Definition
Children take on a designated role. This may be a character, animal or plant, an object, a feeling of emotion, or even a phenomenon. It is useful to give the child prompts to think about them .
- ‘Who/what are you?’
- ‘How might your ‘character’ speak?’
- ‘How do you feel?’
- ‘How might you hold your body?’
- ‘What might you be thinking?’
- ‘What is their background?’ (‘Where do you live? What do you do? How old are you?’)
- ‘Where are you?’
- ‘What might you say?’
Role-play is improvised rather than scripted, allowing children to engage and interact spontaneously. With children new to role-play it is sometimes helpful to give them an introductory, scaffolded sentence to support them when going into role.
Purpose
- To prepare to write character descriptions
- To empathise with characters/situation
- To prepare to write direct speech which reveals character traits
- To practise explaining (For example a science concept, historical details or geographical information)
Example
Two children may go into role as two children who are sitting on a train on the way to the countryside, having been evacuated from a major city during a war. Two chairs are positioned next to each other to that the children are sitting side by side. The children will have previously been taught or researched about the the reason for evacuation in this context so they have enough understanding and information to draw upon in their role play.
Scaffold structure to share with the children to start of their role-play:
Child A: I cannot believe this is happening to us. I am so sad.
Child B: Me too. I forgot to pack my teddy bear too.
Child A: Where do you think…
