Let’s Role Play
Role play. You might be thinking that this is simply entertainment for your child, a little bit of make believe. When you’re partaking in it as a teacher, you’re returned to your own childhood, sometimes without even noticing it. Do you remember your feelings and aspirations, when the whole world was open to you? When there was no ceiling. Your motto was pretty much what Barbie recently said this summer: ‘You can be anything’. Here, at BSSP, we have a specific area in the EYFS classroom where children can bring their imaginations to life and act out their future aspirations.
Using role play in everyday school life helps your child to develop key skills that will be useful in the further education. A child learns how to behave in different situations. As an example, how do you know how to go shopping? Was there ever a specific lesson on it at school? I’m guessing the answer is no. You understand the concept and what to do, because you’ve been taken around shops by your parents and grandparents and later you role played this exact scenario with your classmates in Nursery or Reception.
Another important aspect of role play is that a child improves their speaking and listening skills, learning new vocabulary each session. If this is a session where a child is acting like a firefighter, can you imagine the new vocabulary they can learn? What is an axe for and how does it help put fires out exactly? Who knew that this tool was used to do anything other than chop down trees? Moreover, role playing these positions and scenarios broadens the students’ minds and helps to develop another key part of the EYFS framework called Understanding of the World.
Role play is not just re-living everyday situations, it is also about a probable future career. Last year my Nursery class and I took an excursion to a site called Kidburg, where children explored the various professions, such as sailors, hairdressers, doctors and even rescued a cat. After this trip, half of the class claimed that they wanted to become a doctor when they grow up.
My hope is that they will become the people they have always wanted to be. I remember my choices varied from being a doctor to an actress, a teacher to an astrophysicist. At that age, the options are endless and the exploration is all part of the fun and learning process. I, myself, obviously became a teacher and have the pleasure to work in a school which builds the foundations to enable your child to become whoever and whatever they want to be.
Miss Daria, Reception and Year 1 Teacher
