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Dramatic Play-Creative Arts: Ages 3-5

Source: State: Nebraska Department of Education
Topics: Early Years (Birth-5), Growing Your Child's Creativity, more...

Widely Held Expectations

  • Child participates in a variety of dramatic play activities
  • Uses words, actions and materials to portray a role, situation or setting
  • Engages in role play with two or more children
  • Child imagines and clearly describes characters, their relationships and their environment in dramatic play situations
  • Assumes the role of someone or something else, or talks language relevant to the assumed role

Learning in Action: Examples

The Child

  • Expresses creativity using puppetry, storytelling, dance, plays, pantomime and theater
  • Participates in discussions after attending a dramatic performance
  • Acts out a story read aloud during circle time
  • Talks to and plays with pretend friends, stuffed animals and other toys
  • Engages in role play in various activities such as dress-up, dramatic
    play, in the block area, etc.

The Adult

  • Provides opportunities for children to act out books, nursery rhymes and assume roles in other ways
  • Encourages children to tell and act out stories, stressing beginnings and endings to introduce sequencing
  • Participates with children in various forms of dramatic expression including those from other cultures

The Environment Includes

  • Field trips (to art events, concerts, dance and theatrical performances, cultural fairs, etc.)
  • A well equipped dramatic play center for active imaginative play with a variety of props (home-living, fire-restation, fast food restaurant, hospital, school, etc.)
  • Materials representing various cultures (flags, pictures,foods, dolls, books, clothes, music, toys, etc.)

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