31 replies to this topic

[emmajess]

Since being quite ill before Christmas and not being quite myself again until just recently, the last couple of role play areas in my classroom have been a bit of a let down. They've been ones that have been successful in the past but that I haven't been able to put the usual 110% effort into this time!
Children have mostly gone into them and played mummies and daddies with the dolls - which is great, but I'd like to foster a bit more imaginative / complex play next time.

Just wondered what your most successful role play areas inside have been? My teaching assistant suggested a baby clinic, but I'm not overly excited about this one either - I think I need something that's going to really motivate and inspire everyone... including me!

[Cait]

Could you ask the children?

[acarder]

Im having the same problem, no matter what I put in the home corner, the children always revert to playing mummies and daddies after a couple of weeks. How can I inject more into my home corner? At the moment I have set it up as the 3 bears cottage with 3 different sized chairs and beautiful beds that were made for me by one of our parent governors. Ive also got the books in there with puppets to reenact the story with and real pooridge oats and bowls. What else can I do?

[Wendles]

can you have a 'home corner' and separate role play area? At the moment we have our usual home corner with lots of babies etc due to lots of siblings being born but also on the carpet we have a half tent and community play things blocks wher ethe chdlren are camping, they have gone to sydney and greece where it was hot but they were alos able to build igloo's (because of our recent snow falls)

[xfactorlover]

hi ya the best role play areas that i ahev had are: superhero gym and superhero in general, traditional tales- jack and the beanstalk, castle and 3 bears house, three pigs building site. children love them i normally get my ideas from the children so you should just ask them! x x x

[biccy]

Best one recently was a shape pizza palour

[mustangsally]

We're doing a picnic area which was inspired by the children as they kept taking all the plates out of the kitchen and setting them up in the book corner to have a picnic! We've got a camoflage net to drape over the top and we are in the process of painting a tree to stick on the wall to give it a forest feel. We have managed to get hold of small picnic hampers with plates etc in for the children and we have a huge roll of imitation grass to lay on top of the mats.

[jellytots]

I have had the same problem recently. However, we have found that by introducing more 'props' and resources this has made the children's play far more imaginative and prompted lots of interesting discussions between the children. We have now included a basket full of various glasses for the children to wear, disposable cameras that have been used, little briefcases, waistcoats, diaries, old mobile phones etc etc so it really is more like 'real life' for the children. One little boy actually said 'Im just like daddy going to work and for the rest of the week has worn the same waistcoat into nursery with an old mobile phone!! Daddy has gone to work and so has he!!! It really made us chuckle.

So, it might not be so much as changing your home corner but adapting it, making it more exciting.

Hope that helps!

Jellytots

[chumpychop]

I like you try to have different role play areas and have tried lots.
We have done the Deep dark wood from the gruffalo - using lots of green material,paper trees on walls,logs and twipgs picked u from local woods,furry hedgehogs,rabbits, frogs,birds etc we also used this to read the stroy to small groups which they loved.
We have also done an argos- good for number recognition picked up pens and tickets from local argos ,laminated bays a-d ,argos books etc.

Baby clinic, doctors,chinese restaurant,post office,beach shop,vets,ice cream parlor,florist( this then got extended byy the children to a wedding as one of the childrens mums worked in one so showed them how to make bouquets.
St Georges day - we made a castle with turrets and covered all plates cupe etc in tin foil and made a fire(not a real one!!) to cook on and made maidens hats, and shields from old cardboard and ye youve guessed it tin foil.

Garden Centre Jungle .

[Lorna]

My role play corner before half term was an aeroplane. An old cardboard box... with cardboard wings, dials and controls made by the children. Classroom chairs in rows behind to be the passenger part of the plane. Holidat brouchers to develop ideas and discussion. This was inspired by our topic on transport and the visit of two Captains from different airlines.

Next I will start with a baby clinic as lots of baby play atm and also topic on growing.

L

[Mrsb]

Just before half term thr role play area turned into 'arctic corner' the home corner is just as it sounds!!!!
However, like many it appears from reading the posts, if the childrens interest continues as before we are going to change the role play area into a baby clinic or something along those lines!

[fingertips]

Since being quite ill before Christmas and not being quite myself again until just recently, the last couple of role play areas in my classroom have been a bit of a let down. They've been ones that have been successful in the past but that I haven't been able to put the usual 110% effort into this time!
Children have mostly gone into them and played mummies and daddies with the dolls - which is great, but I'd like to foster a bit more imaginative / complex play next time.

Just wondered what your most successful role play areas inside have been? My teaching assistant suggested a baby clinic, but I'm not overly excited about this one either - I think I need something that's going to really motivate and inspire everyone... including me!

Hi there!

I am a deep admirer of Diane Rich's message (2002) that children explore the world and their place in it by 'storying' in their play and how, by 'catching children's stories' we can tune into their needs, what they want to find out, what worries them and what they are interested in. In this tradition, similarly to Cait who suggested asking them for ideas; I would suggest observing them to see what themes emerge and using those to inform your planning and provision. Learn from what you see and hear. As Rich said "those themes children choose for play and storying may not be those that adults choose" and it is true that our ideas for a stimulating role-play area may not be theirs!

I have taken this approach with my Nursery children for a couple of years now and our role play area has taken on a whole new dimension. It has become known as the 'Whatever you want it to be Place'; in recent weeks it has been a hospital, monster den, Rapunzel's tower and Winnie the Pooh's thinking spot - all from 'catching' ideas from the children as they played. In recognition that their play ideas are highly valued they even offer up ideas "I know, we could ... and we need ..." We write down their plans for play, the resources, the first 'players' and even produce little books with photographs of the stories (or imaginative scenarios) which unfold there. It's worth a try!

Fingertips

[HelenP]

On of the children's favourite role play areas has been a garage. A parent donated a child's pushbike that they didn't want any more and the children spent ages trying to take it apart. I brought in lots of my husband's spanners etc and drew round them on a large sheet of paper which we stuck on to a "work bench" so that the children could check they had them all at the end of the session and ordered them according to size. Overalls were essential as bits of the bike were oily. The idea came from the Ginn star science book for the reception class; there were lots of ideas for role play areas in the topic book

Helen

[JacquieL]

I think that the most important way forward with role-play is to involve the children. Whether it is a child initiated, or an adult initiated theme, the children should be planning and helping to set it up. I find that if they are fully involved at every stage then their interest is likely to be sustained. They don't necessarily 'go' where we want them to go with it. As with anything else there are times when adults need to play alongside the children, and other times when the children need to be left to develop it for themselves.

[chumpychop]

Totally agree!.
We had a hairdressers once and spent ages setting up.
Then when the children went into it they turned it into a beauty salon doing waxing!!!!! nails etc. they ended up using old till rolls as wax strips and paint brushes as pretend nail varnish. the children got so much more out of it and so did we by overhearing a conversation about bikini waxing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Even though we try and change ours every week not everything is sucessful. You can spend ages setting up and the children just arn,t interested