Pretend play strengthens learning by involving many areas of development at the same time physical, social, emotional, math, music, language and literacy. Through pretend play with others the Brilliant Pandas learn how to take concrete physical experiences and move toward more abstract symbolic thinking, which includes creating mental images. Their literacy skills are developing, too, as they begin to use symbolic thinking and language to organize simple actions into more complicated sequences and pretend situations. This lesson highlights pretend play activities that engage many parts of children’s brains at the same time, offering opportunities for the Brilliant Pandas to learn and practice both concrete and abstract skills.
