How does Pop Up Play Village support learning for different age groups?
Our play areas have been designed to be suitable for babies through to around the age of 8 years old. This is a large age range especially considering how much learning and development takes place in the first 8 years of life so you may be wondering how does this work?
What is amazing about role play is that children can access it and learn through it at different stages of their development. For example, a one year old might be developing an understanding of simple sentences, developing speech and playing alongside others whilst a two year old might be imitating everyday actions and events and developing their language and communication skills in their play. These are very different skills that they are developing and they are doing this using the same role play resources.
Let’s take a look at the older age band, the children that are of school age that attend our play sessions during the school holidays and the children that we work with in schools, what are they learning through role play? Role play gives these children the chance to learn about the world around them, not only learning about different roles and responsibilities but also how to communicate, express ideas and form good relationships with others. It gives them the chance to be creative and imaginative which are such important skills to have. Through role play, they can strengthen their reading, writing and phonics skills. We provide many opportunities to develop these skills within our play areas and through role play, it provides children with a purpose and a reason to read and write. The same applies for developing maths and problem solving skills. For example, children can be pricing up how much their shopping is going to cost in the supermarket, measuring their building in the construction site or dividing food equally in the café, these are just a few examples and a great way to develop maths skills in a fun, purposeful way.
To take a look at how role play supports children’s development in further detail, click on the link to view our learning through role play table which shows the learning that takes place in the different developmental stages. It is truly remarkable how much children learn through role play and being able to provide these valuable role play experiences is so very special.
