Why Dramatic Play

At the beginning of the year our dramatic play centre was a house, later it was a Pizza Pizza, after that it was a Post Office.

Recently we got a new Playmobil fire truck which created a quite a bit of interest in fire fighters and fire stations - so we decided to turn our dramatic play centre into a fire station. The students have been having loads of fun and they've been learning a lot at the dramatic play centre.

As children engage in dramatic play they have opportunities to:

• express imaginative thoughts and ideas
• adopt the attitudes, gestures and language of different characters, both real and imaginary
• assume different group positions (leader, group member, recorder)
• develop and extend vocabulary in a natural way
• develop and use language for many different purposes (to question, to direct, to organize)
• learn cooperative skills (share props) 
• solve conflicts

Toronto District School Board. (2006). Dramatic Play in the Kindergarten Program