Devondaisy Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 Hello everyone. I would really appreciate some advice on dressing-up please. In my setting we have loads and loads of dressing-up clothes which have all been donated by parents. So we have 3 or 4 spidermen outfits, also superman, loads of fairy princess type dresses etc. These are available evryday as part of our continuous provision, but I'm starting to wonder if there really is a place for them.There are certain children who spend the best part of every session dressed as a princess or spiderman. This does not lead on to any specific role play, just so and so dressed as spiderman, on a bike or whatever he normally does. I'm not sure what is irritating me about this, as the children must get something out of it or they wouldn't do it, but I'm so tempted to hide all the dressing up clothes away tomorrow and see how long it is before they ask for them. Last week some children put on fluorescent jackets and hard hats in the garden, as they were digging the road (complete with pencils behind their ears!) This makes sense, but princesses and spiderman don't. Am I being unreasonable? I'm also fed up with picking them up and putting them back on the hangers every day!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvermakeup Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 Hello everyone. I would really appreciate some advice on dressing-up please. In my setting we have loads and loads of dressing-up clothes which have all been donated by parents. So we have 3 or 4 spidermen outfits, also superman, loads of fairy princess type dresses etc. These are available evryday as part of our continuous provision, but I'm starting to wonder if there really is a place for them.There are certain children who spend the best part of every session dressed as a princess or spiderman. This does not lead on to any specific role play, just so and so dressed as spiderman, on a bike or whatever he normally does. I'm not sure what is irritating me about this, as the children must get something out of it or they wouldn't do it, but I'm so tempted to hide all the dressing up clothes away tomorrow and see how long it is before they ask for them. Last week some children put on fluorescent jackets and hard hats in the garden, as they were digging the road (complete with pencils behind their ears!) This makes sense, but princesses and spiderman don't. Am I being unreasonable? I'm also fed up with picking them up and putting them back on the hangers every day!! We have this problem in our setting too, will be interesting to see what sort of responses you get! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 we had someone steal ours recently .... no not really but the arguments were getting out of hand so we thought we would mix it up a bit! then a ransom note appeared at pre-school which the children had to reply to....then there were several letters ...with clues in each of course.This went on for a week or so and ended with a treasure box arriving as a gift from the wicked queen who stole them.. to say sorry of course! what was fascinating was the fact the boys were very forgiving and said the queen could borrow the dresses but the gils wanted them back immediately ...the children are still talking about it and if anything goes missing they go on a hunt! on a practical point we are unable to have all the dressing up stuff out so only have a selection ...police with the police station, fire with the fire etc etc! although i favour just material which can be used in a much more open way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 we had someone steal ours recently I love this idea! I'm very interested in why children choose dressing up - especially those who just like to wear the princess dress or spiderman outfit but whose play or activities do not seem to be influenced by their choice of outfit. Do they dress up just to be comfortable? Or are they more confident to do things when dressed up as someone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devondaisy Posted November 22, 2010 Author Share Posted November 22, 2010 Finleysmaid, that's brilliant! Perhaps I need a bit more imagination! HappyMaz, that's what I'm questionning really. I don't want to take away something which has value for the children, but I just don't see the point of this kind of dressing up. I would like more imaginative resources to be used, but hey, the childrn have their own ideas! I'd be interested to know if any other settings use these kind of dressing up clothes, and how they feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie-pops Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Well I suppose in it's simplest form the fact that they like them and make an active choice to put them on probably means there is some value in providing them. I expect someone with more theoretical knowledge than me will probably be able to fathom why they are intrinsically bad but ours enjoy them and they are quite good at providing opportunities for fine motor skills (fastenings etc) and self help skills (dressing and undressing) and sometimes can be the thing which the child chooses to talk about or share their experiences, or helps them to focus their creative play, so I personally wouldn't be adverse to using them, whilst remembering to provide less 'fixed purpose' items such as fabrics, old curtains hats and bags etc alongside these. I certainly wouldn't worry about them just wearing them where it makes sense to us as adults, e.g. only wearing the princess dress in the role play castle etc I think it would be a very sad day if we told them that Woody from Toy Story can't get on the bus to town or that princesses don't play in the sand pit!! However, they are generally hideous things made of vile shiny material so I can understand why any sane adult wouldn't want to touch (or provide) them with a barge pole! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 let them have them, we have ,they maybe spidermen or fairies but it is using their imagination, extending their vocab, improving social skills as well as loads more 2 girls today dressed as fairies with their bag of 'stuff' off on holiday to disney in paris, they bought tickets, they became tourists and we looked at the globe to see where paris was?? need i say more does it matter in the whole scheme of things fairies this term, dressed in a sari next Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suebear Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Afraid ours live in the cupboard and get rotated round like the rest of the resources or earlier if a child asks for them. Had them out this week as had a clothes shop role play but not the week before. I find like everything else they get used more creatively when outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 I know what you mean, the children seem to do the same at our setting. How about a Christmas holiday theme? Then give them various suitcases and get in some PSRN about shapes and fitting stuff into the cases. Then create a Santa's sledge to travel on with their cases. In theory this is my 1,000th post, I couldn't get past 999 in the lounge!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) well congratulations to you! Our children do the same, they put a dress on when they arrive and then run off to do their play. We do insist, if possible, that they are whisked off before they go to the toilet, but otherwise we let them ''fire away'. As Maz suggests, perhaps they feel they can be someone else and are thus able to part from Mum more 'bravely' Edited November 24, 2010 by Cait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Looking round my preschool, I'm pretty sure the children are expressing their own ideas and choices of what to wear, when I see 2 little girls preferring to wear spiderman & superman and I think about the 'girls'' clothes they always come in wearing, and the boys wearing snow white's dress or school dresses... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 absolutely mine are into cross dressing too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenfinch Posted November 25, 2010 Share Posted November 25, 2010 I'm really interested in this thread and am agreeing with many of the posts.. I was doing a load of shopping yesterday and couldn't help but notice all the supermarkets swamped with costumes etc and it made me wonder... we have all these in our setting and the children love them (we have lots of cross dressing too etc!) but it did make me think, as so many of them have all this at home I know this to be the case- perhaps we should be more creative and use more material and props etc and let the children decide WHAT their costume is more often rather than have these out... Does anyone ONLY use material etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 28, 2010 Share Posted November 28, 2010 we have both on over unfortunately they like the ready made currently, the material get used tho for dens and blankets for dogs and cats, spread out on the floor for a house etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted November 28, 2010 Share Posted November 28, 2010 we have both on over unfortunately they like the ready made currently, the material get used tho for dens and blankets for dogs and cats, spread out on the floor for a house etc Same here. Had some lovely work the other day on problem solving - how to get the material to stay on the table so they could have it draped over the edge of a table to make the den, how many children can fit under it, how grumpy can one little girl be that someone else has dared to wear the snow-white dress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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