Disclosure: I am a blog ambassador for Lakeshore Learning and am compensated for my work. I received product free of charge, but all thoughts and opinions are 100% mine. Dramatic play is important to a child's development. Children need time to play make-believe and do open-ended play activities. The great part about dramatic play is that there are no specific directions for the activity. Just invite the child to play with costumes or props and let them use their imagination to … [Read more...]
I am a King – Dramatic Play Activity
Today, I am sharing with you our dramatic play activity all about Kings. We had a BLAST with this. My kids have been playing with the costumes ever since we made them! They love it! To start, I'll share with you how we made the crowns. Here's what you need: strip of cardboard spray paint acrylic jewels hot glue duct tape I started out by spray painting the strip of cardboard. I colored one gold and one black (because we were playing good vs. evil kings and I wanted 2 … [Read more...]
What is Small World Play and Why is it Important?
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Small world play is an important part of preschool and a great way for little ones to learn. It's an easy play activity to set up and kids love the invitation to play. Today I'm going to share more about what small world play is and why it is important! Small world play is creating a life scene for the child to play with. You can use miniature items (such as miniature furniture or barn animals) in the … [Read more...]
9 Reasons to Dress Up Every Day!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Costume Express. As always, I only share products that I love and I think you will love! All opinions expressed are my own. If you come over to our house on any given day, you will most likely see my children dressed up in costumes. Hardly a day goes by when they have not dumped out the costume bin and put on multiple costumes. They LOVE to wear costumes! As a mom, I simply love watching them use their imagination to play, explore, and create memories … [Read more...]
Zoo Animals – Dramatic Play Activity
Animals are just so much fun to learn about! Learning about zoo animals is a great spring theme for preschoolers. Today I'm sharing our zoo animals dramatic play activity for preschoolers. Before doing the dramatic play activity, we created zoo animal cages. I used the following materials: cardboard box wrapping paper (from Hobby Lobby) elastic stapler tape To make the cages, I took the flaps off the boxes so the box had one open side. Next, I stapled pieces of elastic … [Read more...]
Post Office Dramatic Play
My kids love imagining and pretending to do grown-up jobs. We had fun with our vet clinic last week, so this week we did a post office dramatic play activity. To set up, I placed writing utensils, envelopes, printable postcards, stickers, pretend mailbox, watercolors, and a white crayon on their desk. Then I explained to the kids how to do the activity. I gave them postcards they could write on and pretend to send to friends, family members, or even their stuffed … [Read more...]
Vet Clinic Dramatic Play Activity
One awesome way to encourage preschoolers play is with dramatic play activities. They can use their imagination and pretend to do a job. Today, I'm sharing our vet clinic dramatic play activity. For this play activity, I set out a bunch of stuffed animals, our doctor kit, and vet checklist sheet (see the bottom of the post for the free printable). My preschooler had a lot of fun pretending to be a veterinarian! I only wish I had a lab coat for him to wear. :) He really enjoyed filling … [Read more...]
Small World Play in the Sink
This activity came to our rescue the other day. My kids really needed something to keep them occupied, so this small world play in the sink ended up being perfect. Here's how I set it up. I sprinkled a little jello powder (for smell) and a few drops of food coloring in the sink filled with water. Then I set ocean animals and shells around the sink. I also put in some foam sheets in the water for the plastic sea creatures to float on (since they would just sink in the … [Read more...]
Snow Hot Chocolate {Dramatic Play}
We've had a very "brown" winter so far. However, when had snow back in early December, my boys and I made snow hot chocolate! It actually wasn't a drink that we could drink, but it was a creation that my boys made themselves! They used imaginary play to have their own hot chocolate cafe. Here's what we used for our hot chocolate cafe: snow (or water if you don't have snow where you live!) squeeze bottles mugs or cups straws spoons cocoa cash register cafe menu … [Read more...]
Dinosaur Swamp & Sensory Play
To close our final day on dinosaurs this week, we did an activity inspired by one of my awesome readers! (By the way, you guys are really the best!) We did a sensory activity and made a swamp for our dinosaurs. To make the swamp, we just mixed cornmeal with water. We thought the swamp felt slimy, grainy, and squishy. Then we added dinosaurs to our swamp. This was great for imaginary play. In our swamp, the big dinosaur was trying to find the hidden dino eggs (marbles) and baby … [Read more...]
