Messy Little Monster: Pretend Play

Showing posts with label Pretend Play. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Pretend Play. Show all posts

This chocolate playdough recipe can be used to create the PERFECT playdough activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Kids will have a blast making chocolate playdough and then turning their playdough into a box of chocolates that looks good enough to eat! Below are easy step by step directions to show you how to make chocolate playdough!

chocolate playdough recipe

Messy Little Monster

Have a toddler, preschooler, or older kid who LOVES zebra crafts? This paper bag zebra craft is exactly what they need. We have even included a free zebra template to help put it together. Follow the step-by-step directions below to make your very own paper bag puppet!

paper bag zebra craft

Messy Little Monster

Have a child who absolutely ADORES monkeys? This paper bag monkey craft is perfect for them! Toddlers, preschoolers, and even older kids will have a blast assembling and then playing with their paper bag puppet. We have included a free monkey template to make it super easy for you. Just follow the step-by-step directions below to make your own monkey puppet.

paper bag monkey craft

Messy Little Monster

Children have wonderful imaginations and love to play! Imaginative play (often called dramatic play or pretend play) appeals to young children as they can be creative and use their imaginations to recreate situations that are familiar to them as well as create new scenarios.

Imaginative play ideas

Messy Little Monster

Dramatic play is a powerful form of play based learning for toddlers and preschoolers. They'll be busy running around engaged in play, not even realising all the things they're learning! If you're looking to incorporate more pretend play, using our dramatic play ideas is a great place to start. In this post, I'll be sharing everything you need to know about pretend play for toddlers and preschoolers from the benefits of dramatic play to some dramatic play ideas to get you started!

Benefits of dramatic play. Dramatic play ideas.

Messy Little Monster

If you're spending lots of time inside, it might be time to set up a dramatic play donut shop! While you could just cut out a donut, why not make a Salt Dough Donut Craft to add to the fun? It's no secret we love a good Salt Dough Craft, and I thought this would make for a fun project. It's pretty easy to do and so much fun to decorate the donuts! Follow the step by step directions below to make your very own salt dough donuts.

Salt dough donut craft

Messy Little Monster

Invite your little ones to learn, explore, and have tons of fun with this super cute and hands-on Ice Cream Pretend Play! We love sensory activities so we blended two of our kid's favourite things into one super fun and delightful activity. It's perfect for kids who love sensory activities and also enjoy making crafts. Believe me, kids are going to be thrilled with this cute ice cream craft!

Ice cream craft

Messy Little Monster

This owl craft is the perfect paper bag craft for preschoolers and toddlers! Kids will have so much fun making their very own owl puppet to play with. We have included a printable owl pattern to make creating these cute animal puppets super easy. Just follow the step-by-step directions below to make your very own owl craft. The kids will love putting on a puppet show for you with their owl puppets!

Owl craft for kids. Animal puppets paper bag crafts. Printable owl pattern included.

Messy Little Monster

This mermaid paper bag puppet craft is such a fun paper bag craft idea for toddlers and preschoolers! We have included a free printable mermaid puppet template to make this under the sea activity really easy for you to make with the kids. Just download and print the mermaid puppet template and follow the step by step instructions for your under the sea theme paper bag craft!

Mermaid Paper Bag Puppet – Under the Sea Theme Craft ideas for kids. Printable mermaid puppet template. Easy paper bag crafts for toddlers and preschoolers.

Messy Little Monster

Have fun creating a woodland small world from playdough and nature. Toddlers and preschoolers (as well as big kids!) will love collecting nature and arranging it in playdough to create a cute small world. Add a few toy animal figures and these miniature scenes are perfect for imaginative play.

Woodland small world playdough activity for kids. Toddlers and preschoolers will love collecting nature and using it with playdough to create a miniature woodland scene. This activity is great for imaginative play and animals/ woodland project.

Messy Little Monster

Toddlers and preschoolers will love recycling old toilet rolls and cupcake cases to make simple fairy house luminaries. DIY fairy houses are fun to make and easy enough for kids of all ages to make. The best bit is that this simple recycled craft doubles up as a fun DIY toy.

DIY toilet roll fairy house luminaries for kids. Simple recycled craft ideas for toddlers and preschoolers. Use this fun DIY toy to create a fairy small world play activity.

Messy Little Monster

Upcycle bottle tops and use them to make an adorable bird puppet kids craft. Toddlers and preschoolers will love making these easy, but very cute birds. We loved using our puppets for imaginative play and to sing the nursery rhyme 'Two Little Dickie Birds".

An easy and fun bird puppet kids craft for toddlers and preschoolers. Upcycle bottle tops to make these adorable birds and use them in imaginative play and to act out the nursery rhyme 'Two Little Dickie Birds'.

Messy Little Monster

Here is a superhero puppet craft that little boys (and girls!) will LOVE!!! Use our FREE PRINTABLE superhero templates to make your own mini superheroes. We have Batman, Superman, Ironman, Flash and Captain America amongst others. These easy DIY superhero puppets are great for imaginative play and they accompany the lego superhero story books perfectly.

Superhero puppet craft for kids. FREE PRINTABLE Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Flash, Captain America masks and badges.

Messy Little Monster

Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick sick sick. This pretend play activity is perfect for acting out the nursery rhyme "Miss Polly had a dolly" and role playing doctors and nurses. The kids loved using stickers to make our dolly sick.

Miss Polly nursery rhyme pretend play activity for toddlers preschoolers eyfs

Messy Little Monster

Make a fairy door (or elf door!) from craft sticks. This magical five minute craft couldn't be simpler. Place your fairy door outside in your garden or along your skirting board and see what magic your little one will dream up.

How to make a fairy door (elf door) from craft sticks

Messy Little Monster

Spoon puppets are great for story telling and pretend play. For todays craft we made Goldilocks and The Three Bears puppets from wooden spoons. They are really easy and cheap to make and we had lots of fun retelling and making up our own versions of the story with them.

How to make Goldilocks and The Three Bears Spoon Puppets. A great kids craft and activity for retelling and acting out this popular Fairy Tale. Preschoolers and toddlers will love these hard wearing puppets for pretend play.

Messy Little Monster

Make a handprint spider to frighten Little Miss Muffet away. This 5 minute nursery rhyme craft can be used for re-enacting the nursery rhyme 'Little Miss Muffet'. Spider activities are always fun for kids to make especially during Autumn and Winter.

Little miss muffet handprint spider craft for kids. Easy nursery rhyme activities.

Messy Little Monster

How do you recycle cardboard rolls? Make swords of course! A perfect craft for little boys (and girls!) cardboard swords are simple to make and prefect for pretend play.

Cardboard roll sword craft for boys

Messy Little Monster

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