While doing my ten-hour observations at the Children's Development Research Center, I had the opportunity to create an activity for the students to participate in and it allowed them to engage in developmentally appropriate and stimulating experiences. The students I had ranged from the ages 3-4. It was hard to come up with something for children so young to participate in especially when there were so many children who performed at different levels. So I decided to just have them participate in the game "Simon Says". However, I had the children take turns in being "Simon" and instead of saying "Simon Says" the child would replace Simon with their name. .
I thought about all the different types of play that was covered by Hughes and wanted to incorporate at least two of them into the game. So I chose to use social play and imaginative play. During this game the children were able to communicate with one another, follow rules and work together collaboratively. When one child would call out a rule such as "Bradley says hug someone" the children would immediately find someone close by to hug. They each knew that they had to hug someone and worked together to make sure everyone had someone to hug. Another child would call out "Siri says pretend to be a monkey". This allowed the children to envision themselves as something else and use their imagination to create another world around them. There were so many ways that the different types of play could have been used in this game and that is why it was so beneficial. .
According to the Good Start Grow Smart Standards the children demonstrated initiative, engagement, and persistence in learning (AL3). The children were engaged throughout the entire activity and persistent when it came to following each rule in order to become the next Simon.
The children also were able to form healthy social relationships (SE4).
