Click the link to view the full version: WASCZ丨Outdoor Role-Play
As we all know children learn so much from outdoor play. It is crucially important that children have access to outdoor activities daily, especially in early childhood. Playing indoors seems to be an easy option as we don’t need to worry about the weather conditions or risk factors and it is always easy to manage. However, there are so many benefits for taking indoor activities outdoors and offering children more opportunities to release their energy and give them the space to express themselves. The outdoors provides a refreshingly change in their daily routine.
There are many ways in which children learn, but one of the most important is through pretend play — also known as socio-dramatic play or role-play. Role-play is not just for one corner of a classroom; it should permeate many activities and topics.
Role-play in the natural environment is a great opportunity to inspire imagination and it will become one of children’s favourite areas where they can act out experiences, ideas and stories with their friends and teachers. The children enjoy every minute of being there and are keen to dress up, using costumes, props and masks. This imitate real-life characters or scenes to enhance mutual understanding and friendship through interaction and performance.
The purpose of outdoor cosplay is to provide a relaxed and enjoyable environment where children can show their creativity and imagination in an informal atmosphere. The children express themselves through pretend play and they use a lot of language and storytelling skills to create a shared scenario.
Over the last few days, I have noticed that a group of girls having a strong passion for playing characters from fairy tales such as Snow White, Cinderella, etc. They have been talking about different characters, what the films are about, and discussing their favourite part in each film. The boys anve been keen to play roles in different professions such as doctors, police officers, firefighters, etc., as well as acting their favourite superheroes like Spider-Man.
There are so many interesting conservation that I have heard during the role-play time, and it helps to develop children’s social skills as they cooperate, communicate and look after each other as well as being responsible for the materials and environment. The children are getting more confident while building up relationships, no matter who they are and where they come from.
Our children have been so busy running around with their costumes on the grass, you can always see their beautiful smiles while they chase their friends and make cool poses, gestures and moves. As teachers, we should extend this in the outdoor play space as it’s so much fun when we have the sun and wind on our back, trees and branches swaying overhead and pieces of nature to collect and add to our props basket.
The children can also be a whole lot louder and busier outdoors. They will often show us the roles, experiences and interests they would like to explore further, and give all the teachers great ideas of how to further improve our teaching strategies according to their current interests. Let’s enjoy the sun, the rain and the freedom of being outdoors!
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