Taking pretend play outdoors can encourage children to explore dramatic play in a whole new way. Here we created an outdoor tree swing for baby and a slide. My little one pushed her baby doll in the stroller over to her “pretend park”. She fed baby, pushed her on the swing and helped her down […]
So we made some bow and arrows the other day which you can read about here. After awhile of shooting arrows, the children took the bows apart and started using them as batons pretending to march in parades and do dance moves. I love when toys take on new roles. Well, this morning the toy […]
Do you have mazes, worksheets or maybe pretend pages from GrowingPlay? Check out these ideas to make some simple alternatives using wipe off markers and cheap supplies from the office store instead of lamination or loads of color printing. When we tested them all out, we found the binder slant board and the report book […]
Combining pretend play with sensory exploration is loads of fun. We love to add pretend props to mix up sensory activities. Today, the dried beans were “cooked” on the cardboard stove top and mini bean muffins were “baked” inside the oven. As children get older they can expand their play repertoire and you can help by adding […]
Recent research from the University of California Berkeley indicated that children who were better at pretend play were better at thinking about different possibilities. By imagining the way things will work, children try to predict if what they are doing will work. Then when done pretending they can compare their results to real life experiences. […]
Print these two free fun pages to play pretend laundromat. This is a functional pretend play activity. A child can work on sorting and counting laundry while using their imagination to open up a “laundromat”. You can download the pages at GrowingPlay. This activity encourages: pretend play imagination literacy math skills writing skills functional skills […]
Children love to play pretend birthday party. To start off this pretend party we needed to make the birthday “cupcakes”. I set out a tray with some play dough, cut up straws, beads, cotton balls and cupcake liners. After rolling the cupcakes into balls, we placed them into the cupcake liners and they were ready […]
Here is a simple pretend play idea – animal rescue. The kids pretended to open an animal rescue center. The first step was to arrange a veterinarian visit for the rescued animals. Then mini habitats were created for shelter while they healed before releasing them back into the wild. This was a nice learning experience […]
This is a great way to make pretend foam swords. I made these years ago for my son’s birthday party and they still get tons of play time. Now I know you can buy foam swords in the dollar store but they are not nearly as good as these. These homemade swords are much longer, […]
If your children enjoy playing doll house or any type of pretend play with figures you have to check out this website where the creator offers loads a tiny accessories to print and create. The creating part is definitely for adult fingers. It is tedious to work with such small pieces of paper with lots […]