Role playing or pretend play is another one of our favourite activities to undertake as a family. It is quite entertaining actually, for me to watch them turn into someone or something else. It takes a decent amount of creativity for them to come up with a scene they want to create – may it be a classroom where we all take turns being the teacher or a medical centre where we all become the injured ones one by one. We also do little puppet shows wearing finger puppets of either animals or a royal family (courtesy ikea).
Things to remember:
It is quiet interesting to see them come up with dialogues, forming appropriate sentences along with the facial expressions and emotions to match the scene! I can’t help but giggle every now and again and I then get told off gently for ‘not playing well’. It is a great opportunity to ask open ended questions about the character they are playing and also get an insight into how they view professionals they encounter such as a teacher or a doctor. I also use this activity to revisit the skills such as having to wait for their turn to ask a question ‘to a teacher’ or working well together / share things to complete an artwork for the ‘classroom’.
Good luck, have fun and don’t forget to pack up!!