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The importance of role play

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There was great excitement in the house yesterday as our long awaited kitchen units finally arrived at BestStart Vivian Street!  Nga tamariki were involved in helping nga kaiako to set it up and choose a place for it to be in our whare.  

The addition of the kitchen units has helped to further develop the children's interest in role play.  Role play gives children the ability to take on a persona outside of their own, allowing them to engage in ways of being outside of their own personas. Role play gives children the ability to mix their home and centre lives, merging the two together as they act out what they know from each setting. 

In role play situations, children develop a wide set of skills. Social competency is developed as children take turns, negotiate, discuss and listen to each other's ideas.  Physical skills are developed as children dress their babies, and role play being bus drivers and fire fighters.  Children develop language skills as they practice talking "like Mum" or "like the doctor", they develop sets of rules and boundaries and interestingly enough, the children abide by these "rules of engagement" whilst they are playing.  Children also learn about respect for their environment, and the importance of looking after resources available to them so that they are able to enjoy them for a long time.

Most importantly, children have fun, smiling and laughing as they enjoy the various situations they find themselves in through their role playing.