The toddlers have recently taken a great interest in our babies in the classroom.
Educator Gerri provided them initially with small diapers in order for them to explore. The children immediately took to this and began taking on and off the diapers pretending to change them.
“Ewww! My baby is poopy,” Abigail says as she wrinkles her nose with disgust. “I need to change her diaper,” she says as she takes the ‘old diaper’ off, pretending to wipe the baby’s bottom before placing a new diaper on.
As a provocation for this interest, Shrishti provided the sensory bin with water, bubbles, babies and wash cloths. The children quickly gathered around saying things like, “My baby is so dirty,” or “My baby is stinky,” and began washing the babies all over.
The following week Gerri brought in small baby clothes. This gave opportunity for the children to begin to choose specific outfits to dress the babies in. Leah took to the reindeer sleeper saying this was her favourite as she began dressing her baby.
Nolan chose the pants and got to work getting the pants on the legs of the baby.
The children then began to role play, first placing blankets on the dolls then on each other.
The children that would pretend to be the babies would lie down on the pillows and pretend to cry, while the children who played the mommies and daddies would cover the children and rub or pat their backs to console and show empathy towards them. The children role playing the mommies and daddies would ask questions like, “Baby are you ok?” and then wait for the babies to nod yes or no. They also asked questions such as “Are you cold?” and then once again waited for a yes or no nod as a response.
This role play provided us a chance to see that the children knew that babies can only cry to get their wants and needs met, therefore knowing that this was how they needed to communicate, which was evident with this role play activity.
Toddlers playing with babies and dolls involves learning such as social skills through role playing.
Children learn how to care for and nurture the baby dolls as well as each other. Washing the babies helps them be aware of their own body parts as well as others, learning also about self-care. Empathy is developed through the taking care of the babies as well as others. Role playing was shown through deciding who would be the baby and who would be the parents.
Fine motor skills are developed through the dressing, changing and washing of the babies.
Children copy what they observe in their surroundings and playing with baby dolls allows them to imitate and make sense of their world and everyday life experiences .
We will continue to provide additional provocations and experiences involving care for the dolls and each other.
