Tag: pretend play

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The Dramatic Play Center in Child Care

Pretend grocery store

Dramatic Play Supports Children’s Development

Engaging in dramatic play enhances young children’s development. Pretending builds social skills, makes children more aware of their own emotions, and encourages shared language and problem solving. As children play and interact in the dramatic play center in an early childhood program, they practice skills in the following areas:

  • Social/emotional: negotiating different roles and themes, cooperating to keep the play happening, acting out roles and situations
  • Physical: using large and small muscles to
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Planning a Successful Dramatic Play Center in Child Care

Dramatic play area
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license. Photo posted to Flickr by Diane Bales on November 23, 2015 with title “Dramatic play area”.

Dramatic play allows children to express themselves and use creativity. It also introduces symbolic thinking and encourages cooperation among children. In a dramatic play center, children will often act out behaviors and actions they see in real life (such as shopping at the grocery store) as well as make-believe situations (such as a princess in a castle).

Setting

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Ensuring that Children’s War Play Is Healthy, Safe, and Positive

Boy playing with water gun

Three-year-old Derrick thinks about his daddy a lot. Maggie, his teacher, can tell because nearly every day she sees him pretending to be a soldier. When his dad’s National Guard unit was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan earlier in the year, Derrick would act out packing a suitcase, saying goodbye to his pretend family, and getting all his gear ready to “go to work” – gear that included a helmet and a gun. When his dad was injured in …

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Reflections of Military Life in Children’s Pretend Play

Boy playing with water gun
As Maggie surveys her active 3-year-olds on the playground, she notices one of the boys pointing a toy shovel like a gun out the window of the play structure. “Derrick!” she says as she comes closer, “you know we don’t play with guns at school. Find something else to play.” 

This is a situation that plays itself out over and over in child care programs. Many child care providers are uncomfortable with children pretending to use weapons and want to …

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Dramatic Play in Child Care

Girl with pretend pizza

Dramatic play is an excellent way for children to develop their imagination and creativity. Children also have the freedom to express their feelings through dramatic play. Child care providers can help promote dramatic play by providing toys, props and costumes for children to use.

Children who participate in dramatic play are able to act out feelings that they may otherwise not be able to show or say directly. Child care providers can often understand what a child might be feeling …

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