At Willows Pre-School, role play is considered of high importance, as it helps children take a deeper look at the human world, through a unique experience where they have the opportunity to pretend they are in it. It’s an inseparable part of Early Years Education, that children love and enjoy, as they can act out scenarios and make sense of situations they come across in real life. Through role-play, children can develop their creativity and artistic side, while having fun and learning.
Educationally, role-play helps children improve their memory, attention, and concentration, as well as working across multiple Areas of Development. The children develop social skills, such as empathy, tolerance, and confidence. They also imitate conversations they hear in real-life situations which help them improve their Communication and Language skills and improve their vocabulary.
In addition, the children can develop their creativity and artistic side and practice numbers and counting. Lastly, role play is a great way of teaching children about specific topics and different cultures (experiential learning). At Willows Pre-School, we change our role play areas frequently, to give all children the opportunity to come across situations they don’t have the chance to see in daily life, or they know and enjoy representing. Some of the provided topics lately, gave our children the chance to bring to life situations such as working or being a customer in a supermarket or an ice-cream shop, meeting an injured patient or being a hairdresser or firefighter.
Role play areas are always available for the children, providing them with an enabling environment where they can use their imagination and have a blast!
