CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 200448 THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION

“Here, you can wear this old dress to be Cinderella when she has to cleanthe house. When I say, ‘Cinderella, bring me my breakfast,’ you put downthe broom and say ‘Coming, Stepmother.’”(Erin, age 4)

In our family we used to say that Erin, who is now 13, was destined for the stage.She absolutely loved fairytales and would totally immerse herself for months at a timein one favorite story before moving on to a new story with a new plot, a new set ofcharacters and costumes. Old dresses, aprons, Halloween costumes, scarves, and evenmy old nightgowns filled her “costume wardrobe.” She also amassed a huge assort-ment of objects that she kept in a large plastic box to use in her re-enactments. Whenwe didn’t have one of the objects mentioned in a particular story — how many peoplehave a pumpkin carriage handy, after all — my daughter improvised: a ruler becamea wand, an empty cardboard wrapping paper roll became a sword, or a small dis-carded bottle became a jar that contained a magic potion. When she played alone,she acted out multiple characters in the story, effortlessly changing clothes and props.When others participated, she became the director, costumer, and stage manager,in addition to the actress.

Needless to say, we were called on again and again to read and reread the“chosen” story. It was from these re-readings and her story retellings that shedeveloped a solid understanding of the concept of story as having characters, settings,problems, goals, and a sequence of events leading to a satisfactory conclusion. Shealso acquired an excellent grasp of “book language” (the types of vocabulary wordsand sentence patterns found in stories and books) and the ability to portray a rangeof feelings and emotions of the various characters, even if she wasn’t always quite sureof the meaning. For example, one day I observed her practicing the scene fromCinderella in which Cinderella is upset about not getting to go to the ball. Erin liftedher right arm to her forehead and then dramatically swept it downward over and overagain as she said, “There’s just no use! There’s just no use!” Then, looking up at me,she asked, “Mom, do we have any use?”

Language,

Kathy BarclayChairpersonDepartment of Curriculum and InstructionWestern Illinois UniversityMacomb, Illinois

and Play

Language,

and PlayLiteracy,Literacy,

Fall 2004 CHILDREN AND FAMILIES 49THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION

The first examples of pretend play areevident by about age 2, and dramaticplay is at its most elaborate and extensiveduring the early childhood years.Whether portraying Cinderella, Super-man, or another familiar fairytale ormodern-day character, or pretending tobe the mother, the father, the doctor, thenurse, or the grocery store clerk, youngchildren find great joy in engaging inpretend play. And, because the areas ofthe brain connected to language typicallydevelop during these years, the richerthe socio-dramatic play, the greater itseffect on vocabulary development andsentence structure.

Using dramatic play areas toconnect language, literacy, and playAs parents and teachers of youngchildren, we can connect language,literacy, and play in ways that promotemaximum development. One importantway to establish strong and meaningfulliteracy connections is through the useof literacy props in dramatic play areas.Literacy props for the classroom house-keeping center typically include thefollowing: notepads and pencils formaking lists, newspapers, grocery storeand other shopping advertisements,coupons, telephone directories, addressbooks magazines, cookbooks, empty foodcontainers with labels, and old walletsand purses with play money to use for“going to the store.”

Selecting, creating, andimplementing dramatic playcentersDuring my work with children andteachers over the years, several keycriteria for selecting, creating, andimplementing dramatic play centers haveemerged. These criteria are listed below,along with suggested props for encourag-ing language and literacy play in a varietyof dramatic play centers based onfamiliar themes.

In addition to having a housekeeping dramatic play area, create one ormore additional dramatic play areas thatis based on themes in which the childrenhave expressed some interest and thatcontains a variety of “print props.”

Dramatic play areas based on themesfor which the children have some initialfamiliarity typically generate the mostenthusiasm both in terms of numbers ofchildren engaging in play at the centerand in the amount of literacy-relatedbehaviors exhibited by the childrenduring play. For example, two of themost popular dramatic play areas in ourcenter are the bank and the post office.Both are based on real life experiencesfor which the children have somefamiliarity, interest, and curiosity. Bothlend themselves to rich literacy play. Byobserving the teachers who join in theirplay for brief periods of time, thechildren learn to incorporate old checks,deposit books, deposit slips, ink pads andstamps, adding machines, play money,envelopes, paper, stamps, and so forthinto their play.

Play is limited in dramatic play areasin which the children have little or nofamiliarity or interest and when there arelimited opportunities for literacy play.

For example, we once created a “travelagency” dramatic play area completewith travel brochures, posters, ticketinformation, and other travel-relateditems. We observed that children did notspontaneously enter the center unless anadult was there to join in the play. And,unlike what we observed with the bankand post office centers, when the adultleft the “travel agency,” the childrentended to lose interest and wander off toother areas of the room. The theme wassimply not one that was relevant to thelives of these young children, nor did thesetting evoke sufficient opportunitiesfor rich literacy play.

New dramatic play areas provideunique opportunities for children tolearn new vocabulary words and sentencepatterns, as well as to practice manyvaluable print-related behaviors. Duringa unit on community helpers, thechildren took a fieldtrip to local busi-nesses, including a bank. The bank gavethe children outdated counter checks,blank deposit slips, and deposit books totake back to the center. This sparked agreat deal of spontaneous play, which ledto the creation of the bank center. Aftera day or so, noticing that the childrenweren’t using the deposit slips and

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Fall 200450 THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION

deposit books in their play, the teacherjoined their play for a brief period oftime to model their use. She picked up anold wallet with play money and wentover to the “bank teller” saying, “I wantto deposit this money into my bankaccount.” She pointed to the deposit slipsand books and explained that she neededto write on a deposit slip the amount ofmoney that she was giving the bank tokeep for her, and the bank teller couldthen give her a deposit book in which theamount of money she gave the bank hadbeen written. Still in the role of customerof the bank, the teacher completed hertransaction, thanked the bank teller, andleft the play area. This brief interactionserved as model for the other childrenwho then began to use these print-props,as well as the word “deposit,” in theirplay.

Observation of children at play in adramatic play area provides teachers withunique opportunities for assessment.These observations can be used to directthe teacher’s planned interventions, suchas the above-mentioned role-play withdeposit slips and books. They can also beused to gather informal assessmentinformation about individual children’slanguage and literacy use.

The children’s interest in even themost exciting theme-based dramatic playarea tends to decrease significantlywithin a few weeks. Therefore, dramaticplay areas should be rotated regularly.

If the teacher finds it necessary tospend an excessive amount of time in thedramatic play area just to keep play goingor if the children no longer seeminterested in playing in the area, it is timefor a new theme-based center.

With the exception, perhaps, of thehousekeeping area, which might be“spruced up” with a few new props everyfew weeks, most dramatic play areas runtheir course in about two to three weeks.At that point, place the print props andmaterials in a labeled container so thatthe items will be readily accessible laterduring the year when one or more of thechildren will remember the area and askfor it back!

Be on the lookout for themes fornew dramatic play areas. These are oftenrelated to units of study within theclassroom, such as the bank and postoffice themes that resulted from our uniton community helpers.

The best theme-related dramaticplay areas often grow out of thechildren’s spontaneous play. The teacherobserves the children at play and eithernotices the opportunity to introduce newprint props and vocabulary words orresponds to children’s requests forparticular props. If the play continuesand, perhaps even intensifies over thenext day or so, teachers should try todesignate an area of the room or play-ground for this particular dramatic playand add more props for children toexplore and use, such was the case with acastle dramatic play area that evolved inour preschool center. The children wereenjoying a number of fairytales, sparked,not surprisingly, by the release of a newDisney film, which almost all had seen.As the children’s requests for costumesand props increased, and as more

children participated, creating a castle touse as the primary setting for theirdramatic play became a focal point ofdiscussion among the children. We founda huge refrigerator box, and the childrensoon had their castle. As the castle tookshape, the teacher took advantage of theopportunity to introduce new wordsassociated with castles and life in medi-eval times ( for example, turret, dungeon,drawbridge, moat). Literacy relatedprops included markers and paper formaking “blueprints” and signs, envelopesand paper for writing notes and letters,art materials for drawing and paintingpictures to decorate the castle walls, andmany fairy tale books, as well as non-fiction books about castles.

Other popular theme-baseddramatic play areas and relatedprint propsKeeping in mind the criteria for selectingthemes for dramatic play areas and theneed to create centers based on children’sinterests and prior knowledge andexperiences, there are several themes thatare generally popular with most groupsof preschool children. These include, butare not limited to, the following: petstore, grocery store, veterinarian’s office,and pizza parlor. See the sidebar on thenext page for a list of print-related propsfor each of these, as well as those forcreating a post office, bank, and house-keeping center.

Fall 2004 CHILDREN AND FAMILIES 51THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION

Housekeeping area propsNewspaper advertisements

Note pads

Pencils

Pens

Magazines

Bedtime storybooks

Coupons

Telephone and telephonedirectories

Grocery store propsEmpty food containers and

plastic foods

Grocery bags with store logo

Posters or pictures of fooditems

Toy grocery basket

Aprons

Newspaper advertisements

Coupons

Cash register

Play money

Adding machine

Notepads

Pencils and pens

Store signs

Open/closed signs

Veterinarian office propsDisposable masks

Small stuffed animals

Pet carriers

Pictures of animals and ofveterinarians at work

Office signs

Open/closed signs

Magazines

Telephone

Telephone appointment book

Rubber gloves

Pet comb/brush

Scale

Thermometer

Clipboard

Pencils and pens

Eyedroppers

Bandages

Stethoscope

Hospital smock

Pizza parlor propsCoupons and advertisements

Empty pizza boxes and wheels

Pizza pans

Napkins with logos

Placements with logos

Straws

Aprons and hats

Plastic food

Large plastic jars with con-struction paper pizzaingredients (for example,shredded yellow and whitepaper for cheese, red circlesfor pepperoni, green stripsfor green peppers, browncircles for meatballs)

Play money

Cash register

Poster menus

Menus

Open/closed signs

Mop

Dishcloths

Sponges

Pet store propsSmall stuffed animals

Fish tank

Pet carriers

Posters or pictures of pets

Store sign

Open/closed signs

Telephone

Telephone directory

Pet care items for sale (forexample, a pet comb/brush,pet toys, empty pet foodcontainers)

Cash register

Play money

Bags

Bank propsOld checks and checkbooks

Deposit books

Deposit slips

Ink pads and stamps

Adding machine

Play money

Envelopes

Paper

Play stamps

Wallets/purses

Teller window

Credit card application forms

Wrapping it upAs Doris Bergen and Juliet Coscia explainin their book Brain Research and ChildhoodEducation, dramatic play enhances braindevelopment by providing young childrenwith opportunities to assume problem-solving and self-regulating roles. Whenchildren begin playing and engaging in

pretend-play with peers, our role asparents and teachers is to support thatplay. Using the ideas and suggestionsshared in this article to create theme-based dramatic play areas, you canprovide children with the support theyneed for their play, as well as for theirlanguage and literacy growth.

Kathy Barclay, Ed.D., was co-director of the HeadStart Emergent Literacy Project ELIPSS and ischair of the Department of Curriculum andInstruction at Western Illinois University, whereshe also teaches courses in emergent literacy andfamily and community involvement.

Post office propsMailbag

Cardboard mail organizer

Large cardboard U.S. Mail dropbox

Mail carrier coat and hat

Play stamps

Play money

Rubber stamps and ink pads

Telephone and Telephonedirectories

Adding machine

Envelopes

Paper

Postcard-size paper

Pens and pencils

Tape dispenser

Memo holder

Posters or pictures of postoffice workers and stamps