Role Play Area

[Guest]

I am interested to know how people have their role play area set up?

 

For example, is it divided off from the main room using cupboards, etc?

Do you have bought cookers, etc, or do you use other resources that can be used for multi-purposes?

Whereabouts in the room is it - corner/side?

 

Also, how often do you change your role play area?

 

Thanks

[Deb]

We are very lucky in that last year we bought some lovely Community Playthings kitchen cupboards, cooker, fridge etc. These make up our 'home corner' which is enclosed within 'house' panels. The children, never seem to tire of the home corner and it stays up pretty much all the time. We then set up different role play in our carpeted areas or outside such as Doctors, Vets, Post Office, Garden Centre, Under the Water etc We have one or two children who can incorporate 'beds' into almost any role play! We are consciously trying to offer alternative role play scenarios (other than the house) more frequently.

 

We have one L shaped main room and access to outside/inside as required.

[Inge]

we too have cooker, washing machine, sink, dresser, microwave ( a real on with no plug cheaper than a play one!!!) etc, we inherited some of ours from the school reception as well as some we had ourselves.

 

we too have it set up most of the time behind play panels, and also set up addtional things on the carpet next to it. because of layout ours is central area between 2 rooms, sounds odd but it is the only suitable palce with carpet we can leave it, otherwise we would have to move it every day being in a hired hall.

 

we also have a computer in this area. It is an old donated one which works well and children come and go while playing in the role play area.

 

dressing up clothes are in an old wardrobe hung up on a low rail or in boxes at the bottom.

 

Inge

[Guest]

We have our home corner with cooker, washing machine, sink, table and chairs with doll's high chair and a bed big enough for the children to use. It is divided off with picket fencing and has an archway entrance. It is to one side and in a corner, long and narrow. This is permanently set up as a home corner. I went on a course once where the tutor said that if you only have room for one role play area then make sure it is a home corner as this is something every child can relate to.

We sometimes have other role play but it really depends on the children. This year our children are very imaginative and love playing at being dogs, cats, horses-last week outside they were birds flying around and eating worms. We have tried to encourage this by asking if they would like props and mostly they do, but as soon as we set up the area they change their minds and are not interested. So we have given up and just let them get on with it. If they want anything they ask.

Linda

[Guest]

We (a school nursery in Scotland with children aged 4-6) start the year off with a home corner and from there take it from the children e.g it was once a home corner but the 'burglars' got through the window so out came all the police stuff and before we knew it it was a police station and the climbing frame was the jail! It changes whenever the children are no longer using it with interest really. we have Community playthings furniture.

 

I much prefer to use the backs of cupboards/shelves for the 'walls' of my role play area - I feel it utilises the space in the classroom better. However in this nursery we have a 4 panel structure which was made by the local high school DT class so I feel obliged to use that It has been well made but is really not the shape/size I would want and only fits together in one design so has to go at the side of the room. It is 5/6 years old though and beginning to show signs of wear (hmmm might be my fault that ) so maybe I can reduce its use next year.

We do have other areas at times -e.g. a dinosaur den under a table, a tent for camping, a lifeboat using an inflatable dinghy, space rocket using the climbing frame etc

 

I LOVE role play :wacko: :rolleyes:

[Marion]

Have to confess our community playthings kitchen is in the shed simply because we felt it limited the role play. Our children always returned to 'mams and dads' type scenarios no matter whether it started out as the 3 bears kitchen or a restaurant . We find their imaginations are a better resource.

[rosepetal]

Hi Shelley,

We have a role play area set up at all times, it is at the end of the room on the carpet area and fits into a corner, we have house panels. It has been set up as a kitchen, home corner, post office, police station, Doctors surgery, baby unit, Chinese restaurant, hair dressers, this week it is being set up as a birthday party as there have been a few birthdays recently in my class, i will use this as a way of recording observations on the children for the Stepping Stone, using role play to act out real life experiences. We change the role play every few weeks to keep sustained interest, we had the baby unit when one of our mums was pregnant so it linked in with the child who would be having a new brother or sister. We set up an optician when one of the children were going tothe opticians. So sometimes we just think of an idea as to what we will make it into and sometimes it is child led.

We always have chart boards, paper and various writing materials in the role play.

If the children have a great interest in the role play area we will leave it set up in the particular theme for more than a few weeks.

 

Rosepetal

[rosepetal]

Hi Shelley,

Forgot to add, i am trying to get the nursery to keep resource boxes for the role play area, so it would be easy to say, we will set it up as a post office and all the resources are stored in a box labelled, post office, but due to limited storage space this has not yet happened, i tend to buy things and bring them in to the nursery then just keep them at home until needed again. We obviously do have some resources suitable for the role play area, but just the usual basic home corner equipment.

 

Rosepetal