Down on the Farm - Dramatic Play

If there was ever any doubt, last week assured me that when children play, they learn.  

We have been learning about Farms all month at school.  Our students love this unit, and have lots of background knowledge and interest in farms.  Most of the time, I set up large, complex dramatic play centers to go with each unit.  I had every intention to do the same this month, but life just got in the way.  (Tell me I'm not the only one this happens to!)  Between Mother's Day crafts and parties, my own kids' sports, and general spring fever, it just never got put together the way I had imagined it.  But what the students created on their own was even better than my wildest imagination!

Our class created their own farm.  It started with the kids asking to get all of the farm stuffed animals down from the cabinets.  They put all of the water animals together on some blue blocks, for water.

They very quickly decided to expand it to a big duck pond.  They flipped the table upside down and added blue blocks to the perimeter to make sure none of the ducks got out!

Another student got some brown paper from our art easel to make a pig pen.  She threw in a banana-- "pig food"!

In the end, each group of animals had their own enclosure.  Here are the sheep.

Then they took their pretend play to the next level.  One of the kiddos had the idea that the farmers needed to buy wood to build fences for the other animals.  A few students went into our block center to open a Home Depot!  They made signs at the writing center and set up the blocks for sale.

The icing on the cake was the Bake Sale that this student opened up in front of the Home Depot.  Genius!

There are so many things that I love about this spontaneous play.  All of my students were working together.  They had assigned roles, different jobs, and various areas set up around the room.  They were talking to each other, problem solving, and making negotiations.  They used their literacy skills to make a direction sign to the farm and store front for the Home Depot.  Their math skills came into play as they filled their pockets up with funny money for the store.

These are the moments that I am sure that we have done well in preschool.  We have fostered their natural inclinations for play and they are, without a doubt, ready to go to kindergarten.  A bittersweet time at the end of the year, and I couldn't be more proud of them.