Research indicates that children learn best in an environment which allows them to explore, discover and play. Play allows children to use their creativity and develop their imagination, dexterity and physical, cognitive and emotional strength. It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact with the world around them. Throughout their play experiences, children are talking, laughing, reading, writing, building, dancing singing and most of all they will be pretending-pretending to be a builder, an engineer, a shopkeeper, a hairdresser, learning from one another and showing us all how competent they are and what they have learned about the world around them. For this reason, Vygotsky tells us that in play the child is a head taller than him/herself.
We had so much fun learning through play last month, concentrating on our Hospital theme. We all became nurses, doctors, surgeons, radiologist and patients and had some extremely ill patients come through our doors of St.Joseph’s Hospital!
