Doctor & Hospital Dramatic Play Activities for Preschoolers:
Hospitals and doctors’ offices can be the worst fear for some children. One reason is the simple fact that a hospital or doctors office is not a common place for most children to visit.
Setting up a preschool dramatic play center such as this can help preschool children become familiar with some of the tools and other objects they may see if and when they visit a hospital or doctors office.
Some children who do need a lot of medical attention in their early years of life will be much more familiar with these doctor offices and hospitals, and thus can be a great asset when setting up this type of play center.
For this type of “theme” you won’t need as many props as some of the other dramatic play activities you have programmed for, but the pre k children are going to get the same experience and even more out of this one.
Some preschool children will be facing and even overcoming an emotion as they engage in this doctor/hospital dramatic play activity, and that emotion is a big one: FEAR. This is a good way to get preschoolers to relax about doctors and look to them as friendly community workers that are here to help you over come illness and keep you healthy.
Starting Your Doctor Dramatic Play Activity:
Items to add:
- 1-2 children’s first aid kits,
- white dress shirts or child sized doctor coats,
- face masks,
- tensor bandages,
- small cot with white sheet and pillow,
- tissue box (empty or full),
- prescription pad with pencils, or just a small pad of blank paper,
- calendar,
- clock,
- telephone,
- real pictures found on the web of doctors, doctors offices, kids at the doctors etc. (Don’t forget to laminate or MACtac the pictures so you can use them for years to come).
- If you can find one, you can even add in a laptop that doesn’t work anymore or one that someone is getting rid of that the children can plug in and just press buttons. Even if it doesn’t work you can still add in a laptop.
A very neat idea you can do with the pictures you hang on the wall is print or take a picture from your house of a view looking out of a window.
You can put the picture up so it looks like they are looking out of a real window and make a small area like a waiting room with chairs, magazines, and the window view.
Audio:
You can search for songs about health, children’s exercise, keeping active, even songs about feeling sick. You may even find hospital sounds and noises on a cd to set the mood of the dramatic play activity.
Remember to download them all to one CD, label it, and keep it for future use.
Extended Doctor/Hospital Dramatic Play Activity Ideas:
You can add real life picture books in the library center so the children can look at the pictures and become familiar with doctor/hospital experiences and what it looks like.
This is also a great subject to talk to the children about during circle time. Listen to what the children are saying about this topic because their greatest interests/concerns will come out in what they say, whether it’s a question or a comment about it.