Starting at my new centre I wanted to change up my pedagogical documentation so that it would suit these children better. Within the first week of my last practicum it became clear to me just how important and cherished their dramatic play is to them. All of the children have a wide imagination and you can really see it shine through in their play. So I decided to document the dramatic play senecios the children kept combing back to whether that be inside or outside.
Week 1: – Spaceships
During the first week I noticed the children turning different structures in the yard into spaceships. This really stood out to me because it wasn’t just a group of 3-4 children, it ended up being 10-12 children all fully engaged and included in this dramatic play. I noticed a lot of the children actively trying to get others involved and when other children asked to play too they were always welcome with open arms.
Week 2: – Zombies
This week the children got really invested into playing zombies outside in the yard. They created little zombie houses and jails, and all loved showing each other their creepy zombie noises.
Week 3: – Bad guys and Good guys
This week I noticed the children playing a lot of “bad guys” and “good guys”. For the first couple days it ended up being a little bit of a problem because children were getting too into the game and ended up hurting others on accident, as well as feelings getting hurt. But I would say on the last day (Friday) the children got the hang of making sure everyone felt included. Throughout their time playing I heard multiple children saying “no it’s ok, we are only pretending, you aren’t really a bad guy”.
Week 4: – Family
This week the children were obsessed with playing mommies and daddies. This is a reoccurring dramatic play idea they love to do, it just feels like this week they were extra into it. A lot of our more leader oriented girls definitely took the lead. Ava, Maia, and Athena all really enjoyed leading the passive children along in this play. A lot of the different roles I heard being used were some kids wanting to be the mom and dad, or the older or younger sister/ brother, as well as the baby or some sort of pet. They all came up with so many different and unique additions to this dramatic play but something that really stood out to me was that instead of creating a bunch of little families they were all one big family. All of children individually have different family backgrounds so I thought it was interesting that they all still wanted to be one big family instead of what they were seeing at home.
Week 5: – Capturing each other (at the rink) Part 1
This week we brought the children to the rink that is near the centre, this was my first time here so it was definitely exciting to see what children would come up with. At this rink they have two sets of nets just around that the children are allowed to freely move where ever they like, so they decided to move them all together to create one giant jail. Then from there, there was a group of children who were the captives and another group who were the capturers. They all ran around this bring rink either chasing each other or running away, from my understanding the capturers were trying to take these powered crystals some of the children had. The play first started off being just a couple of kids but within 10 minutes all 15 children were playing.
Week 6: – Swimming in the leaves
This week the weather was very unpredictable and on the Friday it ended up being very rainy and windy but that didn’t stop the children from wanting to go outside. So me and Sydney decided that for a fun change of pace we would bring the children to the field right next to the yard, rack up a massive pile of leaves and allow the children to jump in them. About half way in I had the great idea of getting one of the slides from the yard and putting it facing the leaves so they could slide down into the leaves. All the children loved this idea and started to create little dramatic play senecios. Some of the children pretended they were sliding into lava, some imagined they were swimmers entering a pool, and some even thought they were flying into the pile of leaves.
Week 7: – Costumes/ potion making stations
This week was the week before Halloween so me and the other educators decided to make a potion making station on one of our sensory tables along with putting out a bin full of costumes beside a mirror. This created so many opportunities for dramatic play. During the week the children thought of so many different senecios they could dramatic play. The one that really stood out to me was when the children pretended they were creating different potions and turning the other children into the animals they were dressed up as. This spiralled into all the children participating and adding their own spin onto the game, even the educators (including myself) got involved.
Week 8: -Halloween Party
Week 8 was my final week in practicum so I wanted to make sure it was fun but also opened ended so the children had a chance to create their own play. So we had a Halloween party! All the children dressed up as well as the educators which to me created a different layer of the sense of community. From my perspective the children really enjoyed the fact the educators dressed up and got involved in something all the children were really excited about. This week a dramatic play scenario that really stood out to me was when the children wanted to add me into their play. When we were outside the children wanted to incorporate me as one of the bad guys chasing them around as well as some other kids being bad guys. At first I was a little hesitant because we don’t usually play with them like that but I decided to give it a go. By the end of the play I felt like I had built a stronger connection to all the children, and specifically the quieter children that don’t usually open up. I felt like this because I was about to fully engage myself into their world and really get a glimpse into their imaginations. Going forward in my ECE career I am going to not try and shy away from engaging in children’s play, rather I am going to engage when they ask so I can build those stronger relationships sooner.