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-In the beginning of the year, we send out a survey to families, and it says, basically,
"What sort of areas does your child know?"
We chose the dramatic play topic based upon that research that we received from our families.
-And it seemed like the grocery store is one of the places that the kids know,
that they all have visited before.
So we really wanted to start from the basics.
-And it was also a place that there could be multiple roles in dramatic play.
We knew we were gonna web with the children to really find out what the children know
about the grocery store.
-What do we do at the grocery store, things that they have seen at the grocery store,
things that they buy at the grocery store.
-Do I have to do anything, or I just take the food with me?
-No you have to pay.
-Oh, I have to pay with what? What does that mean?
-We found a video on the internet.
So for the kids that have not go to a grocery store, then at least
they get the idea of what it is and how it looks like.
-Because I see the shopping cart, and I can also read. And right here it says, “Whole Foods," okay?
So that way, I know, "Oh, food."
-They sell food here.
-It was a great way for the children to visually have something they could see
prior to playing the actual grocery store.
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-My friends, on the art table I see some boxes.
Because when we talked about our grocery store,
do you see what’s in this picture, Kayson?
-A grocery store.
-Moving forward was a lot of work, a lot of planning with the kids.
-Do we have any money? Do you have any money in your pocket right now?
-Yeah.
-You do? Do you have any money in your pockets?
Let me see. - Let's see.
- Nope, no money. - Nope, no money.
- What do we have to do?
We have to make some money!
-We did small groups in tables.
-For the children to have lots of hands-on experience creating the props for the grocery store,
the signs, a great way to bring in math in terms of money.
-And then after you’re done making all of your labels, we will put them on blocks,
so we will have our own cans.
-For the grocery store. I see.
-And the kids were able to create every single item and every single sign with numbers, letters, money.
Everything that comes to having a grocery store in the classroom, they did.
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-When we did the grand opening, it was really fun.
The kids were so excited, because we had closed dramatic play for like two or three days.
-We did our initial introduction where myself and my co-workers chose different roles.
-And what we did was we model what we do or how we go to the grocery store.
-You’re welcome, have a great day!
-Oh, I appreciate your help.
-So now I can make everything I need.
You can just have a seat; I’ll make you your cookies.
- Oh, thank you!
- So, my friends, do you see how Miss Sydney had a job,
Miss Karla had a job,
and Miss Leisha had a job?
-That was the way we introduced our grocery store to the children before they started playing.
So they had the idea of, "This is how I play here," or, "This is what I do at the grocery store."
-If you can't role play it, then the children really don't know the different roles that
they can play and will only do all of the same thing or all of what they're familiar with.
So by choosing the different roles, I think it gave them an example for how they could
interact with the items in dramatic play.
-At the beginning, I would say like the first couple of days they model most
of what we have already modeled to them.
-When we first introduced it, we actually chose two of the older children and two of
the younger children to start dramatic play.
And the younger children often take a step
back and let the older children sort of direct the play.
-And then the more familiar they become with different scenarios that they have seen,
or acted in, they continue to use it again and again.
So then they become the ones to direct.
-Okay, welcome to my store!
Welcome to my store!
-I think that this grocery store setting really enabled children who don't often play
in dramatic play to come in and choose a role.
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-So, I wrote a word up here. It says “market.”
Quinn, what’s a market?
-It’s when you sell stuff.
-We noticed actually in the fall that many of the children were talking about going to
the fair, and what they got at the fair, what they saw at the fair.
-And then Leisha and myself thought about it, and we're like, "Wait a minute.
Maybe we can do a market now, because they know what a grocery store is.
So now we can go over to a market."
-My friends, we are going to have a market, a lot like this craft fair.
And we are going to make items, and we're going to invite our friends from the Blue Room,
from the Green Room, from the Purple Room, from the Toddler Room, and they are going to
come and buy some of the things that we make for them.
-We really wanted it to be sort of different mediums -- like one would be clay,
one would be wood, one would be fabric -- just made of different sort of natural materials.
-We made pinch pots out of air clay.
Jewelry using pipe cleaners and beads.
Suncatchers using glue and food coloring.
Quilts, and we framed them.
Wooden pieces, we used real wood.
-But we're not going to take them home; we’re going to sell them in our market.
-The hard part was keeping the items to sell.
I think it's a really difficult concept for children that young, not to say,
"I want to take it home to my family."
And so as we talked about it over and over and over,
the children got really excited that other children were going to come into their classroom,
that we were going to set this up, and that they could be experts of each item.
-You made a beautiful necklace!
Can you make another one for our market?
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-We have made all of these fabulous things to the market,
but how do we get our friends to come to the market?
-Many of them have had experience with receiving an invitation for a birthday party.
-So we wrote invitations for every classroom.
We did small groups again in tables, and each group wrote an invitation with the kids’ words.
-And then we get to deliver it, which is, they love it.
That they get to walk to the classroom, and they read the invitation to the teacher.
It was an overall great experience.
-So, we have an invitation to go to the Teal Room
next Monday. - And we made a card.
-They had their invitation, and so they knew when to come, and each child had a ticket,
and we made a pathway leading through the market.
And we described to them that they could pick one item per ticket.
-And we have market experts that can tell you what we have.
-We encouraged them to travel through the whole market so they could really sort of get a lay
of the land and see all of the different items that were for sale.
-We placed at least two children per center, per table, and they were explaining how they
made the item, what they used to make the item, what the item was, and it was just,
it was so beautiful.
-Look at all your hugs from your Teal Room friends! Love it.
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-I think the children had a sense of pride in the final product.
-It’s always like, we have this idea, but they really put more into it.
-I heard from many children outside who said, “This was the best day ever!”
And “This was awesome!
Everyone came to our classroom!”
And I think they also had a sense of pride that another child
was taking home an item that they made.
-So I really think that by having them be part of our dramatic play and our set-up
and our hands-on experiences, really really play an important part of the kids
wanting to be in dramatic play.
-That the more freedom you give them to create their own items
and create based off their own ideas,
it really leads to a more rich play center.
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