by Angel Avery-Wright
Dramatic play areas are often very popular with children. Children can dress up, cook dinner, take care of a baby, serve food at a restaurant, or take the cat to the vet. Materials that enhance dramatic play are plentiful. Dolls, plastic food and dishes, appliances such as a refrigerator and stove, tables and chairs, and many more items fit in the dramatic play area.
Dramatic play is also one of the easiest and sometimes overlooked areas to include lots of diversity.
Play clothes, for example, can include gender-specific items like ties and jackets for boys and skirts and purses for girls. Cultural clothes can be added in different ways. Mexican skirts, Japanese kimonos, and African print robes are one way, but you could also have a contrast of hats. Sombreros from Mexico, rice hats from China, and bowlers from England are additional dress up items that incorporate diversity. Including eyeglasses without the glass can also add diversity in abilities to the dramatic play area.
Play food comes in many forms. Breads from around the world are one popular set that can be purchased but you can add your own ideas of diverse foods. Save empty boxes from pasta, rice dishes, or bakery items that show how different cultures make their meals. Don’t forget about the dishes too. Americans traditionally use forks and spoons, but other cultures may use different items including chopsticks, a wok, or wooden bowls.
Take-out menus from various restaurants depicting different cultural foods are a free way to add diversity. Not only can you get these menus for free, but they are also easy to replace when torn or frayed. You can even laminate them to last longer. Think about the take-out restaurants near you. Chinese, American, Mexican, and Italian food may be obvious choices, but keep an eye out for Thai, Korean, Ethiopian, French, Colombian, Indian, and others. The great thing about diverse menus is they also include prices, which is a great way to include math in dramatic play.
Recipe books can be added to a shelf in dramatic play. Dollar stores often have small, simple recipe books and sometimes they include cultural recipe books. Even just a few books about different foods can add diversity. If you can’t find a recipe book, make one. Collect recipes (possibly from your staff or families) and make a recipe book that shows different cultural foods. Find magazine photos to add to it if you can. One idea is to make a breakfast book. Find out what your families serve as a traditional breakfast. An American breakfast of bacon, toast and eggs might look very different than a French breakfast of the same thing.
Items that are displayed in dramatic play can show age, abilities, race, culture, and gender. Some examples include photos such as a photo of a grandma holding a young child (age), a family that includes parents of two different races (race), and a child with Down syndrome (ability). Make paper frames for them so they look like photos children may see at home. You can include many items besides photos that would also represent diversity such as a German baking dish, a Colombian straw basket, an African animal mask, or a holiday tree from another culture.
