A Family's Role in Developing Creative Drama at Home

Family and environmental factors contribute to the development and nurturance of creative drama in young children.  Caregivers should provide a less restrictive home play environment in order to encourage creative drama in the home.  It is important to include equipment, toys, and materials that stimulate creative, make-believe play.  The following toys and materials are considered to be especially useful when engaging in creative drama at home.

• Blocks of various shapes, sizes and colors
• Culturally accurate dolls and equipment needed to play with during role-play
• Water and sand tables
• Variety of costumes, appropriate for both boys and girls without being stereotypical
• Puppets and homemade puppet stages
• Areas in the home where children can play with real objects, such as hammers and pegs, screwdrivers and screws, cash registers and real money, chalk and chalkboards
• Art supplies including paints, clay, homemade clay, paper, scissors, markers, glue, crayons, glitter
• Real musical instruments

All of the toys listed promote creativity when children are encouraged to explore and discover the properties of these toys for themselves.  Children can use the materials included in the list in a variety of ways related to creative drama (Ellermeyer, 1993).