Thinking 'inside' the box!

Thinking 'inside' the box!

Role-play can take many different forms and serve as many purposes. As well as feeding the imagination and encouraging empathy, it is a powerful way of developing social skills.

Last week, after the fruit was delivered, there were a pile of boxes left at the office, waiting to be taken out to the recycling bins. As we walked past them on the way back from PE, Tyler asked if he could take one down to the classroom. This quickly caught on and we ended up bringing all 7 empty boxes down to the classroom- where they took on a life of their own!

Suddenly, the children were robots; snails; in boats caught at sea. They became cosy beds and secret hideaways and created not only hours of role play but days of fun. The children built on ideas, developed their language and worked together to create something bigger and better than just an empty fruit box!

                                  

But imaginative play is more than children having fun- it plays a crucial part in their intellectual and social development. The ability to make one thing stand for another, to picture things that are not there, are critical features in the growth of both thought and language.

These children really are learning through play!