And Then a Huge, Huge Giant Grabbed Me!

In the most recent issue of Early Childhood Research and Practice, there is an interesting paper about aggression in children's stories.  It is a good read - and it has me thinking about the stories my students are telling.  About one-third of the stories collected for this study contained aggressive elements.

You can read the paper here.

Much of the dramatic play in our classroom (which goes on with a large group of children for the majority of the day, both indoors and out) includes charcters who die - often princesses - but I think that is as close to "aggression" in narratives as this group gets.  But I am interested in observing more closely.  The paper talks about the action verbs that describe aggressive acts that are about harming characters - hitting, eating, fighting, etc.  I've definitely heard those, especially in the written and dictated stories over the dramatic play.

Early Childhood Research and Practice

I make regular visits to the Early Childhood Research & Practice website, waiting for new volumes. They only publish twice yearly, so it was a big treat to see that the Fall 2008 issue had emerged.

I am not sure why, but I have not mentioned that there was a day in September when eleven out of the twenty children in my classroom were in the dramatic play area. One corner of the room was transformed into a buzz of action that included princesses, babies, daddies, puppies, superheroes, and big sisters. I have never had a class that was so attracted to dramatic play! Even now, each day, the area is being used. It is full of open-ended materials that I am always reconsidering.

The new volume of ECRP has three articles on supporting dramatic play, including one on puppets in a special education classroom, and one about a child-based transformation of a dramatic play area into a zoo. Although the programs mentioned differ quite a bit from my own, I think there are some good points and ideas for pretend play.