Airport Dramatic Play Centre

A few weeks ago, one little boy in our class began using the modelling clay set out and created an airplane. After a few minutes, I noticed that he was concentrating and thinking about his creation.

He asked me if we could get a book on airplanes to help with his design. We went to the library and found a few books. That afternoon, he spent much time tweaking his airplane, being sure to choose colours with care and add detail, just like the ones he noticed in the book.

This student was very interested in making his airplane fly.

A.C.: It won't fly! It's too heavy!

So I asked him if he had ever seen or made a paper airplane. We went over to the computer and researched how to create paper airplanes and then he got to work creating his own!

Another student was interested in making paper airplanes and together, these two friends went into the hallway to test them out and see how far they would fly!

This sparked other students to talk about their upcoming March Break vacations and how they would be taking a plane to get there. Several students suggested we turn our Dramatic Centre into an airplane or airport. I asked the students if they had ever been to the airport before...and so we brainstormed many things we experienced when travelling.

We talked about what a passport was, how important it is, and what it looked like by showing pictures on the Bright Links board. We also learned that many important documents, including our passports, require us to sign our name, or signature, and I showed the students how I wrote my signature.

They all wanted to try and sign their name in a "fancy" way too!

The students began moving the chairs around in a formation you would find on an airplane. I showed them how to label each seat with a number as you would find on your airline ticket.

We had a Travel Agent who could help us book our trip and fill out the airline ticket.

Since we learned about metal detectors at airports to help keep us safe, we used out metal hanging rack from our Fashion Inquiry as our metal detector. We even had security making sure everyone went through before boarding the plane!

We had a special guest parent come in today who is a travel agent!

The students were so excited to hear all about what Mrs. M does!

She even brought us a few things including a small plane that we had to build and put together.

We had so much fun with this!

Mrs. M.'s husband, a graphic designer, created these realistic passports for us...so some students got to work gluing in a picture of themselves and signing their name.
Aren't these amazing! They look so real!

We learned that as a travel agent, you need to have access to a computer so that you can reserve trips for clients. So one student felt that it was important to create a computer for our travel agent in our Dramatic Play Centre.

Today's visitor inspired other students to draw and write about their vacations.

E.P.: I went to Jamaica a long time ago.

Of course we had students looking through all of the books on airplanes and drawing and asking questions about them!

Here is our travel agent looking through a brochure, waiting for clients to book a trip with her.

I put up a list of important vocabulary pertaining to the airport dramatic play centre, as I noticed many students wanting to write about their March Break travels.

S.B.: Flight attendants use carts to carry the food up and down the aisle. We need a cart too!

So we used our medical cart from our Doctor's Office dramatic play centre so that our flight attendants would be able to serve food to the passengers.