Role Play Archives - Page 7 of 7

Starting School: school dinners

28/03/2010 by Cathy James 17 Comments

Little is starting school in September. (See how calmly I typed that?) She is already excited about it and can’t wait to follow in Big’s footsteps. She currently attends the local pre-school each morning, where she has two best friends and lots of fun. She is confident and gregarious and I’m thinking she’ll find the transition to school OK, but I’ve been thinking about how I can help her get ready for her next step. I have no checklist of ‘Things Your Child Should Be Able To Do When They Start School’ in mind – that’s not how I think at all. But there are certain things it would be useful if she’d practised or skills she’d tried, before September rolls around.

Thinking ahead gives us plenty of time to play around with the idea of school. I thought I’d share some thoughts with you on a ‘Starting School’ theme as we go along – and hope you’ll offer some comments and ideas too. (And if you are homeschooling I hope you’ll still find some of the later topics relevant.)

Launching the Starting School topic is ‘School Dinners’.

Eating lunch somewhere unfamilar, helped by unfamilar adults can be a big deal. So how about some trial runs before the big day? We started off by going shopping for a special lunchbag and drinks bottle, chosen by Little herself. Then I let Little play with them – getting used to opening and closing them and having a pretend school lunch. This gives lots of opportunity to practice what might happen at school. We chatted about what she might like to eat and who she can ask to help her peel her banana. (Please note how many slices of cake she packed for herself.) If your child is going to be having dinners provided by the school they might benefit from practice at carrying a tray.

After Easter Little’s pre-school is running a Lunch Club one day a week, where the children can stay half an hour longer than usual had have lunch. This is a perfect first step, in a familar environment. If your own pre-school doesn’t offer a lunch club, maybe you could suggest one? Alternatively you could pair up with a friend and take turns hosting your own lunchclub at eachothers house.

Even if your child is used to having meals at a nursery this kind of roleplay is valuable. Get them used to the bag, bottles, containers they will be using at school. Can they open their own yoghurt pot? Unwrap the clingfilm on their sandwiches? You’d hate them to go hungry simply because they couldn’t get at their food.

So, those are my thoughts around school dinners. Do you have any other suggestions – I’d love you to leave a comment. And if there are any other topics you’d like me to cover, please let me know and I’ll do a post so we can swap ideas.

Cardboard box ride-on train tutuorial

14/01/2010 by Cathy James 6 Comments

Got a long cardboard box? Here’s how to transform it into a train, for lots of role playing fun.

We used: a rectangular cardboard box, a Pringles tube, a panettone box, some coloured paper, sticky tape, scissors, a craft knife, a small plate, a felt tip pen

Wrap the tube in coloured paper. We used sticky tape throughout for all out sticking. You could use glue and could also paint the train instead, but then you’re going to have to wait for it to dry – and 3 year olds need instant gratification!

Place the tube where you want your chimney to be and draw round the bottom with your felt pen. Then cut the circle out with a craft knife (grown-ups only, of course).

Poke the tube through the hole and you have your chimney.

Cut your other box into the shape of the cab, wrap in coloured paper and stick onto the train with sticky tape

Using the craft knife cut out a square flap to make a carriage for storing cargo and passengers. make sure you leave enough room between the carriage and the cab for the driver to sit. (We discovered later that my daughter fits inside this carriage nicely!)

Now draw round a small late and cut out some circles from coloured paper.

Stick these along the sodes of the train to make the wheels. Count tham as you go along and talk about what shape they are.

Adding spokes onto the wheels is a good opportunity to practice pencil skills.

Link up the wheels with a different coloured strip of paper . Talk about how this rectangle shape is different to the wheels.

All aboard! Ready to roll! Choo choo!

Add some props to extend the play possibilities – a drivers hat, some passengers, some parcels to deliver.

You can introduce some letters and numbers into the play by making signs for the stations you visit. How about making a train timetable and some tickets too?

We’ve been doing some train inspired art and maths play too – come back and see the next post to have a look.

Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog.

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Make a toy shop

29/11/2009 by Cathy James 2 Comments

This week we have a toy shop to play with. Very simple to set up, all you need is:

A till – we have a toy till which we filled with real (small denomination) money. If younger children are playing – who might be tempted to put the coins in their mouth – you might like to make some enlarged replica coins from cardboard (which you might like to laminate) so they can’t swallow them. If you haven’t got a toy till already you might like to add one of these to your Christmas list – or simply use yogurt pots filled with the coins instead. Add some old till receipts from your purse.

Use real money and till recipts

Something to sell – we made a grocery store and used some toy food and some egg boxes and empty packets of food.

the produce section

Baskets and bags / purses – We have a couple of mini shopping baskets and each child had an old handbag with a purse with a few coins in.

Signs – making an open/closed sign and some listing the shop’s special offers is a good way to sneak in some letters and reading. As you can see, we are nativity play crazy here so our store is called the Bethlehem Shop!

open for business

include some letter recognition

Shopping lists – provide some paper and pencils and give the children a chance to practice ‘writing’ with a purpose, so they don’t forget anything on their list.

'write' your shopping list

In addition to role-playing the shopping experience, with a child being the shop keeper and some being customers, using coins allows you to include some maths skills. You can add price labels to the food and help the children count out the right number of coins to buy what they want. You can also sort the coins into denominations to put them in the right till drawers – which works on classifying and matching skills.

One child playing today was really interested in the coins and spent time sorting them into colour groups and also size groups. Just shows that providing children with open-ended resources allows them to be creative and explore areas which they are interested in.

sorting coins by size - big and small

sorting coins by colour

Prepare for a pre-school booster with a role-play hospital

12/11/2009 by Cathy James 5 Comments

There, there teddy

Monday is pre-school booster day for us, so to prepare my daughter for the injection we’ve set up a doll’s hospital. This is giving her the chance to test out what will happen and prepare herself for the encounter. We have

– some dressing up costumes – doctors and nurses overalls, with a toy stethoscope and thermometer

– lots of dolls and teddies with a variety of injuries (see pics!)

– bandages (made from strips of muslin cloth), cotton wool pads and cotton buds, and sticking plasters. It’s great for children to be able to use real items in their play as it gives them the opportunity to handle and become familiar with real-world objects. Providing these props makes them feel ‘grown up’ and validates their play. My kids just love getting their hands on ‘real’ things!

look for ways to include writing in play

– clipboards, paper and pencils to make patient notes. This is a way to include mark making and early writing in their play – it encourages them to try out ‘writing’ and including labels / notices gets them familiar with written letters and words.

– a ward of beds for the in-patients

– a magnetic scribble pad, which is being used as an x-ray machine and is getting some great pictures of broken bones.

– a toy syringe – we have been role-playing both having injections and being the nurse giving them to the dolls so my daughter knows what to expect on Monday. I’ve told her the nurse is going to give her some medicine in her arm to stop her getting poorly and that all children have it before they start school. She’s excited about starting school, so this is a positive motivation for her. I’ve explained that it might hurt a bit – but she’s going to have a lollipop in her mouth when she has the injection (top treat!) so she can suck on that to take her mind off the needle. I think it’s really important to let children know what is planned for them – it allows them to prepare for new experiences and builds their trust in you.

Wish us luck for Monday!

Happily shared with weareTHATfamily’s Works For Me Wednesday

poor dolly!

Make a cardboard box house

07/10/2009 by Cathy James 4 Comments

One of the favourite things we’ve ever done is to make our own cardboard box house. We had a box left over from a house move but any will do as long as it’s sturdy. Even better if your child can fit in it, but you can make teddy a home if yours is smaller.

Assuming your box is the type with four flaps at each end which fold over to close: Fasten up one end using glue or sticky tape. At the other end, cut off two of the flaps (top and bottom) leaving two (right and left) to be your front door. Cut out a letter box – so your child can deliver letters to the house – and two windows. You can cut a small square out of the roof and use a folded up strip from the discarded flap to make a chinmey – very important, as my daughter pointed out, so Father Christmas can get in! Paint the walls and roof in your favourite colours (we used a few coats of poster paint) and add some pictures such as a climbing rose or a cat sat by the door. Put your house number on the front. You can make a simple curtain by hemming a piece of fabric and threading a piece of elastic through the hem. Make two holes either side of the top of the window and thread the elastic through – knot it to hold in place.

A unique toy with hours of play – home sweet home!

Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog.

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