My students need pretend play toys, such as kitchen and housekeeping play. Role playing provides opportunities for social interactions, language skill development, and self help skills! Imitating what they see their parents doing is highly motivating!
My classroom is a special education program. Children have a variety of needs and are receiving a variety of services. These range from OT, to PT, to SLP, to developmental therapy. We work on building skills in the developmental domains: self help, social, cognitive, motor, and communication.
Many children in my classroom demonstrate delays in cognition, communication and social skills.
These children need opportunities to play with appropriate play materials that stimulate learning and social interactions with teachers and peers.
My Project
Have you ever watched a child put on dress up clothes and pretend to cook a meal in play kitchen? Or pretend to catch a fish next to a pop-up tent? While it brings joy to watch this, have you also considered what all they learn from play? Play is how a child learns in all areas of development! When they play with dress up toys and clothes, don't think "they are just playing." They are learning to be successful in their work, developing their personalities, and preparing for their futures. They are acting out roles they see adults play and making sense of the world through play. Additionally it is an opportunity to practice self help skills, social skills, and conversational skills through role playing. We are requesting pretend play toys for the kitchen and for housekeeping play.
My goal as a teacher is to create play opportunities that are inviting, welcoming, and interesting to students so they can practice building their skills in multiple developmental domains.
We are asking for a variety of pretend play materials that will enhance our different thematic dress up areas, giving the children more materials in which to learn.
The materials are intended to be motivating to the children. Many of these children work on meeting their IEP goals while they play in the dress up area. Help our preschoolers learn!
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