Dramatic
Play
DRAMATIC PLAY
IMITATE REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS
Think of it as a stage where the child enters and
immediately takes on a role and pretends.
- parenting, cooking, doctor, teacher,
grocery store, office, hair salon, etc.
Dramatic Play / Free Play:
• Large motor activities of their choosing.
– Acts on own imagination.
• Best when restrictions are few.
– Computers, blocks, balance beam, climbing
tube, basket ball hoop, dress ups, puzzles, play
dough, doll house or barn.
IDEAS FOR FREE PLAY:
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Balls
Basket ball hoop
Jungle gym
Teeter Totter
Trucks
Blocks
Balance beam
Crawling Tube
How did you get there?
• Have children stand in a line with one leader (adult) and the other
adult leader stands across the yard or room.
• The leader without children yells :
“___, _____, how did you get there?” (filling in the blanks with an animal
or a mode of transportation)
• The other adult leader yells the mode of movement for that animal
or vehicle.
ex. "Snake, snake, how did you get there?" "We slithered!"
• At this point all the children pretend to be that thing and slither to
the other leader. It goes back and forth as long as the attention of
your children.
• Use horses, bees, motorcycles, racecars, airplanes, etc.
BENEFITS of Dramatic Play
All 5 areas of Growth and Development
1) Provides an outlet for the child’s
inner thoughts and feelings.
2) Helps them solve personal
problems and make choices.
3) Teaches about occupations.
4) Expands their minds as they act
out what they can be in real life.
5) Provides practice for language
development as generate plots.
6) Dramatic play creates an
opportunity for children to be
involved in social interactions.
- Associative and Cooperative play are
essential skills for social interaction in
Dramatic Play.
Dramatic play allows children to
learn about and experience their
world and the roles people play.
I’m a…….
(Each group come up with 1 character from their theme and write it down)
• Tell the children to act as a bear and give them 10
seconds to "act" as the bear.
• Blow the whistle or buzzer and create another
"character" right after that, such as a clown, or
police officer.
• Come up with a list of "characters" and incorporate
them into your lesson. Be creative and watch the
responses of the children.
CREATING SPACE
• Separate area that can have 3 sides.
– Walls, dividers, shelves, and furniture can be
used.
• Near other noisy areas.
• Ample space to build and develop – flat and
carpeted
• Near block area so they can share supplies
• Containing real life items.
• The dramatic play area should not be
limited to house play.
-often it is based on the day’s theme.
Be aware of Culture!!
Supply pictures and props that represent
different races, and types of culture.
Basic Prop Box
MATERIALS
FURNITURE
Stove - refrigerator - childsized table & chairs - mirrors - dolls - doll bed &
high chair
KITCHEN EQUIPMENT
Pots & Pans, Utensils cooking equipment Clock telephone - food
DRESS-UP CLOTHES
Shoes -scarves -jewelry -hats - wigs
suitcases - bags - keys
BEAUTY SALON
Brushes- cordless blower- empty
product bottles- mirrors- apronsemery boards- magazines- play
cosmetics- play money
Look at basic junk items as
creative opportunities!
• Use toilet paper rolls to create a real life
object like binoculars.
• Collect a variety of old clothes. Make
sure all sexes are represented. Look for
accessories such as hats, ties, aprons,
wigs, and shoes. Let the kids enjoy!
• Take small empty clear water
bottles, fill them half full with water
and food coloring, then hot glue the
cap on. The kids love pretending to
drink these different "juices".
• What CAN You do with a Cardboard Box?
• What would you put in these areas…….
Pilot and Planes
• Create a real environment that exists in a
plane i.e.: Seats, pilot hat, flight
attendant cart, pretzels.
• Place tape on the floor to outline the
plane.
Going Fishing
• Outline a boat on the floor
with tape.
• Set chairs in the “boat”.
Supplies fishing poles,
worms, and fish for
fishing.
Winter Beach Blast
• First ask parents to dig out the children's
swimsuits and bring them in. Then we fill
a child size pool with just enough water
or sand for the kids to get a little wet then
we get out beach towels, beach balls,
sunglasses, sand toys and of course ice
cream cones.
Transportation Make
Take cardboard storage boxes (the height of the boxes
should be from the floor to the children's knees).
• Cut out the bottoms and tops of the boxes and remove
the flaps if any so that the box is hollow.
• Cut handles in the longer sides for the children to hold
box with their hands.
• Paint the boxes to resemble a car, fire truck, boat, bus,
etc.
• The children can stand in the box and hold it up while
moving in the dramatic play area and throughout the
room.
Bath Tub
• Get a nice heavy cardboard box. Cut the
box down to two feet in height, paint the
outside white. Inside the box cover a
paper drinking cup with silver glitter to
be the faucet and make knobs attached
with brass fasteners to represent hot and
cold water. Inside the "TUB" put
packaging peanuts for bubbles along
with wash clothes. For fun add empty
shampoo bottles, towels, bath pillows,
bars of soap and shower caps. Oh ... don't
forget your rubber duck
FARM
• Real Cow : Make a cow head and tail
out of poster board. Place the head on a
small chair and the tail on another small
chair put a broom stick across the chair
fill a rubber glove with half water and
milk tie it and then tie it to the broom
stick make sure you poke holes at the
finger tips) show the child how to milk a
cow
CREATE A DRAMATIC PLAY
PROP BOX
• List 10 items that you can realistically put in your
dramatic play area. Use your imagination! Relate
your lesson plan directly to the dramatic play area!
• Example: Teacher
– Book, Paper, Chalk, Crayons, Ruler, Glasses, Black Construction
Paper, Calculator, Markers, Notebook.
– What would you put in a Royalty box and a Gardner box?
• Now Choose 1 of your items and write it
on a strip of paper for our next game.
Suitcase game:
• Put a pile of old clothes and props on the floor and put an empty
cardboard box alongside them.
• One person picks up an article, ie: a red hat, and puts it in the box
saying,
– "I'm going on vacation and I will take...my red hat."
• The next person also puts something in the box, for example, a
blue shirt, and says
– "I'm going on vacation, and I'll take...my red hat and blue
shirt."
• Continue the game, increasing the list of things in the box until
one person forgets something.
TEACHERS ROLE IN
DRAMATIC PLAY
• Coaching:
– Provide children with problem solving ideas
– Child may not want to be a baker because there is not a baker’s hat. You
help them make a paper hat
– A child is hitting and you tell them to stop because the child does not like
it and then direct them through solving the issue.
• Modeling:
– Show them appropriate ways to play a part
– In a shoe store the child may not know how to sell shoes so you
say," Would you like to buy some shoes today?”
– Your child looks hungry, shouldn’t you go and feed him?
BLOCK (Legos, Lincoln Logs..)
AREA – also dramatic play
• Away from quiet areas and next to noisy areas like
dramatic play.
• Use the shelves for walls and storage
• Ample space to build without getting in the way of others.
• Flat carpeted surface for warmth, comfort, and noise
control
• Props other than blocks: furniture, people, cars, animals,
road signs…..
• Establish simple rules to keep the “construction Site’ safe.
– We use blocks for building
– We take blocks as we need them
– We clean up our blocks when we are finished
Remember PUPPETS
• A self conscious child can
hide behind a puppet and act
out feelings or be anything.
– they may say things to or
through a puppet that they
would not say to anyone else.
• The teacher can use puppets
to motivate and teach the
children
– Often they will listen to a
puppet over a teacher.
PUPPETS out of ANYTHING
• Use a paper plate, sock, brown
paper bag, picture on a stick,
mittens, toilet paper tube, finger
puppets, …..
Act out a Story or a Book
• Read a book like Brown bear, Brown Bear.
• Create face puppets using paper plates.
• Then act out the book using the paper plate
masks.
CREATE A PUPPET BASED ON
YOUR THEME
• Each person create a puppet based on the group preschool
theme.
• Write a puppet story (or use a well known one)
– Begin with a teaching theme (friends, manners, safety, vacation,
holidays, occupations, rules…) and center the story around this.
– Simple, familiar problems add interest
– End the story by resolving the conflict / issue.
• Turn a table over for your puppet stage and get ready to
perform!
– Sound affects, appropriate character voices, props