Imaginative Play | learning 4 kids

Planting a Garden

Posted by Janice on December 20, 2012 1 Comment

Imaginative play would have to be one of my most favourite kinds of play. I love how children can freely explore an imaginary world and benefit so much from it.

We have been spending a fair bit of time in our garden with the beautiful warm summery weather. As a follow on activity to our Spring Play Dough and to re-enact our time spent in the garden I thought I would set up this invitation to play imaginatively, Planting a Garden.

My girls spent hours planting, re-planting, weeding, sprinkling seeds and watering their imaginative play garden.

You can find out more about what imaginative play is and how to encourage it with kids by following the link: What is Imaginative Play and How to Encourage it?

What you will need?

We have re-used our Fake Flowers from our Create a Scented Spring Play Dough Garden Activity and the Styrofoam is recycled from a cardboard box from a parcel we received.

To create an imaginative play garden, you press the firm wire stems from the fake flowers into the Styrofoam. Miss 2 had no trouble pressing them into the Styrofoam but if this is of a concern, you can always pre-make some holes for your child to place the flower stems into.

This activity is such a wonderful way to also practice those fine motor skills!

For older kids, such as my Miss 5 and 6, they created flower garden patterns, alternating certain flowers to create patterns of colours and flower types.

Miss 2 pretending to water her garden that she created with the Styrofoam and fake flowers. She was also making swishing sounds to go with the watering, priceless!

The magic of imaginative play….. Miss 2 sprinkling her garden with flower seeds from a small container and Miss 5 watering them into the ground.

Learning Benefits of Imaginative Play:

It provides opportunities for children to identify with the adult world. Practise and role play their understanding and interpretation.
Develop social skills: practising negotiation skills, turn taking and sharing. Provides opportunities for working out problems and experimenting with solutions.
Emotional development: Understanding and expressing their feelings through the re-enactment of certain experiences. Taking on roles that encourage discipline and empathy.
Encourages imagination: Children can be anyone and do anything in the pretend world.
Develop language skills: practising listening, looking and talking. Being spoken to and talking with other people, also developing an understanding of what is being communicated through body language such as smiles and nodding.
I also believe that imaginative play is a great way for children to relax and unwind from their busy lives.

More Imaginative Play:

Rainy Day Activity – Indoor Camping

Posted by Janice on June 14, 2012 5 Comments

It’s raining, it’s pouring…..and we have been stuck inside a fair bit lately with the weather.

To entertain the kids and give them something to do we set up an indoor camping trip to beat the boredom and promote imaginative play.

Here are a few ideas for setting up your own Indoor Campsite.

Firstly we set up a tent with sleeping bags, pillows and a torch. Then we set out some camping chairs, esky filled with pretend food, cooking utensils and crockery such as tongs and cooking pots and pans. On the wall we placed some photos of other camp sites that we printed off the internet, this was great to give my kids some ideas on setting up their own campsite.

Every indoor camp site needs a pretend fire and we made ours using a small cane basket filled with red cellophane, paper towel rolls and twigs. My kids placed their camp torch underneath the red cellophane to make it look like red flames were glowing.

Cooking on our pretend campfire: I love how Miss 6 is making toast using tongs over the pretend fire. Check out Miss 23 months camping in luxury with her fluffy slippers, haha!

Whenever we go camping the marshmallows are always on top of our list of things to bring, so we had to have them a part of our indoor camping experience. Adding to the fun of play, we put marshmallows onto the end of some twigs and my girls pretended to cook them over the campfire. We later cooked them on the gas stove – yummo!

Learning benefits of imaginative play – Indoor Camping Trip

It provides opportunities for children to identify with the adult world. Practise and role play their understanding and interpretation.
Develop social skills: practising negotiation skills, turn taking and sharing. Provides opportunities for working out problems and experimenting with solutions.
Emotional development: Understanding and expressing their feelings through the re-enactment of certain experiences. Taking on roles that encourage discipline and empathy.
Encourages imagination: Children can be anyone and do anything in the pretend world.
Develop language skills: practising listening, looking and talking. Being spoken to and talking with other people, also developing an understanding of what is being communicated through body language such as smiles and nodding.
I also believe that imaginative play is a great way for children to escape, relax and unwind from their busy lives.

What would you include in your Indoor Campsite?

Filed Under: Imaginative Play | Tagged: Tagged With: Imaginative play, Rainy Day Activities

Imaginative Play Ice Cream Shop

Posted by Janice on May 16, 2012 10 Comments

Welcome to our Ice Cream Shop!!

The fun and joy of exploring the imaginary world of an ice cream shop.

Today I am sharing some ideas for setting up an imaginative play ice cream shop. My girls had so much fun with this (and Dad) and took part in adding their own ideas of what they thought an Ice Cream Shop should have.

To find out more about why imaginative play is important for kids and how to encourage it click here: How to Encourage and Support Imaginative Play?

SETTING UP:

Kids have a great imagination and really don’t mind what props they use for their imaginative play, as they will improvise and pretend one object to be something else. For our ice cream shop we used a book shelf (Our Play Room Ideas) covered with a sheet as the serving counter, a table in the restaurant for eating the ice cream, pretend money (Bottle Top Money), pompoms for pretend ice cream, small serving spoons, patty pans to imitate ice cream cups and a little cash register.

You can’t have an ice cream shop without an ice cream stand! We used a small box covered with plain paper to make the stand. I carefully pressed 6 holes into the box with scissors, twisting to make the holes bigger. We then neatened up the holes by folding sticky tape over the rough edges as seen in the photo.

To make the ice cream cones we folded brown paper into cone shapes and sticky taped it together. The large pompoms are great for pretend ice cream but you can alternatively use scrunched up crepe or tissue paper.

TIME TO PLAY:

Miss 4 and Miss 6 changed roles as the buyer and shop assistant during their play. They just loved pretending taking on their role and using the appropriate language and actions for their character. The purchaser had a little bag with Bottle Top Money and the shop assistant wore a chef’s hat and apron.

Miss 4 and Miss 6 pretended that the coloured pompoms were different flavours. Here is Miss 4 serving some strawberry ice cream in a cone. The ice cream was also served into the patty pan cups with a small spoon just like a real ice cream shop.

We plan to make some homemade ice cream to extend the fun and learning, may be chocolate ice cream.

Learning benefits of imaginative play – Ice Cream Shop

It provides opportunities for children to identify with the adult world. Practise and role play their understanding and interpretation.
Develop social skills: practising negotiation skills, turn taking and sharing. Provides opportunities for working out problems and experimenting with solutions.
Emotional development: Understanding and expressing their feelings through the re-enactment of certain experiences. Taking on roles that encourage discipline and empathy.
Encourages imagination: Children can be anyone and do anything in the pretend world.
Develop language skills: practising listening, looking and talking. Being spoken to and talking with other people, also developing an understanding of what is being communicated through body language such as smiles and nodding.
Introduces and familiarises kids with money, value and the concept of trading.
I also believe that imaginative play is a great way for children to escape, relax and unwind from their busy lives.

Filed Under: Imaginative Play | Tagged: Tagged With: Other Ice Cream Activities

Imaginative Play – Baby Care Corner

Posted by Janice on May 3, 2012 3 Comments

Santa :) brought my girls a couple of wooden dolls beds and they were really keen to play with them, so together we set up a Babies Care Corner to encourage imaginative play.

This would be a fabulous imaginative play area to set up for families who are expecting or have a new baby and for children who have a younger sibling.

I have had this post saved in draft for some time now; it just never seemed to find its way to being published, hence the mention of Santa.

With a few little props, the rest is up to the imagination. Setting up the scene with wooden beds and toy kitchen; tea towels for blankets and folded tea towels for pillows.

Before we had the dolls wooden beds, my girls use to use pillows for their dolls beds and the pillow case acted as the blanket or sleeping bag.

We also laid out a table with change mats and baskets filled with feeding toys, soft toys, dolls clothing and pretend nappies, cream and wipes, anything baby really. For the baby clothing if you got any baby clothes that you used with the kids tucked away somewhere, you could use these for dressing the babies with. Also if you have any small socks or bonnets, the kids love these too!

Kids really don’t mind what props they have as they will improvise and pretend one object to be something else.

In character, Miss 4 pretended to wash her baby in the toy kitchen sink and dried her off with a towel, then dresses her. Our play table was great to use for a pretend changed table.

Miss 4 tucking her baby into bed with a small stuffed toy. These babies also had a bottle of milk, some dinner and were burped before being put to bed.

Imaginative play is a time for kids to role play and play out opportunities they have experienced or are interested in as they make sense of the world around them. In the first photo you will see Miss 19months (at the time), just the top of her head carrying a toy potty, she was absolutely obsessed with it during her play as this was something we had been (and still are) encouraging with her. This was an opportunity for her to practise and act out her understanding so far.

A sweet lullaby for her baby……

Learning benefits of imaginative play – Baby Care Corner

Teaches empathy, kindness and respect towards others.
It provides opportunities for children to identify with the adult world. Practise and role play their understanding and interpretation.
Develop social skills: practising negotiation skills, turn taking and sharing. Provides opportunities for working out problems and experimenting with solutions.
Emotional development: Understanding and expressing their feelings through the re-enactment of certain experiences. Taking on roles that encourage discipline and empathy.
Encourages imagination: Children can be anyone and do anything in the pretend world.
Develop language skills: practising listening, looking and talking. Being spoken to and talking with other people, also developing an understanding of what is being communicated through body language such as smiles and nodding.
I also believe that imaginative play is a great way for children to escape, relax and unwind from their busy lives.

Other Imaginative Play Ideas (click o n the links to view)

Washing a Toy Baby

Wet Washing Hanging on the Line

Vet Hospital

Baker’s Shop

Useful Links:

This link explains what Imaginative Play is and its role in learning. It also provides a list of ideas on how to promote imaginative play further.

How to Support and Encourage Imaginative Play?

Filed Under: Imaginative Play | Tagged: Tagged With: Other baby activities

Imaginative Play Vet Hospital

Posted by Janice on April 15, 2012 2 Comments

Imaginative play would have to be one of my most favourite kinds of play. I love how children can freely explore an imaginary world and benefit so much from it. I cherish their imaginations and the gorgeous stories they come up with.

Today I am sharing with you our imaginative play Vet Hospital and some simple ideas for setting one up in your home to encourage this play.

You can find out more about what imaginative play is and how to encourage it with kids by following the link – What is Imaginative Play and How to Encourage it?

Involve the kids in setting up an area for their imaginative play; I always find that they have the best ideas on how it should be done. It is a great way of bouncing ideas off one another to create new ones! Kids also don’t mind if they use something to imitate something else such as if you do not have a toy phone, a brush for a pretend phone will do.

Some other ideas on setting up a Vet Hospital; my kids emptied their toy shelves and used each cube as a sick bed/bay for their stuffed toy animals with a small blanket or pillow and bowl of water. We even had a fish tank (plastic tub) with sick fish and a turtle in it. We also included our toy kitchen as a medicine bench (as the kids called it) which had pretend pet food, doctor’s props such as stethoscope, toy syringes and blood pressure pump.

Every Vet Hospital needs an examination table which has been set up using a cardboard box with a blanket thrown over the top and a small computer for the assistant to enter information about the sick patient. My girls had seen this once before when we took our own pet to the vet.

Kids love to pretend and the imaginative play ideas are endless with a Vet Hospital – here is Miss 5 giving pretend medicine to the sick dog and also feeding the sick animals.

Play along and bring your very own pretend sick pet to your child’s Vet Hospital – they will love it!

The learning benefits of imaginative play:

It provides opportunities for children to identify with the adult world. Practise and role play their understanding and interpretation.
Develop social skills: practising negotiation skills, turn taking and sharing. Provides opportunities for working out problems and experimenting with solutions.
Emotional development: Understanding and expressing their feelings through the re-enactment of certain experiences. Taking on roles that encourage discipline and empathy.
Encourages imagination: Children can be anyone and do anything in the pretend world.
Develop language skills: practising listening, looking and talking. Being spoken to and talking with other people, also developing an understanding of what is being communicated through body language such as smiles and nodding.
I also believe that imaginative play is a great way for children to escape, relax and unwind from their busy lives.