Dramatic Play

I love taking my kids to the Portland Children's Museum. If you and your child have never been, then I highly recommend it.  Every room is set up as a different theme.  You can go grocery shopping with your child in a perfectly staged mini market, pretend to be a vet at their animal hospital, crank, funnel, pour, squirt, messure, and float in their water works room, or become a construction worker in their building bridgetown exibit.  Kai always has a blast learning and playing.  That is what kids do best...learn through play. 

Worksheets have been found to be meaningless and boring to preschool children and can stifle learning.  Dramatic play on the other hand can help teach pre-reading skills and encourage kids to have fun while learning.  The best learning takes place through hands-on experience that is full of meaning for a child.

In Lindsay's Little Owls, we try to build upon the dramatic play concept by adding a literacy component. By doing so, we are able enhance play as well as teach pre-reading skills.  We have a room set apart as our "Dramatic Play room".  As our theme changes each week so to will the decor of the entire room change to fit that theme.   

Two of my students, Isabelle and Vedder have one of the most amazing grandmas ever.  Sherrie West has been teaching preschool children and teachers for nearly 30 years.  She teaches at Head Start for the northern Utah area, and runs the South Weber Developmental School. Sherrie is the author of an excellent book called Literacy Play , which I use to help my class learn pre-reading skills through dramatic play.  I am so thankful to have two of her beautiful grandchildren in my class and am grateful for all of her guidance and advice (which often comes vicariously through Dez)

The following posts show a few examples of how we have incorporated dramatic play into our school. 


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