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Imaginary Play
Our little friend Misa developed a fascination with our New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, during our Covid-19 Lockdown. As a family, Misa enjoyed watching the 1pm daily conference to see and hear Jacinda speaks and she even shared with her mum that she wanted to be Prime Minister when she grows up. ''I love people, I want to talk to the people'' she explained.
Taking this on board when working towards Misa's Individual learning goal 'using imagination to be creative and expressive' the teacher has been taking this opportunity to weave the theme into her play at the centre.
The teacher invited Misa to play Prime Minister with her and asked her how they could make a TV, they had a look around for resources together and came up with the screen. As soon as it was set up, she confidently went behind the screen and the teacher sat with an audience to watch her. Misa the Prime Minister had lots of notes to write, so she fetched herself paper and a pencil from the art trolley and took to it. The teacher provoked Misa's imagination by asking questions like ''How is everything today Prime Minister?'' ''What do we need to do to keep us safe?'' Misa informed the teacher and friends to ''always wash hands''.
Through imaginary play intentionally initiated by Kaiako, Misa is making connections between her home and centre life which aim to support her settling back into the centre since the Lockdown time at home. Alongside, these open-ended questions are a great strategy to nurture Misa's imagination and creative thinking. It is noticeable that with regular opportunities for this type of play Misa is becoming more confident to express herself both verbally and through the choices she makes, like selecting her own resources!