Using our imaginations at Crawford
Imagination is the source of creativity and we certainly have an imaginative bunch here at Crawford Childcare. A recurring source of fun in the toddler room is pretending to be animals. The toddlers especially enjoy being cats!
Eilish really likes to crawl around the room telling everyone she meets that she is a cat. Robert and Amelie are usually the first to join in the game and we often have a whole room of toddler cats in a short space of time.
'Pussy cat pussy cat' is one of our favourite wind down songs in the toddler room. The toddlers will often lie down when they hear it and pretend to go to sleep.
We recently decorated our own cats using the toddler’s interest in cats to explore colour mixing. Sam, Conor and Aoife all used different colours while Rose chose to stick to the one. All the resulting cats were very individual and different from each other.
When children use their imagination they develop an understanding of how the world works. It provides them with opportunities to work out problems and explore solutions. Play allows a child to pretend to be anything or anyone they want to be in a safe non-threatening way.
Here in Crawford Childcare we promote imaginative play through dress up, sand play, kitchen tea parties, colouring and painting. Open ended resources such as cardboard boxes are great way to encourage imaginative play as well!