Start with early childhood development, engage your child’s imagination at Itty Bitty City

With the recent announcement of Sci-Port: Louisiana’s Science Center’s plan to expand on the Center’s Children’s Gallery – essentially building a museum within a museum – early childhood development has been at the top of my mind.

The new children’s museum, called Itty Bitty City, will be tailored to Sci- Port’s smallest learners: those through age 7. The space will provide an ageappropriate, informal educational experience allowing them to literally grow up with Sci-Port.

A unique feature to the coming museum is its design; the city incorporates all-things Louisiana. With a daily parade, crawfish costumes and overhead B-52, visitors of Itty Bitty City will know they’re in a Louisiana children’s museum.

A cafe, farm, medical center, vet clinic, bank and other city entities all honing in on our region’s culture will sit on the second floor of Sci-Port with each area focusing heavily on improvisational play.

Obviously, a child’s imagination is endless, making the the act of improvising a seemingly natural occurrence.

But let’s face it: Not all children in a preschool classroom shine during playtime. Sometimes it takes a little push for children to become interested in an activity and, as a result, develop new skills.

This is where improvisational play comes in. As a critical component for early childhood development, it is improv that creatively and playfully helps young learners develop social skills.

To facilitate this type of play, you may tell a small group of children to work together to make a scene; this scene is successful by each player accepting and building on one another’s storyline. Having the players sit in a circle while passing around a small object so that it’s clear whose turn it is to talk lays the foundation for a collective storytelling experience. Each player acts as creators, giving each a role in developing the performance.

The idea behind this storytelling activity is the basis of all improv activity. Plus, with each sentence beginning with the words, “Yes, and,” the focus is on the story and not each child’s performance.

But not all children will be open to the activity; for the child who rarely or never speaks, Mirror, Mirror is an improv game that doesn’t require speaking.

Mirror, Mirror can be played with two children or with three. The rules are short and sweet:

Copy one another and use only nonsense words. One player might jump, make a face or a silly noise. The other player copies the first, and so on and so forth, allowing the children to respond to one another socially without relying on language.

There’s also improv during dramatic play, which allows the children playing to take on whatever role they choose to be (even if that means the same one each time). With no one child being assigned a certain role or behavior, this enables the players to learn to work together in an encouraging environment.

For each of these types of improvisational play, keep these tips in mind:

• Set aside time each day to have a play group.

• Establish small play groups that include children with different strengths and needs.

• Provide open-ended materials for children to incorporate in nontraditional ways.

• Develop key phrases that designate play time as a time to get better at playing together.

• Ask open-ended questions. • It’s also important to keep in mind the children’s perspective and the environment. For the latter, keep note of which materials enhance and extend the play. What type of ideas do you see and hear the children exploring based on their surroundings?

For more on the topic of improvisational play, visit the website of the National Association for the Education of Young Children at naeyc. org.

Then, come fall of 2015, visit the Itty Bitty City at Sci-Port with your budding scientist, and prepare to witness a spark of curiosity.