This past week, our dramatic play area has transformed in to a Doctors' Office. It has felt very relevant given the recent cold and flu season! Thank you, Thanh and Rebecca for lending us some exciting supplies!
Conversations convey the children's understanding and experiences about their bodies and visiting the Doctor. For example:
On Tuesday, the afternoon class was very interested in the idea of being a Doctor for a patient with a baby in their tummy. This made for a very interesting afternoon sharing knowledge and ideas about how to care for a pregnant patient and a baby! Ever resourceful, we imagined that the duck stuffed animal was the baby and Jenn was the Mommy. If your child came home on Tuesday discussing Jenn being pregnant, I can assure you that it was only for the purpose of the play house! Even more interesting conversations resulted from these interactions:
Conversations convey the children's understanding and experiences about their bodies and visiting the Doctor. For example:
- " Oh no! There's a spider in your ear!" Jenn hands the child the tweezers and says, "When someone has something stuck in their body, the doctor can use tweezers to pull it out." The child gives it a try. "Okay, it's gone now, but maybe in your mouth now instead. Let's check!"
- "Here is some ginger. It will help your sore tummy."
- "Oh no. You have an injury in your tummy. Sorry, I just can't help you. Or we will try a needle. Be brave!"
- "So, here's your medicine to take home [the child hands Jenn two bottles]. Take this one after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This one you can just take when you need it."
- "Papa wasn't eating healthy foods. Just candies. So his heart got dirty. The Doctor has to take some of Papa's blood out, right?"
- "I have no patient right now so I am just making sure that the bed is all healthy!"
On Tuesday, the afternoon class was very interested in the idea of being a Doctor for a patient with a baby in their tummy. This made for a very interesting afternoon sharing knowledge and ideas about how to care for a pregnant patient and a baby! Ever resourceful, we imagined that the duck stuffed animal was the baby and Jenn was the Mommy. If your child came home on Tuesday discussing Jenn being pregnant, I can assure you that it was only for the purpose of the play house! Even more interesting conversations resulted from these interactions:
- "Jenn, how are you feeling?"
"Well, there is a baby in my tummy, so I would like you to make sure that I am healthy and the baby is healthy."
"Okay, so you feel miserable?" - "My Mommy went to sleep and the Doctor used a little knife to get the baby out."
- [When the baby was born] Jenn asks, "Is it a boy or girl?" The child responds, "It's a duck!"
- "Your tummy is burping and coughing and hiccuping. It's the baby."
- "It's a boy! 100 lbs!"
- "Let's use an X-Ray to see the babies!" [Jenn explains that we don't have a real X-Ray, but we can use our imagination to pretend]. The child responds, "A Doctor needs an X-Ray! Jenn, you can't just pretend, it's serious!