Making Believe

One thing we have loved doing since September in our classroom is dressing up and pretending. On Monday, I noticed that the friends were once again pretending to be patients, doctors and nurses in clinics and hospitals. So Tuesday morning, we cleared our housewares out to make room for medical supplies. The students have since been doing some serious work of playing pretend. The scenarios have involved many groups of children often playing with friends they hadn't necessarily gravitated to before. We believe that this sort of make-believe play not only strengthens bonds and friendships, but also self-regulation skills and self-control, creative thinking, planning and organizing skills, and language and communication skills, among other things.