I scream, You scream, We all scream for Ice-cream! (Friday’s Journal)
Date: July 15, 2022
Theme: Ice-cream based Pretend Play
Facilitators: Jasmine, Sifat, Simran K, Simran J, Raveena
What did we do today?
Fridays generally have the theme of pretend play and under this umbrella goal, we had Ice-cream as our major element around which the play took place. Interesting themes can encourage a love for learning new skills. It's like, we tap into their natural curiosities and they get excited to explore more aspects associated with it.
Right from work time till the movie time (during sensory time) in the end, all activities revolved around ice-cream, it’s different shapes, sizes, flavors (colors) and myriad toppings/sprinkles over them. Ice-cream is a very familiar dessert that most of the kids enjoy eating and thus it seemed like the class enjoyed pretending to eat a flavored and sugary item today.
Why did we plan this day?
Brain development: It is believed that make-believe games are a great tool for a child's brain development. Also, it increases toddler’s associative fluency, as in they reenact their past experiences and creatively participates in the symbolic play.
Language Development: The arthlings got a chance to learn about different names, colors, sizes, numbers and shapes while engaging with the main element of Ice-cream. For instance, They were asked which flavor they wanted and they were given the options like strawberry, mango, watermelon, etc.
Development of abstract thoughts: Abstract thinking is the ability to understand concepts that are not directly tied to tangible items or experiences. By assuming that they are really eating the ice-cream or decorating it in real-time, the kids develop ways to classify objects and experiences.
Social skills: The toddlers were encouraged to wait for their turns while asking for the ice-cream in the parlor or popsicle stand. Even in the shape sticking segment, they were motivated to share the resources while sticking.
How did it go? (Finally!)
The whole day was connected through the theme and the arthlings seemed to shower their curiosity at the activity they engaged in. During the shape-sticking, Aaradhya, Atharv Gupta, Daksh, Kaira, Krishay, Aayansh and Ratujit participated. Aayansh was able to identify the shapes and the colors quite easily while Ratujit and Aaradhya were able to match the shapes and stick them with ease. During the pretend play, Felt balls were put over the paper cones to represent an ice-cream. Kids roamed around asking for their favorite flavors or sticking colorful stickers over them (pretending that stickers are ice-cream toppings). In the popsicle stand, fruits flavors were offered and they were able to relate with familiar fruit names, like watermelon, mango and guava. During Movie time, they seemed to connect with different flavors ‘Oswald’ was selling and the act of eating ice-cream which is “yum-yum” for the mouth and stomach. Overall, the kids engaged with the theme and we felt the sugar rush in our hearts.
