Going shopping!

In discussion of non technology resources in our room, the children’s interest has been focused on dramatic play; dressing up, shopping, role playing mummies and daddies, impersonating cartoons characters, rein acting super heroes and much more! The most common interaction to stand out amongst these is ‘shopping’ the children LOVE shopping! Whether its blocks in a basket or Lego in a handbag it’s always referred to as “my shopping teacher” I’ve observed how the children come together in the family corner to get ready for a day out of shopping. The communication that goes on between peers; suggesting what they should wear, making comments to each other such as “my mummy wears a top like that” and “Il wear this because it’s pretty” “put this on your the dad” are ways of expression that simply contribute to a child’s language development. I believe a lot of these acts the children role play are experiences they encounter in the home, “how mummy and daddy go shopping” “what they buy” “how they talk” and the children’s conversation usually reflect this and is the base of where the imitation is created. In support to this the Ministry of Education state children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive through various activities such as pretend play, storytelling, drama, and making music (Ministry of Education, 1996). This is part of the early childhood curriculum.

I also noticed how observant the children were while shopping, only choosing certain objects and referring it to “milk” or “chocolate cake” or “ice cream” this defines how much a child comprehends what we adults do, and then makes sense of in his/her own way. “Dramatising is a natural path to language. As a child grows, adult words to fit into a situation are borrowed, practised and adopted” (Somerset, 2000). This interaction initiated turn taking, sharing, conversation, communication, friendships, cognitive development and exploration. Piaget’s preoperational stage where the child begins to represent the world with words and images is displayed through the children’s imitation of real life occurrences that happen in the home (Santrock, 2010).

The children have continued to engaged in pretend play ‘shopping’ where I have extended their ideas of a supermarket, to going to the ‘Butcher’ for meat or the ‘Bakery’ for bread and the ‘Ice Cream Parlour’ for ice cream. This has made a huge contribution to their language development, more conversations, more use of words, more thinking and creating ideas. They have learnt so much in ways of expressing themselves and building and maintaining relationships. I’ve learnt how to extend a child’s imagination, the extent of how they think and beyond, how children imitate real life into their learning environment and their understanding of  daily events.

In comparison to later days to today in terms of dramatic play, I believe not a lot has changed. Yes we do have more materials and resources provided to support children's play but the core of imagination and interaction is still there. Today's society is more technical considing technology is pretty much taking over and children have more to associate with, where as the later days had less to, therefore 'dramatic play was efficient enough to suit those times.                               

References: 

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He wariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa/ Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Sommerset, G. (2000). Work and play in the early years (4^th ed.). New Lynn Auckland: New Zealand. Playcentre Federation.

Santrock, J.W. (2010). Lifespan development (12^th ed., International). Boston, MA: Mcgraw-Hill

Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 1, 5-10