Play Props

I love to play with children.  These days I spend a lot of time playing with my 3 grandchildren and it is so much fun watching them become more sophisticated ‘players’ all the time.  The twins are almost 17 months old now and they love to hold a phone to their ear and chatter words they’ve heard their parents say.  They love to bring a bowl and spoon from their play kitchen and feed anyone who is willing to appreciatively munch their imaginary food.  They take anything resembling a car and push it along on the floor saying “zoom, zoom.”

Owen is in a stage of constant discovery and experimentation.  ”I wonder what would happen if …” is the way he approaches playing with anything from mixing colors to stacking blocks.  Of course they are very well supplied with all kinds of play materials – we do our part to support Fisher Price, Mattel and Little Tykes.

For many years I tried to encourage my kindergarten students in their play too.  I loved to set up play centers in my classroom.  I spent a lot of time going to places in our community to collect/borrow/buy materials that would transform my play center into McDonalds, a travel agency, or a fix it shop.  But I learned that less is often more!   I would set up a darling, realistic play center and the kids would be so excited to go there, but sometimes I was a little disappointed with how the children would play.   Sometimes when I supplied many realistic props the children would lose interest more quickly than when they had the opportunity to use their own imaginations and pretend a little more.   I think it’s great to set the theme of a play center with some materials, but when the children create props or use things from around the room they are usually much more engaged and involved in their play.

There is an important connection between pretend play and reading.  When children use one item to represent another, they are building a foundation that helps them understand how a letter represents a sound.  Of course they are also developing wonderful language skills as well as problem solving, motor skills and so much more.

I have a tub full of generic things that my Kindergartners loved to use.

There is nothing special about the particular things I put in this box, I just collected some generic things from around my house that I thought the children might use in fun, interesting ways.  It really doesn’t matter what you use, but here are some ideas of things my kids enjoyed.

The children used these hoses and tubes in lots of ways.  They were fire hoses, astronaut air tubes, car washing hoses or even elephant trunks.  There is no right or wrong way (except to be safe) to use these materials.  Sometimes I would get involved in playing with the children and pull out something from the box to pretend with, and that often encouraged them to use this stuff in lots of fun ways.

Funnels were used as telephones or megaphones.  The red thing is a heavy wire covered in rubber that can be twisted into shapes.  The black thing was an old unused car ashtray that the kids used in some creative ways.

Here are some sponges, an old remote control, a frisbie and a bean bag ball.

Empty containers and old telephones are always popular too!

The children would find materials from around the classroom to use, too – like extra headphones from our listening center or clipboards from the writing center.

My husband helped me take some of these generic things and attach them to a triangle shaped peg board that he put together for me.  This was used as a Mission Control board when we studied outer space, and a count down for race cars during transportation.  They used this in lots of other ways – the film container attached to the springy cord was often a microphone for a recording studio!

I originally spray painted this box and cut the slit in the top to use as a mail box, and it served well for many years.  It was also used as a suggestion box, a math game, and lots of other things the kids thought up.

I made this pretend television set many years ago.  Sometimes the children stood behind it and pretended to be actors or weather forecasters.  Other times I supplied paper taped onto dowels that the kids used to draw a story.  The dowels slipped into the sides of the box and when they turned them their pictures “scrolled” across the opening.

If you have had a chance to look around my blog you probably saw pictures of the cars I made out of xerox boxes.

One of the most popular things in my classroom was this bench with a steering wheel that my husband put together.  Three or four children could sit on it at a time and it transformed from a bench to a car, plane, bus, train … and even more.   My little ones are loving it now too – so far Owen is always the driver, and he never forgets to turn around and pretend to fasten my seatbelt when I “ride” behind him.

We all know that when young children open a gift they are often more excited about playing with the box!   Maybe you can find some things around your house that can be turned into exciting play props too!

Parent Education

I went to college because I wanted to teach young children.  I have always been much more comfortable singing silly songs, reading stories or playing with puppets in front of a class of 4-6 year olds than speaking to a group of eye-contact avoiding adults who are secretly checking their email messages.  But still I felt responsible to share information with my Kindergarten parents about basic child development, how children really learn, and child management strategies; along with keeping them updated about what their child was learning and how they were progressing at school.

Parenting is very hard work, and many parents don’t have much support or easy access to information unless teachers of young children educate the parents too!  Oprah Winfrey often says that when people know better, they do better.  I think the best way to teach anything is to SHOW, not TELL.  Parents who volunteered in my classroom sometimes told me that they learned a lot just by watching circle time, that was such a special thing to hear!  Two or three times each year I asked every child to bring an adult to school for a half day.  I called these Parent/Child Activity Days.  They were always based on a theme and the activities the parents and children participated in covered lots of subject areas of our curriculum.  First we went through some of our morning routines – calendar, morning message, etc. so parents could see what their children did each day.  When I planned the activities I always included a cooking project, large motor play, reading and writing for a reason, constructive play, science experiments – including charting information, math games, art experiences, etc.  By coming in to school and interacting with their child the parents could see how the children learned by doing.  Over and over I would hear parents say “We could do this at home!” about an activity they particularly enjoyed with their child.  Under the Theme section of my blog I have shared some of these parent/child activity days.  I have a few more that I will still post.  I loved these special days or evenings, and families told me they did too.  But not all parents were able or willing to participate.  I knew that I had to share information in lots of different ways.

The most basic thing I told my parents was to read to your child.  You really can’t tell them this enough.  I love this poem and often posted it where parents would see it.

Read to me

There are lots of ways to encourage parents to read to their children.  You could send home ideas of books children might love – especially around holiday gift giving times.  You might want to include a little description or excerpt as well as giving them the titles and authors.  You could attach a note with suggestions of good books along with book order forms.  I found that when I read and reread a book – and it became a classroom favorite, many kids asked their parents for their own copy.

I sent books home as often as I could.  I tried to set up a system of sharing books overnight that the children could manage independently – because I just never had time to check books in or out.  Of course, you lose a few …  but I think it’s worth it.  I don’t remember where I got this list of 100 suggested books – I think it was from a public library.

Here is a copy if you would like to print it:

100 Books to Read in Kdg

Just like everything else, you have to think through your motives – sometimes my goal was just to get parents to read wonderful, exciting, fun stories to their children.  I wanted them all to fall in love with reading.  Other times I wanted them to read simple, emergent stories with sight words that the children would recognize, or a repetitive pattern for the children to chime in.  I wanted parents to understand different components of a read aloud – from left to right progression of print, using picture cues, making connections, understanding the story elements, and retelling main events.  I knew that the more children are exposed to reading, the better readers they will be.  Children are so lucky when they have parents who take the time to read with them.  I tried to reinforce and encourage and praise parents as much as I could!  I think it helps to acknowledge how busy they are, and how difficult finding time in their schedules can be.

Quite awhile ago I wrote a post about Kindergarten homework, I shared monthly read aloud game charts, and suggestions of things parents can do with their children through each month.  Just search Kindergarten Homework if you would like to take a look.  Along with those calendars and charts I also sent home information that might be helpful for parents.  One year my professional goal was parent education, and that is when I developed these handouts.  Much of the information I shared came from a class called Playful Literacy and You, by Dr. Kara Gregory.  I tried to put some of her ideas into a form that might help parents of young children understand how children learn and things they can do to help.   I sent one of these handouts home about once a month.  The first year I used these I gave each parent a folder with a label on the front to collect these papers through the year.  I was hoping that might make them value the information more, and even if they didn’t read it right away they might take a look at the folder later.  I am happy to share these with you.

13 Reading to Your Child

1 Play and Literacy

2 Play and Literacy

3 What is the best way to learn

4 Play and Playful Learning

5 Six Kinds of Play

6 Understanding Language

7 The Uses of Language

8 The Development of Conversation

9 -Support. Oral Lang. Dev

10 Strategies to Support

11 Phonological Awareness

12 Print Awareness

14 Handwriting

16 Dev. Written Lang

I wish you all a wonderful school year, filled with excited children who are ready to learn, and supportive parents who want to be partners with you in this terrific journey!

Centers

I am so happy that you are reading my blog, and I love getting questions or comments.   I truly know there is not one right way to do anything in your classroom, I hope I have said that before.  I am just trying to encourage you to make conscious choices about everything you do, and to be able to explain why you made those choices if any one asks you.

Centers are defined and used in so many different ways.  Through the years I tried lots of different systems, there are pros and cons to almost anything you do.  I don’t think my way is necessarily right, but I would like to share what worked best for me, and why I made these choices.

In my classroom centers were strictly free choice activities.  Everyday there were projects and activities that all children were expected to complete, but at center time they chose where they wanted to go and how long they wanted to stay there.  One of my reasons for this was because I believe that children often feel powerless, all day long people are telling them what to do, and how to do it.   I tried to find as many opportunities as possible to allow them to make choices.  I found that many children are much more cooperative when you ask them to do things, when they are allowed to choose for themselves at other times during the day.  That is a strategy that I think is very important for all children, and we try to allow Owen to make choices as much as possible too!

Some of the materials at my centers remained the same all year long, some I changed.  For example, at the Art center I might add sticky foam or fabric scraps, but there were always paints, fun scissors, paper, markers, etc.   During the course of the year the Math center games would change, but basic materials like unifix cubes and pattern blocks were always there.  I did change materials in the tubs of literacy activities as the children became confident with letters and sounds and moved on to emergent reading.

I am a huge advocate of socio-dramatic play so I had two areas in my room that specifically encouraged this kind of interaction – the Story Telling Cottage and the Play Center.  Of course I know that children also engaged in dramatic play at the blocks, art center, play dough, and lots of other places.  Please check out my posts on play and dramatic play if you’d like to hear more about them.

The Play Center changed throughout the year to things like Mission Control, Driver’s Training Center, Bear Hospital, Dentist Office, Restaurant, etc.  I changed the name of my Housekeeping center to Story Telling Cottage to encourage the children to take on roles and act out a story (usually one they created).   I modeled and got involved in the play at all the centers, at the Story Telling Cottage we talked about how the children might be the Dad or the mailman or the Ballerina, they would need to decide where they were – at the office?  At someone’s house?  I had gotten very tired of the kids just pulling out all the food and dress up clothes, throwing everything on the floor and walking away.  With the changes I made that included reducing lots of the stuff the play really became more meaningful.  Once in a while I might add something to the house, but I usually encouraged the children to think of what they could use or make to enhance their play.

I wanted a system that encouraged children to think about where they wanted to play – not just to wander around the room and look for where their friends were playing.  I also wanted to limit the number of children who could play at each center – mainly because there were limited materials.   I made this Center chart one of the first years I was teaching, and used it about 20 years!

The chart itself was made from a piece of canvas that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics – I think it is used for lawn chairs.  I left the selvage edges on the sides, but hemmed the bottom on my sewing machine and made a simple casing at the top, I put a yardstick through that casing and held it up on the magnetic chalkboard with Magnet Men.

My centers were color coded.  Around the classroom I suspended a different colored sign from the ceiling over each center.  I went to a bunch of stores to find all different colors of posterboard, I made a few out of construction paper but they faded very fast.  Then I made simple signs with recognizable pictures to label each center.  These pictures were posted on the suspended signs, and I made tiny reproductions of the identical signs for the center chart.

I didn’t save a copy of my original center signs, but I made a few you might be able to use.  There are lots available on the internet, check out Environments!

center charts

Here are small versions:

Small chart

You can easily make your own center signs using clipart – or Google Images.  I had purchased some really cute signs with little animals using materials at each center, but I decided I liked the very simple ones better.

I glued the small version of the center charts onto 3 x 5 cards (or posterboard cut that size).  The colors on the chart matched the colors hanging over the centers, and so did the signs.  Then I bought heavy clear plastic that is sold by the yard at fabric stores.  I cut the plastic into pieces about 5 1/2 by 8 inches, one piece for each center.  Then I folded the plastic in half and zigzag stitched them onto the  canvas chart.  They were the right size to slip the cards into, and they lifted up so we could clip matching colored clothespins onto the bottom of the plastic.    I hope this makes sense!

I bought plain clothespins and lots of cheap spray paint.  I just put the clothespins on newspaper and sprayed them.  The paint lasted for years and I repainted most of the clothespins to be fresh each school year.  The children would come to the chart, look for where there were available clothespins, take one and clip it onto their shirt – then go to the center.  If they wanted to go to a different center they would return to the chart, replace that clothespin and take another.

Of course there are always little issues –  I painted extra clothespins because occasionally a child would forget to put one back and take it home.  They sometimes got lost at centers, they sometimes slid apart and I became an expert at putting that little spring back in.  One year I had a class that would hide a highly desirable color of clothespin so they could use it again!  But in general I really liked this system.  I could close a center by removing the clothespins,  or add extra clothespins if I wanted to.

I did not formally keep track of which centers children chose, or how long they stayed there – except when I opened a new play center.  All the kids usually were anxious to go there, so I usually put up a class list and checked them off until everyone had a turn, then it was open for anyone.  There were some children who consistently wanted to play at the blocks or the doll house, but they didn’t always get first choice of clothespins.  I did keep informal notes about where kids chose to play, parents often asked and it gave me interesting information too.  There were a few less popular centers – and that differed from year to year. I found that where the center was located in the room sometimes made a difference in how popular it was.

I knew the children were learning at the centers because I provided appropriate materials, and interacted in their play; but I did not have an agenda or specific goal for these centers so I didn’t worry about what they chose.  BUT I did spend time making Math games, which were part of our Math program, and literacy games and I wanted children to use them!  So there were times during the day that the children could ONLY choose math activities or ONLY literacy activities.  I had a specific set of shelves that contained about 8-10 tubs of materials for Math and another set for Literacy stuff.  During these times the children still got to make choices about what to play with, but all the choices were math, or all the choices were literacy.  Usually I would have center time during the morning, and during an afternoon choice time I would tell them only math or only literacy.

Center time was just one part of our day – but I think it is important to value play by interacting with the children and making this time a consistent part of your schedule.  I know there are so many curriculum demands, but with the luxury of full day kindergarten I felt like I had time to do it all – Reader’s Workshop, Writing Workshop, Everyday Math, whole group and small group directed activities, and still have time for centers.  I think it is important to be able to tell parents and administrators why you value centers and play time.  I posted this chart in my room.

Printable copy:

Kindergarten Centers

There is a lot of research about how children learn, and how important it is for them to have sufficient time for free choice play activities.  Center time is a highlight of a long day for many children.  It is a time for every child to be successful and joyful.  If you feel pressure to leave this out of your day, I think it is our responsibility as advocates for young children to educate and explain what we know is best for our kids!

Role Play

I think that role playing is one of the most important things you can do with Kindergartners.  We know that most kindergarten children are very egocentric, their world revolves around themselves.   When they take on a role they have to step outside of themselves and think from a different point of view.  Understanding other people’s point of view is a great way to encourage cooperation.    I think role playing is also one of the best problem solving strategies because we also know that young children are very concrete.  When they see a problem situation acted out, it becomes more clear to them – and they really liked it when I took on a role of a child who was not making good choices.  We also did a lot of role playing when we acted out stories, which is such a great way to enhance comprehension.

The more skillful the children are at role playing, the more beneficial it is to them.  Of course role playing is the foundation of Dramatic Play.  When I was reading research about Dramatic play it became clear to me that when I was trying to encourage children to get involved in Dramatic play I was focusing on things – I would get out a cash register and play food and expect the children to play Grocery Store; or I would get out stuffed animals and a stethoscope for them to play a Veterinarian’s Office.  I realized that in order to play this way the children have to know what the people do – what their role is.   I always modeled exactly what I expected children to do, whether we were making a project, going to an assembly, or opening a center.  When I modeled I did give them some ideas of the things the people might do, and what they might be saying.  But I was looking for more ideas.

I wanted all children in my classroom to have good understanding of how to play at a dramatic play center – I knew that some children come to school with lots more prior knowledge and experiences than others.   Field trips provided common experiences for our whole class, so I often tried to set up a Dramatic Play Center after  school trips.  Before we went I would talk with the children about the workers we might see on the field trip, and brainstormed with them about what the people might be doing.  By drawing their attention to the people beforehand, the kids were much more observant about the roles the people were filling, and the vocabulary they were using.  When I set up a dramatic play center that went along with the field trip the play was so much richer because the children all had observations and experiences they could act out – and enhance!  I loved to see them creatively add to the play too, but if they had no understanding of the place, they really couldn’t engage in the play.

Another way I tried to help the children focus on the roles of people at different places was by making a book that I could read to them.  I started out at a restaurant, that happened to be owned by a parent in my class.   I wanted to set up a restaurant in my play center, and I wanted the children to know lots of ways they could pretend there.

Here is a printable copy if anyone is interested:

Restaurant book pdf

I asked permission before I photographed anyone, it just so happened that one of my school families was eating there that day, and a group of women from my Church too!  My husband and son were willing to pose as customers, in exchange for breakfast!  I tried to give the children lots of different roles they could play – customer, server, cashier, cook, or bus boy.  I gave ideas of the things the people might say and the vocabulary they might need.  I read this book to the class before we began setting up a restaurant, and several times before we played there.  It really made a big difference in the amount of conversation and type of play at the center.

I made another book before we set up a pretend Grocery Store.

Here is a pdf copy of the Grocery Store Book:

Grocery book pdf

 

After reading these books to my classes I liked the quality of the play at the dramatic play centers I set up.  I decided that the children might need more ideas of what people do at home, the jobs they do and the way they interact; to enhance the play at the Storytelling Cottage.  I made another book by taking pictures of my son, daughter in law and grandson doing regular things around their house.

Here is the Home Book:

Home book

If you like this idea you could make more books by taking your own photographs and adding simple text that emphasizes the roles the people play and the conversations they have.

While I was working on these I got an idea that I hoped might incorporate more dramatic play into other centers.  The children did love to build homes for dinosaurs and animals at the blocks, and they did interact with the cars and vehicles, but I was just trying to give them more ideas and ways to play.  I went around our community and took pictures of places that were very familiar to the children, including our school.  I printed small copies of these pictures and mounted them on wooden blocks.  When I was taking the photographs I actually went around McDonalds and took a picture from the front and from the back, then mounted the pictures on the block on the front and back – so the kids could stand up the block and pretend it was McDonalds.  I tried to put varnish over the pictures to make them more durable, but nothing I tried worked very well.  I would suggest printing the pictures on cardstock, then mounting them on blocks a little bigger than the picture.

These community blocks turned out to be very popular!  The children would use them most often with the cars and trucks or at the Blocks Center.

A few of my pictures didn’t turn out well and I found out that most of these popular places have pictures you can get online.  I used Google Images quite a lot.

 

Here are the ones I made:

block pictures pdf

These books and blocks did give the children more ideas for how they might play, and what they might say while they were playing, but the most important factor is always teacher involvement.  Just the fact that you stop by the center and enter into the play validates its importance to the children.  It is so fun to take a role and get involved with the children’s play – but be careful not to take control.   You can ask questions, become a character in the play and make a suggestion, and draw in more children by thinking of additional roles so more children can play; but the play has to be controlled by the children.

I hope you are able to have fun playing with your class too!

Dramatic Play Center Ideas

Dramatic play can take place anywhere children are – it really doesn’t take a special area or equipment.  Dramatic play involves children who take on a role and relate to other people and things as if they, too are something different than they really are.  Sometimes children pretend to be in a different time or space.  One definition is that Dramatic play is “the process by which children represent themselves in imagined situations.”

It is really helpful if you decide with your class what to call this type of play – pretend play?  Imagination Station?  Dramatic play?  If you give the children vocabulary for it, you validate this kind of play and encourage children to participate.  I often set up different dramatic play centers based on seasonal things or what we were studying at the time, but when you encourage the children to decide what kind of play center to set up they get very involved and really excited.  Sometimes I would decide on a basic idea and ask the children what we would need to set it up, we used interactive writing to make a list of things we needed, then the children went back and checked off things we already had in the classroom and things they might make or pretend to have.

Here are some ideas of different play centers you might like to try:

And a printable copy:

Dramatic Play Ideas Hand Outs

I was always amazed at how my children initiated so much reading and writing into their play.  Whenever I could I provided information books for the children to look through about the topic they were playing.  At the beginning of the year I always asked parents if they had access to any old business letterhead stationery, or ncr (no carbon required) blank forms, or any other type of business paper that the children might like to use.  I bought several sizes of clipboards that the children often used when they were playing – to fill out prescriptions at the doctor’s office, write down a customer’s order at a restaurant, or write a traffic ticket.  They also loved to make signs like OPEN and CLOSED.  They also made menus and price tags, labels, traffic signs, their own pretend money, store hours signs, whatever they could think of that they had seen in the real world.

When I provided a few simple forms or props it often encouraged the children to do even more writing.

 

 

 

I made a different stamp for each month of the year – we actually used these next ideas at the writing center when children wanted to write to each other or their families.  You can reduce these in size for children to glue onto their postcards and notepaper, or just post one at the writing center and tell them to copy it!  Of course you could use rubber stamps too, but that sometimes gets messy if you leave out an ink pad.

 

 

 

 

I brought in post cards and showed the children how they have a picture on one side and writing on the other.  This gave them a reason to learn their address and encouraged them to write.  I used these at the writing center, and when I set up a Travel Agency or a specific location play center like Hawaii or Mexico.

These were little note cards I used like the post cards.  I cut this in half and then folded it in half the other way.  The To/From and Stamp were on the outside, the note went on the inside.

Here are a few more writing things that I used with different play centers.

 

I ran these off on construction paper, the children cut them out and stapled the sides, then made play money.

 

 

Here are printable copies:

props to copy

more props

Here are some pictures of different play centers that my children enjoyed.

One year we had a Fireman visit our classroom, so the children decided to set up a Fire Station at the play center.   I brought in a short piece of cut-off garden hose and a couple of plastic Fireman hats.  The children wanted a fire hydrant, so a parent helped them cover up a plastic gas pump that I had.  The rest of the props were from around the classroom, or created by the kids.

Benchley made a great Fire truck.  The children drew large apartment style houses on roll paper and I taped it around our large magnetic board.  Then they made flames from red and orange paper and I gave them magnetic tape to stick on the back of the fire.

Of course we needed several telephones from our Story Telling Cottage so the distressed people could call the Fire Department.

This play center was such a wonderful equalizer.  The little guy with the hose had some developmental delays and really did not interact well with the other children until they were playing here.  He also had delayed speech and motor issues, but he joined into this play and actually took some leadership!  It was so fun to watch him blossom because he was struggling through so much of our day.

There was a red jacket in our dress up clothes that they grabbed as a uniform.   My classroom was not very large, all this play occurred in a pretty small space.  The clothespin on the little girl’s shirt was part of my Center Chart – to regulate how many children could play in each area.

Sometimes I began the year with a pretend school, other times with a Doctor’s Office because most children had some familiarity with that.

 

I liked to make little valance curtains to go along with play centers that we used every year.  I had a play doctor kit, but we also had empty pill bottles, cotton balls, ACE bandages, etc.  The alphabet letters were a pretend eye chart – great excuse to practice letter ID!  We usually used a Teddy Bear as a patient.

Playing restaurant was also very popular.  I had the children made their own place mats, menus and signs.

We had to set up a table outside the play center for the customers.  The girls are wearing aprons that I bought from a craft store.  I had lots of these and sometimes I had parents draw on them with permanent markers to fit into certain careers – there was a Dr. one with a stethoscope drawn on, Cashiers with money on them, etc.  The aprons have a pocket that is handy for a pencil and small pad of paper too – prescription pads, restaurant orders, etc.

For our Transportation unit I made cars out of Xerox paper boxes, the children made Driver’s licenses that they carried in their wallets.

I bought plastic visors for the Police Officers, who did safety checks on the vehicles.  The kids made lots of STOP and YIELD signs, traffic signals, etc.

Around Valentine’s Day we often set up a Post Office.  They created cards at the Writing Center.

They found a small fabric tote bag to use as a mail bag.  I made a Mailman hat out of construction paper.  I bought a cardboard divided shoe box that had spaces for about 24 pairs of shoes.  I set that on its side and the children sorted the mail into these slots.  I asked parents to send in old holiday cards from all kinds of holidays and they children cut them up to make new cards.  I sometimes asked for junk mail too – so they had envelopes and letters to sort.

Sometimes our Dramatic play was not limited to the play center.  Each year we went on a “Safari.”  I will be sharing more about this in the spring.

I’m not sure you can see it in the picture but the children each made a camera that they used to take pictures on the safari.

We also played Pirates sometimes.

I loved the Hooks made from a styrofoam cup and clothespin hook from a Dollar Store.

When we talked about Cowboys I turned the play center into a jail.  They made handcuffs by tying two bracelets together with yarn.   We had a big discussion about how to play safely here!

 

We also “milked a cow” using a rubber glove filled with water.  I cut a pinprick hole in the fingers.

And of course we rode horses.

One of my favorite play centers all year was Mission Control when we were learning about Outer Space.

I made a rocket ship from an old refrigerator box.  I spray painted it and added letters cut from Contact Paper.  We used it for over 20 years!!!!  I made the helmet from a large ice cream tub.  They had air tanks from 2 large soda bottles that were taped together with straps to wear them on their backs.

For many years we made the planets from paper mache, but at the end of my teaching I bought some inflatable planets that I hung up.  When I taught 2 classes of kindergarten it was fun to make the planets, but that is a lot of paper mache for one group of children.  We still did a paper mache project every year though.

My husband built a little pyramid shaped board and attached all kinds of knobs and dials for the Mission Control board.  I gave the children old listening center headphones, they couldn’t really plug into the board though.

This center was wonderful for encouraging the children to count backward from 10-0, which was part of our math curriculum!

I just loved listening to the children playing here.  The “astronaut” in the rocket would be reporting back to Mission Control.  They would be asking questions about what he could see in space.  They had learned a couple of facts about each planet and it was so fun to hear them talking – “I can see the rings around Saturn!  Wait!!  I think those rings are bits of ice and rock!”  or “Mars sure looks hot today!”  and “I can see the storm on Jupiter!  I think I can count at least 16 moons!”

 

Research shows that children use a much higher level of vocabulary when they are acting out roles.  I loved how they incorporated reading and writing, and how creative they were making and adding props to each play center.  I know that lots of administrators are forcing “time on task” and “core academics.”  They also need to see and hear how many skills the children are initiating and practicing during dramatic play.  One of the keys to motivating young children is to make school fun and engaging every child.  It is so rewarding to see every child feeling self confident and successful.  I really love dramatic play – I hope you do too!

Dramatic Play

Like most Kindergarten classrooms I had a Housekeeping area in my room.   I wanted to define a space in my room for this so my husband built me a special little house.  I know – I am spoiled.

The two sides have hinges, so I could make the center larger or smaller depending on my space.  On the inside I had shelves on one side, and hooks on the other for dress up clothes.  Later I removed the hooks and put furniture against that wall on the inside.  This little house fit well into a corner of my room, but sometimes I had it against a wall of cupboards.

The way I introduced and used this center changed through the years, and eventually I ended up referring to it as Storytelling Cottage.  I found that when we just called it a house, or housekeeping – the kids would go there and put on dress up clothes but not really act out roles.  When I changed the name to Storytelling Cottage I emphasized that they would be pretending to be somebody, and they would be doing something that person would do.  I encouraged them to pretend that there was a problem they had to solve.  It went along well with our study of story elements – characters, setting, problem and solution.

I could have easily been called the Queen of Stuff.  I loved collecting and buying and making all kinds of things for my classroom.  I wanted realistic food and special dishes and metal silverware.  But I found out that the more stuff I had at this center, the less the children engaged in complex play.  They just put on clothes and dumped out food and dishes, then walked out.  The most common role play was for the kids to act like dogs or cats and chase each other.   When I limited the amount of food and dishes, and alternated a few dress up clothes, the children got more involved in the roles they were playing.  Sometimes I would temporarily add things like magazines and newspapers, scarves and boots in winter, holiday decorations, a shopping cart, etc.  Again, I wouldn’t give them lots of stuff – just a few things to encourage them to use their imagination.

I limited this center to no more than 4 children at a time.  I also labeled the baskets for food and dishes, and places for shoes and clothes to encourage the children to clean up independently.

Every year the boys enjoyed this center just as much as the girls.  The best thing I added to this center was old cell phones.  The children loved playing with them, and it really encouraged great conversation!

Another area of my classroom that was specifically designed for Dramatic Play was my doll house.

I love the way children interact with the furniture and families at a doll house, but my space was very limited.  One time I saw a large doll house in a children’s museum that was really a narrow bookshelf.  I sketched out my idea to make a little dollhouse this way and my wonderful husband built that for me too!  It was only big enough for two children at a time, but they had lots of space to move the families around, and play imaginatively with them.   I ordered the wooden furniture from a catalog and a parent made some little rugs.

When I was working on my Master’s degree I saw a picture of a bench with a steering wheel in a Kindergarten classroom.  I sent my husband off to an old car dump to get a steering wheel, and he created “Benchley.”

About 4 children could straddle Benchley and ride together.  This was one of my very favorite things in my classroom.  Sometimes the children pretended it was a school bus, sometimes an airplane, or boat, or car – it was very flexible!  I loved the cooperation and negotiation of who would “drive” and when it was someone else’s turn.  They used the box on the front to carry everything from bears, to dolls to cell phones.

I also wanted a place in my room to set up dramatic play centers that I could rotate and change.  I didn’t want to give up my Storytelling Cottage to set up McDonalds or a doctor’s office – so my husband designed and built a playcenter for me.

As always I wish I had known I would do this blog – I don’t have great pictures, but this gives you an idea of what it was like.  The bottom of the play center was about 4 foot square.  The back had an opening to step into it, and there was a ladder on one side to climb up to the top.  At the time we had remodeled our kitchen and had a piece of laminated counter from the end of our kitchen island that he added as a shelf that extended out of the front.  I used this play center as a place to set up different play experiences.  Often I let the children help choose what to turn it into.

We used the top of the play center as a library.  The only choice up there was to “sit on your bottom” and read books.  The sides were not high enough to keep children from falling if they stood up, I didn’t add the ladder until I was sure I could trust the children to ONLY sit and read up there.  I never had a safety issue with this, but I took off the ladder if I knew preschoolers would be visiting the room.  The children loved going up there to read, and it motivated some of them to choose to read at center time.

Here is another view:

Please do not feel that you can’t have a wonderful dramatic play center in your classroom without special houses and play centers.  Although my centers were wonderful and very cute, they were not essential to the whole process of dramatic play.  You can turn any corner or table or refrigerator box into a wonderful play space.  I do think you need to dedicate a specified place in your room to dramatic play if you really want to encourage children to interact this way.  The children are really imaginative and helpful in choosing what they would like to play – it can go along with a holiday or theme, or field trip – or it can just be something they care about.  You can also turn it into a class research project, finding out what is in a Dentist Office, etc.  There are lots of informational books that are written for young children.

The Block Center  and the Art Center are also great places to encourage Dramatic Play – after the children build or create something they will often start to play with their creation, if they have enough time.  These centers lead naturally to great conversation and interaction between the children.

Adding a few props, and changing them occasionally also encourages new ways to play.

 

Almost any center in your room can turn into a dramatic play experience.  The children would  often go to the writing center or the art center to make props to use in a dramatic play center that we had set up in the room.

I left behind my Storytelling Cottage and Play Center when I retired so more children could benefit from this kind of play.  I brought home the doll house and Benchley though – and my grandson is enjoying those.  Oh – and my husband who built it all, I’m keeping him too!

Let’s Play!

I believe in play.

There has been a ton of research on the social, emotional, physical and cognitive benefits of play.  Most early childhood teachers agree that it is an essential component to their curriculum, but there are so many required programs and mandates that teachers struggle to fit it all into the day.  There are also districts and administrators who, in their quest to raise test scores, discourage or prohibit play.  I think it is our job to educate parents and administrators about why play is important and how children benefit from it. I would like to share some information from workshops that I have presented about play, that you might be able to use if you need to defend your decision to include play in your classroom.

Not all play is equal.  Sending the kids off to the blocks or play-do while you check email or write a note to parents is not really the best way to use play as a learning tool.  Sometimes we call teacher directed, fun activities play – but that really is playful learning, not true play.

So then, what is play?

Both play and playful learning are important in a Kindergarten classroom.  In fact, almost anything we do with children has to be playful and engaging.

One of the biggest differences between play and playful learning is that all children can be successful in play.  It is child directed and child controlled and has no adult determined agenda.

So why is play important?

- Play fosters language skills

- Play allows children to express and explore emotions

- Play provides opportunities to develop social skills

- Play encourages symbolic representations

-Play helps children develop critical cognitive skills called executive functions

Executive functions are a collection of brain processes whose role is to guide thought and behavior, and allow children to SELF REGULATE.  (Control emotions, pay attention, resist impulses, delay gratification, exert self control.)

Hey!  Wouldn’t it be great to have a classroom of kids who could all do that?

Here is a quote from a respected study:

Researchers have divided play into 6 main types.

Here is a little more explanation about each type of play.

5 Six Kinds of Play

The highest level of play is dramatic play – or sometimes called socio-dramatic play.   A million years ago when I was working on my master’s degree in early childhood I did a research project for my thesis on the benefit of Socio-dramatic play, and how it is a great tool to teach our district language arts curriculum and foster the development of literacy.  But for children to really benefit from play teachers have to be involved in the play, interacting and scaffolding the children’s learning.  We have to provide time and set up the classroom to foster play.

I know I am preaching to the choir!  I am just trying to share some information that might be helpful to you if you need to justify playing in your classroom.  Here is an explanation of the difference between immature and complex play.  Teacher involvement is the key to move from immature or simple play to more beneficial complex play.

Complex Play

That symbolic use of props is an essential pre-reading skill.  When a child holds a banana to his ear as a telephone, or he drives a wooden block along the floor pretending it is a car, he is laying the foundation for understanding how letters are symbols for sounds.

Complex play requires

*Time to develop – constructive play often turns into dramatic play if kids have enough time, they build something and then start acting out roles with what they made.

*Familiarity with what people do in different situations

*Generic, multi-use props

*Focus on roles rather than on objects

That last one is hard for me!  I love to set up dramatic play centers with lots of realistic props.  It really does draw the children into the area and encourages them to play, but the play is more complex when the children need to construct their own props or use another object and pretend.  A limited amount of realistic props can help motivate the children and give them ideas of how to play.

This information about the levels of play is helpful when you are talking to parents of a child who is insecure or a little immature.  It is fun for me to watch this development with my grandson.  When he is playing with other children he often parallel plays – just playing with whatever he wants to, alongside other children but not really playing together.  If an older child is involved in the play my grandson will usually copy what he is doing.  A confident Kindergartner is usually able to interact cooperatively during play.

So get involved with your kids’ play and have fun!