I don't know if I've ever mentioned this topic before, but it is something I struggle with as a teacher. Although I feel like I have learned quite a bit about teaching, there are days when I feel that I don't know anything.
The photo above was taken in the middle of choice time on Monday. I have had some challenges with this particular group of children and engagement - it was a much bigger challenge three months ago. But between how the classroom environment is set up, what materials and prompts are presented, and how those materials and prompts are presented, I find that children are getting into their work. And the work that so many of them love is dramatic play.
I have written about dramatic play before, and I hope that we can have a conversation about it here. I am proponent of open-ended materials for children - I want them to make their own decisions about what they want to work on. I stopped setting up stores and post offices and doctor's offices in the dramatic play area years ago, and I have tried putting in open-ended materials : scarves, shells, rocks, squares of fabric, chairs and tables - I have made many attempts. Nothing has been the picture of success that I imagined as I presented the materials. More often than not, small items are put into bags or wrapped in fabric and carried around the room; unifix cubes become pet food and legos are poured into a construction helmet and become soup. It is very imaginative, but it ends within 3 minutes for something that draws the children in more.
My desire to support the children in my classroom as they explore the world through dramatic play is a double edged sword. Do I tell them what to play by providing an exact "play environment"? I know they are playing and exploring using open-ended materials, but I feel that I can support them better. My struggle right now is to find the middle ground between teacher-chosen prompts and open-ended materials that children are not drawn to as imaginative props.
Do you set up dramatic play for children? If you do, is it a topic that the children have seemed interested in? If not, how do you engage the children in the play?
When I was in a pre-school room our team would often set up a plain box with windows(or not), along with the regular misc. prop items that changed on a rotating schedule. We would then wait and see what the children chose the box to be. Some days it was a tree house others a space ship, a castle..... And sometimes if the children were really into one thing they would want to paint it to look like this object. In this way they chose what they wanted it to be, so more open-ended, plus all this involved not only their imaginations, but art, math, dramatic play, science.... Our team would also ask if the children needed any other specific props to help with the area - more scarves, another box, different tools.... and sometimes we continued to help make these over days. Other times the children just didn't keep the interest up and the red firehouse turned into a space capsule within a week.
ReplyDeleteSometimes after observing the children playing and not knowing exactly what was holding their attentions or what they were "in too" we would simply ask the kids what they liked. We'd write it on the board and the team would try and figure out how to add items to the dramatic play area that could enrich their play time without being to defined.
I hope this helped a bit. All rooms are different and so are the mix of children in them. But, I can say that when we let them build things with boxes, blocks... for the buildings, dog houses, castles.... it always held their attention longer. We also would make sure to have books on hand about the subject too.
Good luck.
Thanks for sharing, Paige. Its really important for all of us to remember that the children's views are what should define what is happening with dramatic play; and even though that takes more work than switching a theme and stepping back and watching the children explore one topic, we get to know the children better, and the children can get deeper into their interests.
ReplyDeleteAfter writing the post last night, I thought about the idea of more conceptual themes rather than direct "doctor's office" or "post office", which I have never been able to embrace, personally. But what about the larger umbrella over what the children are doing? For example, the trend in our dramatic play area seems to be "care". There are kittens and cats, mothers and fathers and babies, doctors for pets and people, grandmas - I'm beginning to think about the possibilities of supporting a concept through props and environment.
Thanks again for sharing!
Another thought -- can you sit down and plan the play with the children? Planning the play works especially well if you have hollow blocks. You can say: What are you going to play? (Family, kitty, rocketship?) Then: Who will you be? Then: What do you need to build for your game? After they build, then they can add accessories, like fabric, bowls, baby dolls, corks, etc. I think sometimes having them think about what they will play makes them use materials more purposefully. (I still struggle with all this, too! Thanks for starting the conversation.)
ReplyDelete-From a longtime reader and admirer of your blog!
Thanks for your comment! I think we all do struggle with this sometimes.
ReplyDeleteFacilitating play is an important aspect of engaging children - sometimes. Helping to scaffold children from parallel play to playing with others cooperatively is an important role for a teacher to take, especially with fours, or children who have not been in many social settings. I do not tend to enter the play with children (I am unfortunately also in a situation now where I am the only teacher in the room), but I do like to think aloud about what the children are doing: I hear cats! I wonder what those cats are going to have for dinner. I see Monroe playing there too - I wonder if he'll be the Dad? I work with children to facilitate entering and organizing play, like you suggested.
Thinking about this as I taught today, I know that one of my main struggles is the physical space and the props. I like how you mention adding the props after children have brainstormed the ideas. Perhaps they could be presented at a group time and the whole group can talk about what we might pretend they are.
Thanks for chiming in!
i actually have two "dramatic play" areas...one is completely open ended with the SAME props the whole year (some kids do nothing but go there to find the same baby, the same blanket, the same dish, the same wooden egg while wearing the same vest and the same hat). we call this our "family corner."
ReplyDeletethen i've set up another area near the front of the room that has more theme driven props/signage. and almost the whole time it is a "store." even when we turned it into a baby nursery for a week, it become a baby store. that was a little uncomfortable...
i agree with the struggle to want constructive play.
and that is what i look for...even if it is messy, if it is constructive-great. when it is simply tossing things around or together, i look for ways to engage them further.
environment, environment, environment, eh?
thanks for the conversation.
I agree, Kristin - environment, environment, environment.
ReplyDeleteSeeing photos of your classroom, it looks like a large space, and I had never really thought about having two areas for dramatic play. There are children who need that routine - I think we have all seen that child with that baby and that blanket. The idea of a "home corner" is really that classic idea of dramatic play, also, and with good reason - that is a big theme in a child's everyday life, and having the means to make understanding of all those things through play is important.
There are ways to engage the children further - and it is important to work with the children and the environment to promote engagement. Nothing productive arises from dumping out a box of cubes and then going to the painting table. Dumping out toys is something children will do, but we can help guide them towards something different, too.
Thanks for joining in!
I've been waiting to have time to properly respond to this post. I don't think I have ever shared photos or posted about dramatic play on my blog...mostly because it IS the area that descends into chaos and I often do not know what to do to help it become more engaging or purposeful.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have all open-ended materials available for children. What I frequently see is every rock, shell, scarf, pine cone, etc. taken out and strewn across the table and floor.
What I am finding though is that the children at my school really have no prior experience with open-ended materials and don't know what to do. This has lent itself to the constant (internal) debate...do I enter play to scaffold or not.
What I've come up with is a bit of a cop-out. My group this year absolutely LOVES puppets. So I have recruited my father to come to the classroom and build a puppet theater in the dramatic play center in late December or early January. So, in sum...I'm VERY thankful for all of the wonderful comments already in this space and looking forward to reading more because truthfully dramatic play is my area 'in need of improvement.'Thanks for continuing the dialogue Allie!
Not a cop-out! You see the interest in a material, and you can facilitate the work that the children can do with that.
ReplyDeleteI picture your dramatic play area looking a lot like mine did in my last classroom. I was in it for three years, so by the time I left, it was the way I wanted it to look and feel. Dramatic play had fabric squares, shells, stones, lon, thick pieces of ribbon, and scarves - probably a few more things that are slipping my mind. But now I have baby dolls and costumes and fake food. I put these things away when I arrived in this classroom, to be honest. But then they all started bringing in baby dolls from home and being families. There is an undeniable interest in the concept of care that I have observed, and now my job is to facilitate that work and make it deeper. I can continue having baby dolls and bottles and a cradle in dramatic play - something I thought I would never do - but it is important to really dig into it, not stay on the surface.
The "no experience with open-ended materials" thing - also a struggle. That goes beyond dramatic play for me. When children are asking, "what's this for? what do we do here?" when they see natural materials on the table, I have to scaffold by going in and manipulating the materials and hope that they do not think that is the one way to use them. If I go into dramatic play and pretend that the pinecones are soup, will they do that every time they play? They'll probably do it the first few times, I guess. But we have to make the decisions that will help further and deepen children's work. Maybe that's how we make ourselves come to those decisions - by framing it like that.
Thanks so much for joining in, Merril!
Have you read Tools of the Mind yet? They have a lot of interesting perspectives of dramatic play - I think you'd enjoy it...
ReplyDeleteHi, I read this post last year and it provoked conversations between me and my teaching fellows. However, to be honest, I didn't understand what you meant by 'helping the children further and deepen their work. For example, when seeing a child using a block as a phone, the first thought in my head would be 'give a phone to the child to extend her play'. But reading your post made me think it wouldn't be an open-ended play experience. Then, what should I do?
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm doing studies of autism and read about teaching children with ASD to play. It talks about how important it is for children to be able to do pretend play, which is a high level play skill. Play skills are broken into several developmental play stages so that teacher can find out where the child is and what to teach next. When reading the materials, I thought about this post on your blog again. I think now I can understand your idea better and understand that by providing open-ended resources you are supporting children's play. With my group of children, now I don't go around and provide artefacts. Instead I look how they use resources in their play and decided where their play skill levels are; then decided what I will do to support their play.
Thanks for your post. It has been an interesting reflection journey for me.
Ching
Hi Ching,
DeleteThanks so so much for coming back and sharing your experience! This was a really important post for me, and looking back on the conversation it sparked, I'm reminded of why I do this writing in the first place.
Your work with autistic children likely has deep roots in child development, and my education is the same. I just finished my master's in Early Childhood, and there are few things as important as understanding childhood as a broad concept to be studied and respected and studied some more. I always teach to the individuals in my classrooms, but not a day goes by that I am not thankful for my base in child development.
Again, thanks so so much for coming back. I hope you'll join more conversations in the future!