CHAPTER 12 DRAMATIC

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CHAPTER 12DRAMATIC CREATIVE PLAY

• Overview
• Play is be the natural language of children
• It helps the child respond to the natural world
• Peek-a-boo, Patty-Cakeare the beginnings of
  dramatic play
• Toddlers love to pretend
• Need other children and adults to give words and
  direction to play
• Older children use play to
• Act out stories
• Try on adult roles
• Figure out how to solve problems

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Overview

• Play may reveal
• Needs that are not being met
• Confusions or misunderstandings
• Fears and attempts to master them
• School-age children
• Enjoy making up their own activities
• Theme is often good guys against bad guys
• David Elkind
• Dramatic play helps children transfer what they
  know about one situation to another situation

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DRAMATIC PLAY AND CREATIVE DRAMATICS DEFINED

• Nellie McCaslin
• Dramatic play ..the free play of the very young
  child in which s/he
• Explores his/her universe
• Imitates the actions and character traits of
  those around him/her.
• Is spontaneous it just happens
• Is often repeated and/or expanded just for the
  fun of it

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McCaslins Definitions

• Creative Dramatics improvised drama of children
  5 and older
• Extension of dramatic play
• Child-centered
• Pantomime
• The art of conveying meaning without words
• Young children enjoy this activity
• Sociodramtic Play
• Highest level of symbolic play
• Children create happenings based on their own
  experiences
• The fantasy element of dramatic play is useful
• Can help a child feel part of a group

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DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF DRAMATIC PLAY

• Piaget 3 stages (based on cognitive
  development)
• 1. Practice play (sensorimotor stage) birth-2
• Explores the world through senses
• Practices motor skills
• 2. Symbolic play (preoperational) 2-7 years
• Uses objects to represent something else
• Older children often pantomime props not there
• Knock on an invisible door

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Developmental Stages

• Piaget
• 3. Games with rules (concrete operations) 7
  years and older
• Often helps perfect physical skills
• Often helps sharpen mental skills
• Children will make up rules
• Needs to realize that accepted rules cant be
  changed
• Needs to see others point of view

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Developmental Stages of Play

• Sara Smilansky 4 types of sociodramatic play
• 1. Functional play infancy through early years
• Child pretends to be someone else
• Part of exploring the environment and people in
  it
• Using dress-up clothes
• 2. Constructive play toddlers and preschoolers
• Helps children understand their experiences
• Done alone or with others
• Uses people or objects to create a specific
  experience
• Pretending to drive a car, complete with sound
  effects

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Developmental Stages of Play

• Smilansky
• 3. Dramatic play toddler primary age
• Pretending and make-believe on a higher level
• Participants take on related roles and interact
  with each other
• Organized roles in housekeeping area
• 4. Games with rules older preschoolers primary
  age
• Requires children to accept and act according to
  rules
• Board games and sports

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Developmental Stages of Play

• George Maxim 2 major dimensions
• Social dimension
• Move from solitary play to an interest and skill
  in working with others
• Content dimension
• Deals with composition of play
• what the children play with
• Blocks, vehicles, sand
• Content of the play
• Having a meal, racing cars, putting out a fire

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Understanding of Fantasy and Reality in Young
Children

• Dramatic play helps a child sort out what is
  unreal (fantasy) and what is real
• Need opportunity for both
• Learn to recognize the difference
• The younger the child, the more the play is based
  in fantasy
• Believe that what they think is true
• By age 5, they understand when they are
  pretending and when they are in the real world

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PLANNING AND PREPARING THE ENVIRONMENT

• Adults should provide
• Plenty of unstructured time
• Adequate space
• Materials that can be used for many purposes
• Opportunities for childrens input and ideas

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The Teachers Role

• Teacher (adult) is mainly a facilitator
• Person who helps things to happen
• How to be a facilitator, p. 355
• Housekeeping area, no matter what size, should
• Be attractive and inviting
• Have child-sized furniture
• Include props that are gender and culturally
  sensitive
• Dress-up clothes for boys and girls
• Food samples from different cultures
• Dolls of both genders and differing skin colors

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Adaptations for Special Needs Children

• Suggestions for including children with special
  needs in dramatic play
• Page 357

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Sharing with Families Prop Boxes

• Prop Box
• A collection of materials for development and
  enrichment of dramatic play based on a specific
  theme
• Placed in a sturdy container
• Props can come from many sources
• Have some prop boxes that may be checked out
  for home use
• Provide time for children to tell about how the
  props were used at home

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Clothes for Dramatic Play Area

• Clothing should be
• Clean
• Easy to put on and take off
• Can be washed
• Safe hemmed, sharp fasteners replaced
• Stored and displayed for easy access and
  replacing
• MC/GF (Multi-Cultural/Gender Fair)

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Integrating Dramatic Play in the Curriculum

• Pages 35 8 - 3 6 0 have good suggestions
• Use these pages as a reference

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Dramatic Play and Other Learning Centers

• All parts of the curriculum can be developed
  through dramatic play
• Page 3 6 1 has ideas for math and science
• Knowledge of how curriculum content is developed
  through dramatic play helps parents understand
  the value of this type of play

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Tips for Teachers

• Imitation of superheroes is common and
  controversial
• Centers need to think through their policy on
  violent and/or superhero play
• Beaty suggests focusing on the positive aspects
  of superhero play
• Direct play into prosocial channels

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Tips for Teachers

• In order to help children with superhero play,
  adults should
• Become familiar with what the children are
  watching
• Figure out why the children are imitating the
  superheroes
• Ask questions and talk about more appropriate
  choices for play
• Better ways to solve the problem
• Establish limits ahead of time
• Invite real role models from the community to
  visit
• Support community efforts to deal with marketing
  of violence to children
• NAEYC comments on page 363

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Dev. Appropriate and Multi-cultural/ Anti-bias
Act.

• Pages 3 6 3-3 6 5 have 2 ideas for expanding a
  fingerplay and a song into dramatic play
• Suggestion to use a familiar book or story as the
  basis of dramatic play.
• Children act out the story
• Changing the story is appropriate
• Provide or have the children make simple props