Creative Family Fun

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Pretend Play

Let’s Pretend: Red Store

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Playing store is not only fun, it’s a great way to learn.

We learned about math, taking turns, and even colors when we opened up our Red Store.

It’s perfect for Valentine’s Day or any other day!

While we were setting up, I sent the girls all over the house looking for things that were red.

They found toys, books, blocks, piggy banks, ribbon, boxes, and more. Since we were setting up a red store, we were only going to sell red things.

It was as much fun to look for the red things as it was to actually play store.

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After we found everything, we set about making price tags, on red paper of course!

Instead of using dollar amounts, we used simple numbers. AJ (age 3 1/2) has been very interested in numbers and counting lately, so I wanted to keep this at her level. For example, if you wanted a red piggy bank, you would need 11 coins.

Lizzie (age 5 1/2) was even able to work on her addition by buying more than one thing at a time.

This was a perfect way to spend a cold and snowy afternoon with pretend play, Valentine’s Day, and math all rolled into one.

Now we just need to have a green store for St. Patrick’s Day!

Let’s Pretend: Police Station

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It’s important for young kids to have knowledge of different community helpers that serve their city.

We recently learned about police officers and the role they play in our city.

After reading a few books and talking about the different roles a police officer plays, I gave the girls a police station pretend play kit I had created. They had a sign, badges, and notebooks for writing tickets.

I was able to create everything from items already in our craft supplies and our recycle bin.

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To create the badges, I found some sturdy cardboard. I cut out both a star and a badge shape. I glued the star on top of the badge then covered the entire thing with aluminum foil. I traced around the star with a Sharpie to help it stand out more. I then taped it to a yarn necklace so the girls could hang their badges around their necks.

To create the notebooks, I cut a couple of extra squares of cardboard. I then attached some notebook paper I had cut to size with staples across the top.

To complete the set up, I provided pens, an old baby phone, old baby keys, and a couple of stuffed dogs to play the role of our K-9 helpers. Aren’t they cute?

To add an additional element to our play, I wrote out several scenarios of police cases for the girls to solve. Then play commenced.

Case # 85085: Abbie came to the police station to report a lost cat. You need to find it!

Oh my! A lost cat! The detectives were off. They grabbed their K-9’s and went to interview Abbie’s neighbors. You’ll be relieved to know that the cat was found… several times.

Here’s one of our lovely detectives with her K-9 that was helping sniff out clues to find several stolen boxes of candy from the grocery store.

Waiting by the phone, ready to go solve our next case!

I’ve provided a print-out of our police cases that we solved. You’re welcome to print these and use them for your own police station pretend play. Have fun!

Click here for the case files.

Let’s Pretend: Garden Center

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I decided to surprise my girls recently with a pretend play garden center.

All it took was a couple of dollars at the dollar store, some recycled items around the house, and a brand new batch of play dough.

After I presented it to them, they spent the next couple of days playing exclusively with their garden center. No other toys were needed!

I made a batch of play dough for the girls to use as dirt.

I used this recipe for chocolate play dough from NurtureStore since I already had all the ingredients I needed at home. It came together easily and smells wonderful.

The money I spent at the dollar store was for the flowers. I spent a few dollars on several bunches of flowers and then cut them apart into separate flowers. For just a few dollars we had plenty of flowers for our garden center.

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I made a few seed packets from construction paper, added some colorful craft sticks, a pile of glass marbles and several small cups to the garden center.

I also cut apart a couple of egg cartons so they had some 4-part containers just like you would find in a garden center.

The girls played and played.

They turned the glass beads into seeds and boy did those seeds grow fast.

They made flower arrangement after flower arrangement.

They turned a chair into a delivery truck and started delivering flowers to everyone they could think of. I can’t even count how many flower deliveries I received!

Their imaginations were running wild and I loved every minute of it.

For just a few dollars and a bit of effort I gave the girls a toy better than any you can find in a store. I know we’ll be doing this again and again.

How would your kids play with a pretend play garden center?

10 Ways to Explore Dramatic Play

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Dramatic play (or pretend play) provides many benefits to your child.

According to an article on Scholastic Parents, The Importance of Pretend Play, pretend play helps with cognitive development in such areas as social and emotional skills, language skills, and thinking skills.

And, in additional to all the wonderful benefits, dramatic play is something most kids enjoy!

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Here are ten ways to explore dramatic play:

1. Act out a book. Pick a familiar story and have kids act it out. My girls love to act out the Three Little Pigs. Ready, Set, Read provides a basket full of props to help act out classic fairy tales. She includes several examples of baskets she’s created.

2. Provide a fun pretend play set-up. I set up a snack bar for my girls to play with. We also set up a jewelry store. The possibilities for this sort of play are endless. Think about your child’s current interests. Do they love to help you in the kitchen? Then, set up a pretend-play kitchen area. Do they love to play doctor? Then, set up a hospital or a vet clinic. De Tout et de Rien has many good ideas for this. Check out their paper blood transfusion set-up. (Just a note, De Tout et de Rien is written in French, but please do not let that deter you. She has installed a translator for your benefit!)

3. Make puppets. Puppets are both fun to make and fun to play with. The Nature of Grace shows you how to make easy wooden spoon family puppets and even provides ideas for how to use them.

4. Play dress-up. It’s easy to lose yourself in dramatic play when you’re dressed for the part. You can find inexpensive items for dress-up at a thrift store or even go through your closet. There may be clothes hanging in there that you no longer wear, but would be perfect for dress-up play. Childhood Beckons wrote a wonderful post with plenty of ideas for dress-up items.

5. Combine sensory play and pretend play. It will make the pretend play seem just a bit more realistic! Use dirt and construction toys to bring a construction site to life. We brought in snow, made a few ice blocks and created an Antarctica scene.

6. Have fun with small world play. Help you kids set up a scene for small toys or dolls to play in. They can experience and learn with dramatic play on a small scale. Creative With Kids set up a pretend party scene for their monkeys in a barrel. At Home with Ali made a fun miniature campsite.

7. Use music. There are many songs that are perfect for acting out. Use a song with actions or one that tells a story. She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain is a favorite at our house. (Here’s a great video that shows the combination of singing plus actions for a fun dramatic play experience.) Encourage you’re children to sing, dance and do actions. Make sure you join in and have fun!

8. Make and use masks. It’s easy to pretend you’re someone or something else when you put on a mask. We love to make masks and and transformed ourselves into both tigers and panda bears. It’s always a fun way to spend a day.

9. Use blocks and loose parts to set the scene. Will your children build roads or a castle? Either way they’re setting up a scene that will provide hours of pretend play. Brick by Brick has many good examples of this. Here they made a zoo. And here they added tools to the block area to create a construction site experience.

10. Above all else, make it accessible and easy for your kids to enjoy dramatic play. Put the dress up clothes where your kids can get to them whenever it strikes their fancy. Have a box of loose parts always available so they can create and pretend. Childhood Beckons has a wonderful example of a dress-up corner that’s easy to put together and doesn’t take up much room.

*Bonus Activity: Go outside! My girls have so much fun with dramatic play outdoors. It’s so easy to grab a stick and turn it into a magic wand. They’ve traveled to the moon, through a forest, and even to a magical fairy-tale kingdom without even leaving our backyard.

What is your kid’s favorite form of dramatic play?

Pretend Play Jewelry Store

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We like to play “store” around our house, so in honor of Valentine’s Day, we set up a pretend play jewelry store.

But, before we could set up the store, we had to make our inventory.

We got out our bucket of beads, some string, and some pipe cleaners, and set to work making jewelry. We made necklaces, bracelets, and even a few rings.

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We went in search of anything we could find to make our store “fancy.”

We covered the coffee table with a pretty blanket and used a few pastel-colored bins as display cases.

I found a pretty mirror to display our tiara on and Lizzie decorated with flowers.

We made signs and price tags and made sure everything was set up perfectly.

And last, but not least, I found a few fabric bags and our cash register so the girls could pay for their treasures.

I think setting up the jewelry store was even more fun than playing with it!

Aren’t those rings beautiful? I know you want one for yourself!

Oftentimes, pretend play scenarios can be set up using nothing more than what you already have in your home.

No cash register? Use a box and make paper money

Don’t want a jewelry store? Get out all of your stuffed animals and have a pet store instead.

Or save old pasta and cereal boxes and have a grocery store.

The possibilities are endless!

Do your kids like to play “store”?