Resilience In Dramatic Play

Resilience in dramatic play

Childsplay is children at “work”, so to speak.

Unstructured play is essential in developing the foundation for social, emotional, and cognitive skills.

Children learn to thrive; Physically, Emotionally, Mentally and Socially.

Creative play gives children the opportunity to interact with the world around them in a way that focused instruction does not replicate.

Dramatic play develops self-control and self-regulation.

As part of our EYLF program, we create a learning space that provides children with the opportunity to engage in dramatic play.

Dramatic play offers children so many learning opportunities including;

• Social development;
• Cooperation skills;
• Critical thinking skills; and
• Problem solving strategies.

Our ‘Mindful Kids’ resilience programme is incorporated into every aspect of our day.

Setting up dramatic play with an ice- creamery station, opens opportunities for children to practise and explore these life skills.

While play is often associated with freedom, dramatic play is actually self-regulated.

Children’s Interests

Observing our children improvise with their imaginary Ice cream parlour in outside play last week, inspired us to create one in our classroom space.

Before creating our Ice cream shop, we sat in morning group time collaborating ideas on;

1. How we can set it up?  and
2. What we need in our Ice cream shop besides ice-cream?

Giving children the space to get involved and have an opportunity to contribute, builds self confidence and a sense of belonging.

During this group discussion we pulled on our “Mindful Kids” Resilience program talking through how we all can play nicely together in our new Ice cream shop.

The Children shared ideas and collectively agreed on the  ground rules on how to play nicely.

The expectation of playing in the ice-cream shop consisted of;  sharing, turn taking, using gentle hands and using manners with our friends.

Setting healthy boundaries is a life skill which create certainty anchors and builds confidence. Children know what to expect and feel safe to explore.

The Set Up

Step 1: Ice-cream making – In small groups we made our ice cream by  spraying cotton wool balls with coloured water from spray bottles. Leave time to dry before use.

Step 2:  Sourcing Equipment – We sourced ice cream scoopers, ice cream cones, cash register and  money from resources. We created and printed product pictures, Open/Close signs and created table coverings.

Step 3: Final touches – For toppings we have pom poms and sparkles for sprinkles, which we have placed in containers for easy usage.

The lead up– We spent activity time making our own icy lollies to give the shop more diversity with products. These were made by simply collaging them on a template.

Grand Open Day

With so much excitement building, the Grand Opening day was finally here.

It was so much fun watching our little learners interact and play in their Ice Cream Shop together!

The children demonstrated kindness and thoughtfulness from our group discussion by;

• Taking turns;
• Sharing with others;
• Communicating clearly with others;
• Using their manners; and
• Being kind to one another.

The shop flows best with just two shop keepers at a time. So turn taking and patience is essential.

Lots of happy customers, so it seems! But if you think it’s just childsplay…. think again! You will also crave an ice-cream.

The importance

There are many opportunities to learn through these types of dramatic play spaces, in a different capacity to what we have already mentioned.

Children can begin to develop:

• An understanding of measurement as they fill and empty their bowls;
• Counting and number practice as they count ice scream scoops;
• Colour recognition and practice as they choose or serve a flavour;
• One-to-one communication with peers building verbal skills; and
• Familiarity and an understanding of how we exchange money.

This Creative play corner has turned out to be a most rewarding project to guide and encourage the children and as Benjamin Franklin once said;

” Tell me and I will forget; Show me and I may remember; Involve me and I learn”

No matter the project you are creating or skill you are teaching your child, the key is involvement.

Whether it be;

• Feeding a fussy eater ( involve them in the cooking); or
• Dressing an uncooperative child (involve them with choosing the clothes); or
• A child who melts down in the supermarket (involve them in the process of shopping).

Keep them focused and involved and you’ll have yourself the best little helper with less power struggles.

That’s all from Miss Roshin, Miss Coby and the Snakes (Jomgwong) room.

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