Literacy Spot #4: Playing School

Did you ever play school as a child?  Pretending to be the teacher in front of your ‘class’ of siblings, cousins or soft toy friends?  If you have a child starting preschool or kindergarten in the next few weeks, you might like to set up a pretend ‘classroom’ for their dramatic play.  This type of imaginative play provides a safe avenue for a child to express their emotions, thoughts and ideas about a new situation; in this case, aiding their emotional, social and language development as it pertains to starting school, both as the time to start approaches and as they settle into their new learning environment.

To set up your own playful ‘classroom’ reflect upon what you have seen in the classroom that your child is going into and use this as a basis for what you might include in your child’s playspace.  Here are a few literacy play resource idea to get you started;

  • A chalkboard and chalk or whiteboard and pens
  • Exercise book and pencils, ruler, eraser and sharpener in a pencil case
  • Alphabet chart, weather chart and/or calendar
  • Magnetic letters and magnet board
  • Picture books
  • Table and chairs and a small mat for the class to sit on

I would suggest collecting everything that you need and then setting up your classroom playspace with the help of your child.  Of course, you will most likely have to take a turn at playing student 🙂

What is Childhood 101′s Literacy Spot? It is a weekly reminder of the importance of young children learning playfully as each week I share one idea for playing around with literacy, taken from my many years working as an early childhood teacher.

Visit the previous Literacy Spot posts for more fun ideas for playing with literacy.

3 Comments

  1. My daughter starts kinder this year and I heard her playing with her 2 year old brother yesterday. They were actually playing at getting ready for school, using the play kitchen and packing their lunches and having breakfast before they walked to school (the chalkboard was in a different room to the kitchen). It was all self-initiated and such a wonderful way for them to play together!

    Thanks again for your great ideas and wonderful blog.

  2. Lauryn Burnett says:

    Christie, we have the same surname how weird is that? 😀

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