Angela here. I had a lovely jaunt at Jungman but I am happy to be reunited with Collier’s kids room and the kids who fill it. One of the things I really missed was the Dramatic Play Elephant. We have this blue elephant that I think is supposed to hold books but it is really so much better at holding costumes and other dramatic play toys.
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| Those books are just begging to fall out. And VHS tapes!? |
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| Look how perfectly the hats fit into the cubbies. |
I don’t want to get too didactic here, but I do want to spotlight some of the early literacy benefits of Dramatic Play. Research has shown that more Dramatic Play is correlated with higher test scores, increased language ability, and development of critical thinking and social skills. And this research is all across socio-economic lines!
While researching for this blog post, I found this really cool breakdown of the kinds of play. Sara Smilansky was a researcher who divided play into four levels. All of them are important, but they do build on one another:
- Functional: moving objects, practicing motor skills, and experiencing the immediate environment
- Constructive: movement of objects in a non-random way, with a goal
- Dramatic: “free, symbolic play in which the child explores relationships with the world (and others in that world)” (Furman 173)
- Games with Rules: children accept and adjust to rules of play (could be an official game or a game with socially created rules)
You may be familiar with programs that celebrate all of these kinds of play! For instance, baby playtime will be mostly functional play, with some constructive. By age 2, kids are starting into Dramatic Play (think play food and magic wands).
Dramatic Play can involve acting out daily activities that children experience, activities seen or heard in stories, and creating new scenarios based on these experiences. With Dramatic Play, kids are practicing “symbolic representation — the ability to use one thing to represent another” (Furman). This helps reinforce the literacy concept of letters and words representing ideas.
In the Elephant, in addition to costumes that I have acquired from various sources (some were costumes that my siblings and I wore as children, and some came from the toys I found already here at the branch), we have: a baby doll, a plastic doctor’s kit, an old camera (with the batteries removed), and a hear-myself sound phone. If you would like to spend some of your $200 discretionary budget on dramatic play items, Lakeshore has a whole category! Or, take a look and get inspired to use some things you may already have at your branch.
If it is not feasible to leave Dramatic Play materials out on the floor of your library, consider using them in a program! You could have dramatic playtime or bring some hats to a hat-themed storytime. Dramatic Play does not have to involve props or costumes. It could be as simple as: “let’s all get on our horse and gallop around the room!,” or “Flap your wings because today we are birds”! But the benefits are far from simple.
Cited:
Bennett-Armistead, V. Susan. "What Is Dramatic Play and How Does It Support Literacy Development in Preschool?" Scholastic.
Furman, Lou. “In Support of Drama in Early Childhood Education, Again.” Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2000
