The other day I was watching a small group of children in the role play area and it struck me how differently children use this space. It usually begins with the children asking me whether the role play area is ‘open’ for that session. If my answer is ‘yes’ there follows a dash to stake a claim to play there that is rather how imagine the great Land Rush for a homestead in 1890s America might have been. Those that make it first are quick to point out that only 5 children are allowed at a time. The unlucky ones are sent packing. They are extremely territorial about this particular limitation. After some discussion between the children and mediation by me there is now a checking in and out system that helps to avoid a scrum. Once a claim has been established there are differing views on where the boundary to the role play area lies. Some children keep their play within the role play space. Others take their scenarios around the classroom, into the outdoor space and back again. From a classroom management point of view I find this a bit of a conundrum: my belief in child led learning and the freedom of their imaginations makes me reluctant to restrict the children to the small role play corner, but having Daddy bear and his mate rearranging the classroom furniture to make a very big chair can be a tad disruptive. There is always a solution – this particular problem was solved by pointing Daddy Bear and Daddy Bear’s friend in the direction of the milk crates in the outside space, where they promptly built an enormous throne for Daddy Bear. Some children are very particular in the way they role play. If the area is set up as a Cafe then that is what they play, answering the phone, taking customers’ orders (often involving asking everyone in the room, not just those who have chosen to be customers that morning), cooking the food, making menus. Then there are others who bend the props to be whatever they need them to be. The restaurant becomes the Highway Rat’s headquarters and all the food is stolen by him before he rides away into the classroom, or the Observatory stocked with telescopes and fairy light stars becomes a Pirate ship sailing through the night full of pirates...and their telescopes. There are, of course, many ways to role play. For those children who did not manage to get first dibs on the role play homestead, there is a dressing up box that moves between the indoor and outdoor classrooms so they can take on a new character for a while. The animal costumes are especially popular, and a puppy training class that includes a rabbit, a fox and a cat (there aren’t enough dogs' ears to go around) is the current game of choice. This can engage children in other directions, such as making their own animal masks to wear, or baking doggy treats out of salt dough. There is also a box full of den making equipment – pegs, string, old sheets and fabric – for the children to make their own role play area, and stake a new claim! What I have been reminded of as I watch the children is that role play is a magical resource in the classroom. It allows children to expand their real-life learning journeys as they go on an imaginative journey, creating, negotiating, problem solving, initiating, cooperating and story-telling to name but a few of the incredible things young children can do with some dressing up clothes, a telephone, some old sheets and some clipboards.
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