Chapter 12Dramatic Play and Creative Dramatics

Overview

• Play is the natural language of children• Toddlers love pretend

– They demonstrate object hunger• Dramatic play is the most valuable form of

children’s play• Play ideas emanate from children’s

experience

Definitions

• Fantasy element of dramatic play serves many purposes– Dramatic play

• Spontaneous play that can be expanded or repeated over and over just for the fun of it

– Creative dramatics• The improvised drama of children

– Pantomime• The art of conveying ideas without words

– Sociodramatic play• The highest level of symbolic play

Developmental Stages of Dramatic Play

• Piaget—play in terms of cognitive development– Practice play– Symbolic play– Games with rules

• Smilansky—four types of sociodramatic play– Functional play– Constructive play– Dramatic play– Games with rules

Developmental Stages of Dramatic Play (continued)

• Maxim—play in two dimensions– Social dimension– Content dimension

Understanding of Fantasy and Reality in Young

Children• Dramatic play helps children separate what is

make-believe from what is real• The younger the child, the more play is rooted in

fantasy• By age five, children start to differentiate when

they are pretending and when they are in the real world

• Encourage use of language to help them differentiate

Planning and Preparing the Environment

• Environment should support pretending• Teacher’s role

– Serve as facilitator– Provide time, space, materials– Assist children in learning social interaction– Monitor area so that all children can participate– Value play– Safety– Anti-bias

• Furniture and equipment considerations

Adaptations for Children with Identified Needs

• Apply only those rules needed for safety• Let the child take the lead• Clearly define space• Encourage verbalization• Offer familiar materials• Dress-up clothes—easy on and off• Supply supportive seating to offset fatigue

Prop Boxes

• Materials to enrich a theme– Consider storage and label clearly– Consider many sources for materials

• Recycled or donated

• Clothes for dramatic play– Access– Variety of roles, traditional, unisex– Variety of cultures– Squares of material, scarves

Integrating Dramatic Play into the Curriculum

• Infants– Doll corner– Home living area– Push-and-pull toys– Crawling and climbing area

• Toddlers– Home living area– Dress-up clothes– Prop box– Puppet and mask play corner– Beauty/barber shop

Integrating Dramatic Play into the Curriculum

(continued)• Preschoolers

– Travel agency– Ship– Train station and train– Airport and airplane– Supermarket/grocery store– Farmer’s market/Mercado– Picnic– Ants at a picnic

Integrating Dramatic Play into the Curriculum

(continued)• Primary-grade children

– Rag doll/tin man/marionette– Paper exploration– Imaginary machine– Mirror images

Dramatic Play and Other Issues

• Integration with other curriculum areas– Language and literacy– Math and science concepts

• Tips for teachers– Superheroes

• NAEYC recommendations regarding superheroes play

• Developmentally appropriate and multicultural/anti-bias activities