Dramatic Play in our Curriculum

"The importance of dramatic/imaginative play in our curriculum"

The children in Pre-School One are building interests under the topic of dramatic play.

Recently they have engaged in the make believe worlds of "Witches" (informal enactment drama), "Pirates" (informal enactment drama) , the 'The Three little Pigs" (story/interpretive drama) and currently today "The Marriage of Sam and Taylor" (informal enactment drama).

"Enactment occurs when children adopt the actions, feelings, thoughts, and behaviours of people in particular situations. This ability emerges at about age 3, and signals the child's developing imagination" (Isenburg & Jalongo, 2006).

Enactment is potentially the most powerful kind of learning, because children can....

• assume roles


• create dialogue


• feel emotions


• use their bodies


• make decisions


• use past and present knowledge


• take turns


• see others points of view


• listen to others ideas


• stimulates new oral language and literacy learning


• become confident in speaking/acting in front of groups


• entertain!

"Sam and Taylor's Wedding"

Today Sam and Taylor had an impromptu wedding.

Both children wanted to be dressed appropriately for their wedding, so each drew a picture of what they envisaged their wedding day attire to look like.



They set to work sketching the design for their bridal clothes, each producing a very personal and unique plan. Sam's featured special details such as a red corsage, scarf and head band, while Taylor's clothes emphasised multi colours featuring small flowers on the front of her traditional white wedding dress. The designs then went to the dress maker (our very own talented teacher Alex) and just like that the two lovers were off down the isle....soooooo please watch this live video of the marriage of Sam & Taylor...and how they celebrated their marriage with a ........

The Three Little Pigs - Designed, Acted and Narrated by Pre-School One

It's amazing how children still love those traditional stories such as "Three Billy Goats Gruff", "The Three Little Pigs", Hansel & Gretel and even Pinocchio. Recently, Pre-School One showed an interest in not only listening to these old favourites, but a desire to enact them.
This is known as "story or interpretive drama", interpreting someone Else's ideas and words. First came the enactment of 'Three Billy Goats Gruff" which was performed during our music class with Sarah. Sarah provided the props.
However for the enactment of "The Three Little Pigs" the children wanted to create their own props (most children had never done this). So they enthusiastically engaged in the creative painting of 'the house of straw', 'the house of sticks', and of course the 'house of bricks'. The house of bricks produced some fabulous and unique brick designs as seen in the top collage of pictures. Then there were the piggy masks and Taylor's inimitable wolf mask! Poor Taylor spent a lot of time in the soup pot. Taylor actually got lodged in it, so decided she may as well stay there through out the three cast changes ! Thanks for being such a great sport Taylor and for not complaining about having your bottom stuck in a pot!


You will see 'informal drama' and 'story drama' a great deal in our classroom. This type of play offers "purposeful ways to develop children's oral language, literacy understanding, recall skills, verbal and nonverbal communication" (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2006) and most importantly, and I'm sure you will agree, a significant means of supporting your children's learning is through SELF-CONFIDENCE! I cannot express this enough, both as a teacher and parent.

By Simone Taylor

Tuesday 24 August 2010