Imaginative Play
Children accumulate lots of little toy collections during childhood: Farm animals, dinosaurs, pirates, princesses, knights, fairies, insects, people, toy cars, etc. Although cleaning them up after a big day's play can be tiresome when left on the floor, these wonderfully educational toys promote imaginative/dramatic play with an emphasis on imagination, creativity, problem solving, storyline development as well as social, emotional and language development when used with friends.
I’d like to share with you a ripper idea to make these toys even more fun and inject more developmental and learning opportunities into your child’s play. All you need are a few additions found around your house, garden, local area or that can be bought very cheaply.
Creating A Scene for Imaginative Play
When given the chance kids love setting the scene by creating habitats, houses or environments for their toys. Doing this is lots of fun and actually becomes a creative part of play. These scenes become the inspiration and backdrop for toys and encourage children to play longer giving you time to join in and also dash away to do a few daily chores.
Fun and Fabulous Materials to Use
Through teaching preschoolers, I’ve found that providing kids with a variety of natural and interesting materials they create the most amazing scenes for their toys to play amongst. Here are some materials that kids love to use:
Pine cones, driftwood, small logs, shells, seedpods, rocks (polished and rough), glass/plastic pebbles, cardboard cones and cylinders, fake flowers, small pot plants, wooden blocks, corks, paper doilies, cardboard cones/cylinders and fabric (small and large pieces of different shapes and sizes). Some of the fabric shown here has been cut into shapes: black felt strips to make roads for cars, brown leather cut into a shape to become a mud patch for pigs.
Inspired Play
When the scene is set your child will love to add their little toys and figurines. Watch as the scene changes during play. They will move, add and take the materials away to create new story lines as their ideas evolve and develop. This is a delight to watch.
Mess and Storage
Of course you don’t need to have the suggested materials on hand, a small selection will be enough to inspire your child. You can store these things in baskets, little containers, storage draws or reused gift boxes and keep them in a safe place ready to take out when needed. During play, your child will want to spread these things all over a table or the floor so be prepared for a bit of mess. If you want to contain the scene to an area, lay down a mat, piece of fabric or towel for your child to create their scene on. Upon pack up, the pre-math skills of sorting, matching and grouping are developed as each object is placed back into their storage container with similar/matching pieces.
Inspiration From Kids
Here are some great examples of how children have set their play scenes ready for their toys.
Here rocks, shells, pine cones and fake flowers adorn a wooden block castle. A long piece of blue fabric has been draped over a chair to create a waterfall next to the castle. Time for the king and queen to play in their new home. This scene, developed by a 4.5 year old boy shows creativity and an ability to develop a geometric design.
Here, a perfect habitat for dinosaurs has been created by a 3 year old girl. Some plastic palms have been added to glass pebbles, coloured fabrics and wooden blocks. Red cellophane has been poked into the top of cardboard cylinders to create volcanoes.
Here puppets are being used amongst some interesting materials and pot plants. Plants are a fabulous way to add extra interest and authenticity to play. Of course your child will need to learn that they’ll need to be careful with the leaves.
If you child hasn’t used materials like these before you may like to encourage them by creating a scene with them. As they become familiar they’ll be off and running themselves. Extending a child’s play in this way will sustain their play for longer bringing about new inspiration, experiences, exploration and learning.
Give it a go at home, It’s heaps of fun!
Happy playing,
Emma Butler
