CATEGORIES OF ACTIVITIES
This page contains a list of the categories of Play for Success activities. Click on a category to go to a page containing a list of all the activities to be found in that category.
Let's Pretend Person 
This category is character related. It involves recognition of familiar people. Children try on a role. They experiment with self as other. This category involves integrating memory images, imagination images, and personal knowledge of self. It includes verbalization skills, interaction with a leader., development of a story line, and conflict, resolution.
This category is prop and place related. We provide the props and children go to the place suggested by the prop and play there. The props stimulate recall of memory images upon which children can act, and also spark creation of imagination images. Place is merely the central aspect. In this place, children use props in novel ways, practice fluency skills, and learn flexibility as they interact with the play leader.
These activities focus on the development of kinesthetic memory and imagination and on acquiring physical skills such as coordination and balance. We believe that the internal physical maps are laid down early and children can develop physical ways of knowing very early in life.
In this category are two types of activities that make use of art materials. One is the "traditional" art activity in which children make art pieces with interesting materials. But this activity has an added twist--the discussion before, during, and after focuses on important imagery and creativity skills (like flexibility) and tasks (like asking kids to say what a paint blob reminds them of). The second set of art-related activities focuses on using an art activity to stimulate some other type of activity. This activity may be story writing, or it may be acting out a character. So, the activities are twofold--one to stimulate art-making and two to use the project to stimulate something else.
This category of activities capitalizes on the children's sense of adventure. There are two types of stimulating materials for activities in this category. We either ask children to collect the materials within the activity itself, ie the focus is on looking for and collecting the materials in a particular category or for the purpose of making a product or developing a story or a drama. The other type of adventure/journey category of activities features props that are novel or original, ones that children might have never seen or seen only in books or movies, but have never actually been able to handle and play with in real life. We find that some of these materials are extraordinarily stimulating.
This set of activities focuses on the magical potential of the mind. These activities capitalize on children's sense of wonder and love for what is magical and make believe. Everyday objects become flying carpets, magic potions, magic wands and children learn how to help themselves achieve their best through magic words.
Listening skills are the focus of these activities. Children learn to listen, repeat, modify, and attach meaning to sounds. Activities expand to include rhythm and melody objectives and children ultimate create music in their heads and music for others to hear.
Early activities in this category include sensory ones in which children learn to exercise all their senses, particularly those of touch, taste, and smell (which have not been the focus in any of the other categories of activities.
The final set of activities help play leaders diagnose what accomplishments children have made. Structured to be used many times, these activities help leaders find out just how creative, observant, and imaginative their children have become.