From patients and doctors to dentists, shop tellers and superheroes, here are some common themes for children to role play.
Superhero. Young kids are fascinated with superheroes. They see them on TV, admire them, and want to be them. Most party or toy stores have a wide variety of costumes available, but these can also be improvised as well. YouTube and Pinterest are brilliant for go-to ideas.
Hospital. A popular role play activity, this can involve a nurse seeing a patient, a doctor consulting in her rooms, or an operation. Some white coats and child-friendly medical tools will go a long way to adding to this role play game.
Playdough. Not only does playing with playdough improve children’s fine motor skills and cognitive skills, it can often also lead to pretend play. While some kids might build something, most enjoying bringing characters to life – like dinosaurs or people. While they are playing, ask some questions about the characters and see if a storyline develops.
Shop, shop. You can keep this simple or go to town by setting up shelves, groceries, price tags, shopping baskets, a till, a payment system, a sign for your grocery store and even some play money. Ask your kids what kind of shop they are setting up and go from there.
Builder. From bricklayers to painters and architects, for this fun idea, kids pretend to be construction workers. Tools to match the job include paintbrushes, overcoats, hammers, a roll of paper for the building plans, a hard hat, etc.
Dentist. Playing out a visit to the dentist can be purely for fun, or it can help iron out some nerves if they have ever had or need to have any procedure done. You’ll need a big chair, some fun tools and a white coat.
Hairdresser. Playing hairdresser can be loads of fun. Take turns being the hairdresser and the client. You’ll need some hairdryers, clips, brushes and pretend shampoo. No scissors!
Vet. If your child has ever come with you when you’ve taken a pet to the vet, or if she’s seen a vet on a television show, this one is likely to be played out on your pet, or on a toy animal if your pet is lucky.
Animal. Kids love animals and they also like to pretend to be them. There are many animal costumes available but this is also easy to improvise. Some butterfly wings and a headband with feelers; a cardboard box that makes a good tortoiseshell; or a paper plate that can be turned into a mask of almost any animal.
Racing Drivers. Whether kids are riding scooters, trikes or small bikes, they like to pretend they are professional drivers or sportsmen on a racing track. To act this out, they need some rules, road signs and helmets.
Books and TV Shows. If your kids have a favourite book, or if you’ve been reading a book together, encourage some role play about the story? Stories like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella or The Gruffalo can be fun to act out during play. This can also apply to their favourite TV programmes where they may enjoy pretending to be characters from shows like Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol.
