The Magic of Our Play Kitchen

After our interest in mud took us into the world of cooking, the children have been displaying more of an interest in all things food. Naturally, they have been exploring this interest, and in the process, doing so much learning and growing. The interest in food and cooking really gained its footing with the arrival of our new play kitchen. Initially, most of their cooking-related play had been happening outdoors in the mud kitchen. This type of play revolved mainly around the sensorial aspects of mud, water, and sunshine, which has of course proven to be incredibly valuable for them. When the new play kitchen inspired them to take their cooking play indoors, however, we were able to see so many doors opening into new, more advanced types of play. Suddenly, the children were working together like never before. In the absence of the squishy mud (which, of course, always remains available to them if they so choose to return), they’ve found greater focus on the imaginative and collaborative aspects of their play.

As I mentioned in my most recent update, I prefer to leave play food out of my classroom settings and instead see what the children are capable of imagining without imposing limits. Adjacent to our play kitchen is a shelf full of loose parts. We have baskets and jars of shells, gems, corks and bottlecaps, beads, etc. and every single item on this shelf is currently being used by the children every single day. Each time our children use one of these objects to represent another object (for example, pretending a bowl of gems is a bowl of soup), they are actively building and strengthening the neural pathways that allow for representational thought. We rely on these pathways on our academic journeys in particular because they are the same ones, for instance, that allow us to understand that letters represent sounds, or numerals represent quantity. Similarly, we also use these pathways to route the important ideas that a frown means someone is sad, a smile means they’re happy, and a wave means “hello,” helping us also become skilled in both communication and empathy. I’m proud to provide our children with an environment in which they are immersed in opportunities to practice and repeat symbolic representation in their play. We know that this repetition actively strengthens these neural pathways, and the stronger they are, the more potential our children have for future success in all walks of life.

In addition to their impressive and developing representational abilities, we’ve seen a lot more emerging Collaborative Play lately (sometimes also referred to as Cooperative or Social Play). This type of play is something that typically becomes much more common around age 4, and is widely considered to be the most advanced Stage of Play in young children. Our children have been practicing this type of play daily. In our play kitchen, the children are able to assign or assume different roles within a larger game of pretend play. We often hear one child requesting that another child cook a specific food, for instance, and a favorite phrase over the past couple of weeks has been, “I want to be the cooker!” Berkeley has been frequently suggesting that everyone join in the game, “restaurant sleepover,” Ronin has often been assuming the role of “the cooker,” and Dominic will often approach others with a pot full of loose parts, explain, “I cook it,” and demonstrate that he’d like you to smell or “taste” his creation. It’s not uncommon to see each and every member of our class working together to order, cook, transport, and eat pretend food in our classroom kitchen and it’s truly a sight to behold. Our little ones are seizing their opportunities and embracing their environment to move methodically through the mastery of these important developmental stages. I couldn’t be more proud or more excited for them.