Green Olives & Ham

Pretend play: Restaurant

We're doing more and more pretend play.  Whether it be camping under blankets or laying on the beach with our beach towels INSIDE while looking out the window at 10 feet of snow.  We're actually traveling right now, as you will see from the picture below, we're away from the snow.

The great thing about pretend play is that you really don't need to buy any supplies.  We work with what we have and that sometimes means thinking outside the box, which I believe we have done with these laundry basket tables. 

We also used real food (bread, cheese, and water), a bread basket, spoons, paper plates, and napkins.  The server station had a pitcher of water for refills, a computer to enter orders, paper and crayons.

We also had a host (ess) desk with a "Host (ess) will seat you" sign, menus, and a map of the restaurant so the host (ess) knew which tables were available.

You could add so much to this dramatic play theme such as a chalk board to write the specials, table cloths, uniforms for the staff, and of course play money.  It's all about being creative and using your (their) imaginations.

- Michelle
 

Pretend play: Bowling alley

I've just realized that pretend play or dramatic play (as it was called in my college days) is not something that we touch upon too often.  I'm not sure why because it's actually one of my favorite children's activities. 

So with every new year comes a whole bunch of change (or just a little change, or none ... not sure, yet).  Basically, I feel like I need to make some slight changes with this little blog in the sea of blogs, but I'm just not sure what changes those are, yet.  And of course, sometimes when you (or I) try and make changes, they just don't stick. 

Anyway, here we have our bowling alley:

This is just the lane.  What you don't see is ...

- the register that we also made using a cardboard box and all of our play money
- the box for the balls (which is only one ball)
- the table to get your bowling shoes
- another table for refreshments.  It is filled up with lots of great healthy "snacks"
- and our score cards

Of course when you create these activities, you never know where they are going to go.  Children's imaginations can take them in so many different directions, and it appears that this direction may be to the roller skating rink. 

My daughter's favorite Christmas gift this year was a pair of Dora the Explorer Jr. Skate Combo in Vinyl Bag (Size 6 - 12), and she has just discovered how much faster she can skate on cardboard than on carpet.

- Michelle