Meeting the Early Learning Goals Through Role Play

A Practical Guide for Teachers and Assistants

Marie Aldridge

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781843120360
• eBook ISBN: 9781134009053
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book offers step-by-step guidance to help busy practitioners create meaningful role play that will delight young children, enhance learning and link to the Early Learning Goals. The role play scenarios have been carefully created so that children can identify with them and will be excited and eager to join in. They give children the opportunity to play freely, to discover and develop at their own pace and to link directly to the Early Learning Goals and beyond. This Book shows practitioners exactly how to plan, organize and implement role play activities. The activities have been tried, tested and enjoyed in the busy nursery where the author works. The book also divides the play scenarios into the DfES stated area of learning (personal, social, emotional, communication, language and literacy, mathematical, knowledge of the world, creative and physical) allowing practitioners to choose activities to suit their needs. The book includes: step-by-step guidance; photographs and plans; a list of easily obtained and inexpensive play equipment; and a planning template for practitioners to develop their own ideas. It should prove useful to teachers and assistants from nursery classes up to key stage 1.

Transport and Journeys

Road, rail and air

Play situation

Create a vehicle (train, bus, aeroplane, car, lorry, bicycle, rocket or spaceship) in which children can go to various imaginary destinations of their choice. It will comprise the vehicle, numbered or coded seats, doorway, driving seat, steering wheel, controls, engine, windows, mechanics and support services: a ticket controller either in an office or travel agent's, or a conductor on a bus. The children will be able to buy tickets for a chosen destination, get on the vehicle, store their baggage and pretend to travel. There are numerous roles for the children to play within this scenario: drivers, passengers, mechanics or office staff, and they will begin to understand the factors that affect people even if they only go on a short journey. (See Tables 24-28.)

Introductory prompts

Why do we need to travel?

Where can I go to find out about travel?

Have any of them ever been on a journey? Where did they go? How did they travel there?

How do they travel to school?

How do they know where the vehicle is going?

Is the journey going to be long or short?

Where can you get food from when you travel?

What happens if the vehicle breaks down?

Possible roles

CAR OR LORRY OR BICYCLE: driver, rider, passengers, garage staff, mechanics, office staff, police and road safety personnel

TRAIN: train driver, guard, ticket collector, station ticket office person, cleaners, passengers and mechanics

BUS OR COACH: bus driver, passengers, bus conductor or officer selling tickets, mechanics, passengers and cleaners

AEROPLANE: pilot, flight crew, air steward and cabin crew, passengers, baggage controllers, checking and weighing-in staff, food controllers, arrivals officers, departure officers and mechanics

ROCKET OR SPACESHIP: space crew, astronauts, flight control, mechanics and scientists

Resources

Supply uniforms, hats, chairs, trolleys, luggage, tickets, brochures, timetables, office desk, writing tools, calendars, telephones, mobile phones, computer keyboard, VDU screen, stamper, money, tills, engine (construction kits), steering wheel, gear stick and pedals (construction kits), tools for mechanics, Brio and real tools, rolling white board for drawing props, control panel (batteries and bulbs), card, boxes, paint.

See Recommended reading for books about road, rail and air transport.

Potential learning opportunities

Personal, social and emotional development

The road, rail and air transport role-play scenarios will help the children to:

Disposition and attitude

• explore a new learning environment involved with transport projects with imagination, creativity, confidence, humour and persistence;
• initiate play, building on their own experiences of travel; begin to take a lead in the play and organise others;
• discuss their own play journeys with peers and adults confidently;

Self-confidence and self-esteem

• improve their confidence and begin to develop and be proud of their own personality;

Making relationships/behaviour/self-control

• express feelings and be sensitive to the needs of others;
• work cooperatively within a small group, showing respect, interest and care for others;
• share the role-play resources and space, take turns fairly, form queues and be polite;
• explore the need for their own simple rules within the area for safety reasons;
• play independently within the role-play area: buying tickets, finding seats, dealing with baggage and enjoying the journey;

Self-care

• select appropriate equipment for a task and use it sensibly and feel confident to ask for advice and help from peers and supporting adults if problems arise or equipment is not available;
• improve their dressing skills by tackling various types of clothes and fastenings when wearing costumes;

Sense of community

• be aware of the different transport systems that operate in their own local area and further afield;
• understand how transport systems have changed with time.

Communication, language and literacy

The road, rail and air transport role-play scenarios will help the children to:

Speaking, listening and communicating

• speak clearly and use appropriate body language to get attention, defend their own interests and to be understood by friends and family;
• develop questioning techniques (how, when, where and why) about where vehicles are travelling, how much the journey costs and the times involved; begin to use language as a means of communicating: giving simple
• instructions, explaining routes and directions, asking for help, expressing opinions and responding to aural stimuli from telephones, passengers' requests, computers and other equipment;
• share with the group what they have achieved through play;

Reading and linking sounds to letters

• develop a need to read and awareness of environmental print: posters, leaflets, tickets, maps, brochures, magazines and timetables;
• listen with interest to and read a selection of stories and non-fiction books, magazines and other class-made reading material about relevant transport and travel topics;
• retell some of the stories using drama as a tool remembering the main characters, sequence of events and key rhymes and chants;
• create real life stories which can be recorded in a format that the children choose: video, photograph, tape, picture or writing;

Writing

• develop their confidence and enjoyment of being able to write by experimenting with mark-making tools in the role-play area and writing their own and their friends' names on play documents;
• write using emergent, symbolic and conventional letter forms, postcards from various destinations, posters, leaflets and other advertising material using travel brochures and magazines to develop them;
• make zig-zag books to capture different stages of the children's imaginary journey.

Mathematical development

The road, rail and air transport role-play scenarios will help the children to:

Representation

• record information about the number of travellers on a given journey in pictorial and numerical forms (Which were the most popular seats and why? Which was the most popular destination?);

Sorting/matching/ordering

• sort and match tools used by mechanics according to shape, size and colour and place them in appropriately labelled boxes and on shelves;
• match one seat on a vehicle to one child with a correctly numbered, coloured or shaped ticket;

Number

• reco...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• House
• Health care
• Shops and services
• Transport and journeys
• Appendix: Tina Bruce's 12 features of play
• Recommended reading
• Bibliography