Here my students set up a car and head off to the zoo! One of the boys drives the car using a pizza pan as the wheel while the boy standing turned himself into the stoplight. According to Elizabeth Jones in Playing to Get Smart, "it is through play with materials and relationships...and solving problems in dialogue with others that young children develop the basic skills they will need to become effective contributors to the health of a changing world." I see my students like those to the right using their imagination to play together and recreate real life events every day. I know that the conversations they have and the interactions they encounter with one another ultimately are giving them important skills they will need in their future. Thus, even though the dramatic play center was presented to them as a museum that week, I know that the experience of working together and finding tools to create a car driving down the street to the zoo ultimately was more beneficial to their skill set then forcing them to take notes on the pictures they were looking at in the "museum".
Thank you for sharing the dramatic play your kiddos are involved in. While we may have a plan, oftentimes the play goes an entirely different direction. And look at the important learning that is going on!
ReplyDeleteI love that the student took on the role of the stoplight! Rather than using an obvious prop for this purpose, or even creating a prop out of a more abstract object, the fact that your student chose to BECOME the prop shows a sophisticated level of play in your classroom. I often have trouble letting go when my students take play down a road I had not intended, bravo for allowing them to take the reigns!
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