Children learn by playing. “Mothers and Daughters” for girls and “war games” for boys are classic role-playing games that reflected ideas about the activities of adults and their social roles in the second half of the 20th century until the 90s, that is, in the childhood of today’s grandmothers , grandfathers and parents. The new generation is growing up in a completely different era, which means the games must be appropriate.
Features of role-playing games for children of different ages
Elements of behavior that precede the appearance of role-playing games in everyday life and copy the actions of adults are observed in children at a very early age. Already at 1.5–2 years old, the baby tries to spoon-feed his toys, rock them, or sternly scold them in his incomprehensible language, shaking his index finger. After 3 years, according to experts, it is possible to fully play out various situations. The main goal of role-playing games is to instill in a child the skills of adequate social behavior, to prepare him for successful interaction with other members of society in certain conditions.
For children 3–4 years old
The partner for story games with a 3-year-old child is usually an adult. An option is possible when several children participate in the game under the supervision of a teacher, for example, in a kindergarten. A growing vocabulary and an increasing interest in communicating with peers is an excellent basis for group interactions within a given plot. Children learn to follow the logic of the game, understand cause-and-effect relationships (the doll was walking without a hat, got sick - it needs to be treated), and expand their horizons.
To conduct a productive lesson you need:
- prepare props - toys and other items necessary for a specific game that meet safety requirements;
- distribute roles between children, taking into account their desires and capabilities;
- prepare a scenario that will help to involve children in a gaming situation and interest them.
One of the features of early preschool age (3–4 years) is that not all children are ready to open up for communication. If a child prefers only to watch the game, do not force him to participate. He will definitely become interested and join the general process when he is psychologically ready for this. The duration of the lesson should not exceed 15-20 minutes: after this time, children get tired and their attention becomes dull.
Monitor the emotional situation in the group: help indecisive kids take part in the game, not allowing the most active ones to occupy the playing space.
For children 5–7 years old
Games for preschoolers of middle and older age are distinguished by the fact that children themselves take an active part in their technical preparation and development of the plot. They have already gained some experience by visiting shops, exhibitions, clinics, banks and other public places with their parents, models of which are used in the game. In a preschool setting, you can organize themed corners equipped with everything you need, for example, for playing hairdresser, atelier or car service.
Typically, by this time, children's interests are focused on activities specific to their gender. Girls love to play beauty salon, tea party with guests, fashion show, and boys love to play firefighters, builders, and policemen. In this way, they prepare for the future implementation of their gender roles. While encouraging both, we should not forget about the importance of playing together, which develops in children the ability to cooperate and respect each other.
If a boy wants to try sewing with a needle and thread, and a girl loves to roll cars and build walls from blocks, do not forbid them to do this, forcing them into stereotypical boundaries. Children are not created for games, but games are for children.
Construction of houses
Needless to say, how much children love to build things? And it doesn’t matter at all whether it’s an expensive construction set, wooden blocks left over after renovation, shoe boxes or an umbrella and a blanket - the process is always fascinating.
Although, as practice shows, unnecessary boxes or a covered chair usually win in popularity.
- A selection of hotels for family holidays
Constructors
In any home there will be small Lego pieces or a box with wooden towers, arches and blocks of different sizes.
For a bored child, offer to build a home for your favorite toy: a little man, a doll, a bear, etc. You can not limit yourself to just walls, but build simple furniture and celebrate the move.
Suitable for age: 5-8 years old.
Carton boxes
It happens that shoe boxes have accumulated or large packaging from household appliances has appeared. Then a house can be built for dolls (for boys - a garage or parking lot) or for a baby.
Such structures can be pasted over, painted, filled with furniture - in general, playing with them will captivate young architects and designers for more than one day.
Suitable for age: 6-10 years old.
Armchairs, blankets and umbrellas
The good old “housing” option, inexplicably of interest to all generations of children without exception. A blanket or blanket can be placed on the table, secured with books, it can be used to cover two chairs, or something similar can be built using a regular umbrella.
Fantasy begins to manifest itself instantly, and sofa pillows, blankets and other improvised means are used. True, after such a game you will have to spend some time cleaning.
Suitable for age: 4-8 years old.
Examples of games for children of different ages
Role-playing games for children must necessarily correspond to the spirit of the times. And if children at 3-4 years old are happy to feed and cradle toys, as many generations before them did, then at 5-6 years old children are interested in reproducing in a playful way those types of activities that they observe in the world of adults.
At the doctor
Healing toys and each other is one of children’s favorite pastimes; both 3-year-old children and pre-kindergarten students play “hospital”. The popularity of the game is based on the desire inherent in a person to show compassion and help his neighbor, and this desire must be encouraged. To play with a small child, 2–4 patient toys (dolls or animals) and a minimum set of medical instruments are enough:
- thermometer;
- stethoscope;
- syringe;
- bandage.
More complex devices, the purpose of which the child does not know, will confuse him, distracting him from the game, making it incomprehensible. Before treating a sick toy, you and your child need to feel sorry for it, stroke it, “calm it down,” and then praise it for its patience and courage.
Draw your child's attention to why this or that toy got sick (ate an unwashed apple, fell from a high swing) and how this could have been avoided.
Older children who have experience consciously visiting a clinic and pharmacy will be interested in understanding a large play medical set and dressing in a doctor’s or nurse’s uniform. To organize a full-fledged role-playing game on this topic, you need to get as close to reality as possible. The guys will be divided into two groups, one of which will contain medical workers of different specializations (ENT, ophthalmologist, dentist, nurse filling out the card), and the other will contain patients.
During the game the following goals are achieved:
- the rules of etiquette are learned - the patient needs to greet the doctor, talk about the problem, thank him for the help provided, and the health worker needs to listen carefully to the visitor and show concern;
- with the help of the teacher, children learn new terms (diagnosis, prescription, therapy, procedure) and learn to use them;
- By changing roles, participants have the opportunity to look at themselves from the outside, evaluate and improve their gaming skills, and therefore improve the culture of communication.
When planning to organize a medical corner in a preschool educational institution, ask the children to bring cardboard packages from home medicines or leaflets from pharmacies to use these materials to create a play display.
In zoo
For kids, this game primarily plays an educational role. To carry it out, you will need different toy animals, and the set of them can be changed from lesson to lesson, giving the child information in portions.
The essence of the game is to, while walking through the zoo, remember with your child everything he needs to know about this or that animal:
- what is it called;
- what sounds does it make?
- where it lives (on land or in water, whether it is domestic or wild).
The game needs to be made more complex as the child’s intelligence and horizons develop, adding new data about animals - what the adults and young are called, what they eat, and what benefits they bring to humans. The possibilities of the “zoo” plot allow you to diversify the game, adapting it to different goals. In addition to replenishing the treasury of knowledge, speech development occurs during classes and a caring attitude towards living nature is fostered.
Organizing a game with preschoolers of middle and older age requires the presence of a ticket office: in order to look at the animals, children receive a ticket with which they enter the zoo. The teacher takes on the role of a guide and leads visitors to the “cages”. Animals can be portrayed by the participants themselves, and in this case there are several options for the game:
- the rest of the guys must guess who is in front of them by the sounds and movements made by the “zoo inhabitant”;
- pantomime can be replaced by questions from players, for example: “Are you a predator?”, “Do you live in the forest?”, “Do you have horns?”;
- the child portraying the animal makes a riddle about it or immediately reveals it, and the rest, pretending to be tourists, take turns naming one feature or fact that they know about this animal, starting with the words: “Did you know that...”
Invite children to “take pictures” of the animals with toy or imaginary cameras, and at the end of the game, discuss which one they liked best and why.
In the shop
The theme of stores provides great opportunities for story-based and educational games. Children very often watch their parents make purchases, but due to their age they themselves cannot actively participate in this process. Therefore, both younger and older preschoolers enjoy recreating the store in a playful way. The difficulty of the game is easily adjusted according to the age group of the participants.
For children 3–4 years old, you need to select several toys, preferably from different categories (doll, car, pyramid) and place them on a shelf-counter. You can use candy wrappers or buttons as money. At this stage, it is important that the child understands the essence of the exchange and begins to get used to the formula of communication when making purchases, so at first an adult takes on the leading role of the seller:
- mutual greeting: “Hello! Welcome to our store!";
- the seller offers to choose a product: “What toy would you like to buy?”;
- the buyer makes a choice: “Kitten!”;
- the presenter announces the price: “A kitten costs two buttons”;
- The child counts out the required amount of “money” himself or with the help of an adult and takes the purchase.
Playing as a buyer, ask your child to tell you about the product, advise which one is better and why - this will help the child better get used to the role and will contribute to the development of speech and thinking.
For children 5–6 years old, you need to complicate the game. If children are still not confident with numbers, price tags can be made in the form of small cards, which will show 2-3 multi-colored geometric shapes, for example, a red triangle and a green circle. And as money, draw the same figures on pieces of paper, only separately. Some "bills" may also contain 2-3 elements, and then the seller will have to pick up the change. During the game, preschoolers will develop logical thinking.
To train speech and creative skills, you can give the seller the task of convincing the buyer to choose a certain item by talking about its advantages and possibilities of use. Such an exercise in a playful way will serve as the beginning of the economic education of children, making them think about the impact that advertising on TV has on them every day (the teacher should push them to this thought by drawing an appropriate parallel).
To stimulate children's imagination, show them an example - praise some unpopular toy so that they look at it in a new way.
As in the case of the hospital game, the children themselves can select attributes for the development of shopping-themed stories. They will do this with great enthusiasm if the task interests them, so the teacher should approach the gameplay creatively.
At school
Middle-aged and older preschoolers often hear that they need to prepare for entering school; some are already attending preparatory courses. Playing as a teacher and students will help children 5–7 years old to better imagine what awaits them in the future and try on new roles. Before starting, you need to talk with the guys about what they know about school, about the work of a teacher, and about how to behave.
To organize the game you will need:
- school board or its imitation;
- several desks (according to the number of children);
- writing and drawing supplies - chalk, notebooks, colored pencils.
First you need to decide on the subject. Let the children choose from the proposed list which lesson to teach: drawing, counting, alphabet, physical education, the world around them. During one gaming session, as a rule, only one plot is played out. After this, the “teacher,” whose role is played by the children themselves in turn, tells the “students” something about the chosen subject (for example, how to write the letter “a” or how winter differs from summer) and gives the others the task of writing the same thing in notebooks or answer questions orally.
To keep track of lessons taught and record the activity of participants, the teacher starts an unofficial journal. After each lesson, the children discuss what they liked or didn’t like about the game, evaluate the work of the “teacher,” and choose a topic and leader for the next lesson.
We are looking for talents
This is a game for children 6–7 years old, but it will also be useful for younger students. Gives experience in public speaking, develops creativity, fosters respect for comrades, and the ability to work in a team. You can do without additional equipment, but if you wish, children can use for performances:
- various costumes;
- improvised microphone;
- chairs for spectators;
- toy flowers (paper) or other prizes to encourage speakers.
The teacher announces that a concert is about to take place, and for it we urgently need artists who can sing a song, read a poem or dance. In a group of children there will definitely be several active children, whose example will help the more timid ones decide to perform next time. Collective performances are encouraged, the preparation of which will take some time - this will not be a spontaneous, but a planned game.
Tell the children that they can use the elements that they are rehearsing for the next matinee, especially if they need to be reinforced. And in order, on the contrary, to diversify the concert, remember the numbers popular in children's summer camps and help with the preparation.
The audience's task is to watch the concert carefully, encourage their comrades, applaud and give them flowers. If desired, you can enter a voting procedure and choose the best number. The teacher must come up with several categories so that each of the speakers receives recognition in one of them. This approach helps create a festive atmosphere, lifts the spirits of the participants, and encourages them to improve their creative skills.
