Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Aesthetic & Physical Development Chapter 9
CREATIVE DRAMATICS
Creative dramatics and fantasy play emerge as soon as
children begin to play. “Creative dramatics is defined as the
youngster’s ability to improvise and act out feelings, emotions
and attitudes creatively and expressively, using verbal actions
and/or motoric movements” (Yawkey, 1981).
A 2-year-old child will use one object to
represent another, or behave as if she or he were
another person. At about 3 years of age, children begin
to perform in ways that have a theme, or take on the
roles of significant people in their lives. Their play is
with actions and words, and social interactions develop
with others. At around 4 to 5 years of age, dramatic play
becomes highly complex and self-directed. A story may
even emerge within their dramatic endeavors (Wagner
and Heathcote, 1976).
Creative dramatics is typically integrated within
other curriculums to provide children with a way of
expressing their thoughts and feelings, rather than for
performance.
Suggested Experiences
Role Play. This is an informal acting out of a situation,
problem, story or scene. The teacher is often the leader
in role play; setting the stage, initiating ideas, setting
limits and guiding the discussion.
Finger Plays. These are most familiar to early childhood
teachers and include songs, chants and rhymes that are
recited and acted out.
Story Building and Storytelling. Storytelling is common
for children in everyday life. As children’s stories are
heard they develop a repertoire of vocabulary and ideas
to communicate with others. By using his or her own
story, each child’s voice is honored and reinforced, leading
to increased self-esteem and risk-taking. Elaboration by
parents, teachers and other children continues to build
on creative thinking and problem solving.
Puppetry. Many of the benefits gained in role-playing
are offered through puppetry, except that the child
is talking or acting through the puppets. Puppets
encourage expression of ideas and provide an
opportunity to observe and evaluate the behavior of
the others in a variety of roles. Children are naturally
attracted to puppets, and enjoy thinking that the puppet
may, in fact, be real!
Best Practices
Early childhood educators are urged to consider
the following best practice recommendations in the
discipline of creative dramatics.
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MUSIC
• Provide time for children to play in settings
with costumes, masks or puppets.
• Create a story by passing it around the
circle, with everyone adding one part of the
story. Encourage a beginning, middle and
end. Write the story on big chart paper or
sentence strips. Write each part on a page of
the “book” and then encourage children to
illustrate the story.
• Collect and organize for easy use a
collection of fingerplays like Five Little
Monkeys, Going on a Bear Hunt, I Know an
Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, and Ten in
the Bed. Play music while you are reciting
the rhyme, encouraging the children to
“act out” the words. Ask the children to
recall the beginning, middle and end of the
fingerplay.
• Create play opportunities out of large
cardboard boxes. Provide materials for the
children to paint and decorate the boxes
to make them into a store, a spaceship, a
house, etc.
• Using puppets, dramatize situations
where rules are broken or friends disagree.
Encourage the children to decide how to
resolve the situations.
• From time to time change the items in the
dramatic play area. Consider just having
hats or scarves to encourage different
ideas.
• Use drama yourself in reading or during
circle time or transitions. Let the children
see how much fun “acting” can be.
• Provide classroom space that is open
and has materials that are open ended
and flexible, such as blocks, scarves and
cardboard boxes.
Making music provides children with opportunities
to express their feelings, investigate rhythm, develop
an understanding of their bodies in space, explore
movement and strength, and experience concepts such
as loud and soft, fast and slow, and high and low. Musical
experiences provide arenas for children to connect with
their own bodies and with their peers. Music can be
used to soothe, excite and interpret feelings. Music
and movement can foster the development of listening
skills, promote oral language, strengthen auditory
discrimination, and provide countless opportunities for
problem solving. Music and movement go hand in hand
in early childhood classrooms. Young children need to
be “hands-on” as well as “minds-on”.