Play in a Childcare Setting

A question on the quiz sparked me to talk a little about play with preschoolers. The point was that boys will tend to play in groups and girls will tend to play in pairs. I enjoyed reading about the types of play in Chapter ten. I spend once a week observing 4 year olds for another class and have spent many hours observing in the past. I have witnessed many different types of play and found it very interesting that it was actually a fact that girls like to play in pairs and that boys prefer groups. I always notice at the childcare that the girls latch on to one friend and they spend most of the day together. Sometimes they will fight and say “You’re not my friend anymore.” They then usually just move on to another friend until they have decided to forgive the other friend. The boys seem to always like to play together especially in block center and on the computer. They seem to be taking part in cooperative play because they all take turns and converse with one another. Often times a big group of children (boys and girls) will be engaged in parallel play. I have observed this in the block center, sculpting play dough and putting together puzzles. They will all be building their own objects, and occasionally will speak to one another, but are not actually playing together. One little boy always engages in onlooker play. He will walk around to every center to see what everyone is doing. He usually doesn’t talk to anyone or partake in playing. He will just watch everyone until he finally finds something he wants to participate in. Another aspect that was covered is make-believe play. I usually refer to this as dramatic play and the kids I observe love it! It is called home center, but they have tons of dress up clothes, a kitchen, a bed, and much more. The kids love to put on dress up clothes and act grown up. They do things like play post office, make dinner, teach school, and even bake pretend cakes. I think that they get a lot out of it. They are also able to act out feelings and emotions that they may have about home life, better then they may be able to put in words or on paper. I am a firm believer in pretend play for both boys and girls!