Help me give my students Dramatic Play toys so that they can learn and play.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Smirk's classroom raised $668
This project is fully funded
My Students
Our school is in the heart of Brooklyn, NY. It is a brand new school with a load of potential. The school includes students from pre-k to kindergarten, and it is a melting pot of children from all around the world. PS 938 is in a high poverty area, and about ninety-five percent of the students in the school receive free lunch. There are fifteen, energetic, three and four-year-old children in my class but there are not a lot of funds to enrich these students' education because of the budget cuts. Although our families give us support, they can't always help out financially.
My Project
A child’s pretend play in classrooms is often considered fun and imaginative, but with limited educational value. The truth is, in the midst of creating a restaurant together, clomping around in grown-up shoes, or twirling around with friends in a fairytale land, children are learning to solve problems, coordinate, cooperate, and think flexibly. Imagine the skills required to turn the sandbox into a dinosaur bone excavation site!
While playing with the pretend food, plates and the toys my students will develop important complex social and higher order thinking skills.
Pretend play is much more than simple play activities; it requires advanced thinking strategies, communication, and social skills. Through pretend play, children learn to do things like negotiate, consider others’ perspectives, transfer knowledge from one situation to another, delay gratification, balance their own ideas with others, develop a plan and act on it, explore symbolism, express and listen to thoughts and ideas, assign tasks and roles, and synthesize different information and ideas.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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