How tall do trees grow?” “How many wheels are on the cart?”). The teacher’s purpose is to support play that enables children to take one step further into maturity, to develop cooperation, to explore their imaginations.
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References
Bodrova, E. & Leong, D. J. (2007). Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education, 2nd Edition, pp. 124-163. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.