To Bake a Cake
Cadence, Sidney and Freya love to role-play in the house corner. On this particular morning some containers of play-dough, usually only found in the 'kitchen room' were placed in the house corner. Cadence announced to her friends that it was the baby's birthday.
“We need to bake a cake for her. She's one!”
They were very excited to find the play-dough, a cake pan and a wooden spoon in the block room, where these things normally were not found!
“We will bake a rainbow cake!” Cadence decided.
Cadence and Sidney got straight to it. They spoke to each other about what they were doing. Cadence cracked in some pretend eggs. Sidney put in “the pink.” Cadence mixed in some blue and yellow.
Once the pan was full of batter, Sidney put it in the oven to bake.
Freya observed the two older girls but had her own idea of what she wanted to do, make cupcakes! She asked for some yellow and Cadence passed some over to her. Freya began to make cupcakes.
“Now we have to wash the dishes,” Cadence knew.
She asked for some water, real water. Her request was granted and the play sink was soon transformed into a real sink filled with soapy water fully equipped with a dish cloth.
Washing dishes had never been so much fun!
Soon the cake was done! It came out of the oven, “Be careful, it's hot!” Cadence warned.
Sidney set the baby up to feed her the birthday cake.
WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?
Dramatic play encourages learning and offers a wide range of benefits to children. Often dramatic play emerges out of everyday actions and events. As children observe what is going on around them they adapt and create new situations and events. These girls are exploring many concepts including; practicing fine motor skills, developing confidence in their ability to act and distinguish between fantasy and reality as well as expanding their communication skills. This play also permitted the children to imitate actions and behaviours in a safe way with realistic materials. These are all very important steps in the social and emotional development of young children. What's more, they had a blast!
