Dramatic activities for kids
Ultimate List of Dramatic Play Ideas for Preschoolers
Preschoolers love to pretend! Engaging in one of these rich dramatic play ideas is the best way for children to learn and grow in preschool. At a minimum, the basic dramatic play set-up is a housekeeping center, but when it’s time for a change, try one of these creative dramatic play center ideas in the home living area of your preschool classroom.
What can children learn while engaged in dramatic play?
The list of ways that children grow and develop while engaged in rich dramatic play is infinite.
- Children develop their imaginations. They learn to be creative and think out of the box.
- Students expand their vocabularies. They engage in authentic language development— talking to each other, listening, asking questions, using words and conversation for real purposes.
- Children practice negotiating, sharing, and taking turns.
- Early learners get practical experience with sorting, classification, and organizing.
- Children increase their ability to self-regulate.
- Children expand their attention spans while they plan play activities that last increasingly longer periods of time.
Airport – Dramatic Play Center
This dramatic play scenario is complex, engaging, and oh-so-cute! It is hands-down guaranteed to be one of the students’ very favorite ways to play. The Airport is the one center that students come back years later and ask about. It’s the one that even school-aged kids will play with for hours on end. It is a blast! Click HERE for more pictures.
Baby Nursery – Dramatic Play Center
Preschoolers love to pretend to take care of babies and it such an important lesson on how to be caring, gentle and loving. The best part is, most of the supplies are probably already in your playroom.
Click HERE for more pictures and ideas.
Birthday Party – Dramatic Play Center
Is there anything better than a birthday party for no reason at all?! No, there isn’t! This Birthday Party dramatic play center is easy because children typically know how to play it. They’ve likely been to many birthday parties and may even start planning their own party months in advance. If you’re just getting started, this one is great for the first month of school.
Cookie Shop
Bakery – Dramatic Play CenterChildren can bake and sell goodies at their very own Cookie Shop. The best parts of this center are the do-it-yourself cookies and double oven! Click on the picture below to see all of the photos.
Flower Shop – Dramatic Play Center
Setting up a flower shop is the perfect dramatic play scenario for spring, Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day.
The preschoolers count and add flowers in their bouquets and practice tying bows (or knots!) with ribbon. Click HERE for more inspiration.
Grocery Store – Dramatic Play Center
Ask your preschoolers to save and bring in all of their empty recycling containers, then use them to set up a “Shop Smart” grocery store. It’s guaranteed to be one of their favorites. Click HERE for simple step-by-step directions.
Hospital – Dramatic Play Center
This classic dramatic play center is another favorite. Set up a hospital with a triage cot, doctor costumes and lots of props. No explanation is needed! This is one of the centers (like the grocery store and the restaurant) that the children are usually very familiar with. They love to be called “Doctor”! Click HERE for more pictures of the set-up.
Hot Drink Cafe – Dramatic Play Center
Warm up with a mug of hot chocolate and a fresh pastry at the “Star Drinks” hot drink cafe.
Click HERE to see lots of photo inspiration.
Ice Cream Parlor – Dramatic Play Center
Chocolate and mint ice cream with cherries on top… coming right up! Preschoolers love to scoop and sell this summer treat to their friends. Click HERE to see more pictures.
Library – Dramatic Play Center
Do your students love to reread the books that you share with them in class? Set your dramatic play area up as a Library. Allow them to “check out” books with their very own library card and return them to school the next day.
Pancake and Waffle
Cafe – Dramatic Play CenterWhat’s for breakfast?! Add the pancake and waffle sets (available HERE and HERE from Melissa & Doug) to the kitchen and fire up the grill. Children will love the custom menus and all of the toppings for their delicious breakfast.
Pizza Parlor – Dramatic Play Center
Make a brick oven from a cardboard box and a roll of “brick” wrapping paper.
Preschoolers will make pizzas, and order pizzas, and deliver pizzas, and pretend to eat pizzas ALL.DAY.LONG! Click
HERE to see all the photos.
Post Office – Dramatic Play Center
Invite children to write letters to the parents or grandparents, to make cards for their classmates, and to deliver the mail at the Post Office Dramatic Play Center. Click HERE to see lots of pictures.
Restaurant – Dramatic Play Center
Can we take your order? The restaurant dramatic play center is chock full of opportunities to practice reading, writing, and teamwork. Click HERE to see the menu and order forms that are perfect for emergent readers.
Sandwich Shop – Dramatic Play Center
Switch the general restaurant into a fast-food sandwich shop. With this dramatic play idea, students will follow the menu board from left to right to choose the bread, protein, vegetables, and toppings for their very own sandwich.
Taco Stand – Dramatic Play Center
Would you like a taco or a burrito from this very popular Taco Stand? Preschoolers will take your order then create the taco or burrito of your choice. What a way to “spice” up the dramatic play center!
Vet Clinic – Dramatic Play Center
While you’re learning about zoo animals, pets, or even the farm, this dramatic play Vet Clinic is a great way to engage children in pretend play. They will care for the animals and become veterinarians, x-ray technicians, and nurses.
Fairy Tale Plays – Theater Dramatic Play Idea
Transformed trifold science boards into a straw house, a stick house and a brick house for an adorable version of the Three Little Pigs. Preschoolers who can memorize and act out stories will have great comprehension skills when they get to school. It’s also fun act out Goldilocks and the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Fountain Drink Machine – Prop for Dramatic Play
Whether you’re setting up a plain restaurant, a pizza parlor, an ice cream shop, or a taco stand, here’s a surefire FUN way to spice it up. Add a drink machine! You can use a box or a bookshelf with just a few simple additions (paper cups and tissue paper) to make it extraordinary. Click HERE for more details.
Window Washer – Dramatic Play Idea
If you’re looking for a quick set-up, cheap center, this is it! Get all the supplies from the dollar store and added water. It’s great for summer, too. Take those kids outside and put them to work! Sometimes the best dramatic play ideas are the simplest.
Dinosaur Dig Site – Dramatic Play Center
Put on paleontology hats and look for dinosaur bones and footprints at this dramatic play dig site. Click HERE to see how to use a simple ingredient from the craft store to turn the sensory table into an excavation site.
Do your kids like to pretend or role play? What is your favorite way to set it up? Whatever it is, have tons of fun playing and learning with your children today.
Be sure to follow this Dramatic Play Pinterest board for even more dramatic play ideas.
Follow Play to Learn Preschool’s board Dramatic Play Preschool on Pinterest.
All dramatic play idea printables are available HERE:
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25+ Dramatic Play Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
You are here: Home / Dramatic Play / 25+ Dramatic Play Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
by Sheryl Cooper
Inside: Providing dramatic play activities is a great way to engage toddlers and preschoolers in role playing.
Social skills are strengthened as the children interact with one another, too!
Let’s hear it for play! These dramatic play ideas for toddlers and preschoolers are open ended and fun!
Pretend play is an important part of children’s development. They learn by imagining and doing. If you stand back and observe children involved in pretend play, they are often mimicking what they’ve seen adults do. We take all of this into consideration when planning what to place in our dramatic play area.
- How will it be meaningful?
- What props will work best?
- How should it be organized?
The dramatic play area is also a great place to build communication skills, also. Dialogue is created as children are part of the pretend play.
In this post I’ve selected over 25 different dramatic play activities that can be done anytime of the year.
Before I begin sharing this collection, it’s important for new teachers to know that they do not need to change out their dramatic play center with each theme.
It takes time to build a collection of materials (see our favorites at the end of this post). You can easily keep your dramatic play area stocked with a few staples.
Flower Market (with Printables)
The Garden Shop (Pre-Kinders)
Pumpkin Stand
Apple Stand
Honeybee Stand (Planning Playtime)
Winter Bear Cave Dramatic Play
Post Office
Movie Theater (Research Parent)
Zoo Animals (Teaching Mama)
Veterinarian Office (with Printables)
Bird’s Nest (Creekside Learning)
What’s the Weather? (Pre-K Pages)
Space (Catch a Star Ideas)
Spaghetti Shop (Where Imagination Grows)
Pizzeria
Ice Cream Shop (Learning 4 Kids)
Chinese Restaurant (Pre-K Pages)
Bakery (Pre Kinders)
The Taco Bar (The Mama Workshop)
Donut Shop (Sara J Creations)
Doll Diaper Station (Happy Hooligans)
Our Babies (Teach Preschool)
Baby Nursery (Pre-K Pages)
Making Pancakes (The Imagination Tree)
Tea Party
Hair Salon (Pre-K Pages)
Pet Grooming Salon (Sunny Day Family)
Grocery Store (Paper and Glue)
Clothing Store (Pre-K Tweets)
You can find more dramatic play activities on my Pinterest board.
- Our Favorite Toddler Learning Centers and How to Set Them Up
- How to Set Up Preschool Learning Centers
- How to Set Up Learning Centers
- How to Handle Preschoolers Not Using Certain Centers
- Tips on Managing the Toddler and Preschool Block Center
- Putting Together Table Activities During Centers Time
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Filed Under: Dramatic Play, preschool, Toddlers Tagged With: dramatic play, preschool, printables, toddlers
About Sheryl Cooper
Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers.
She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.
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Events | Music and Drama Theater A-Z
22.10 | Sat | 12:00 Tsipa-Dripa (A. Usachev, R. Mukha, D. Kharms and others) | 4 – 8 years
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22 Oct | 12:00 - 13:00
Theater A-Z, Petrovsky per., 5, building 9
Moscow,
Living alphabet for kids based on poems by A. Usachev, R. Mucha, D. Kharms (age 5+) Children get acquainted with the magic of words, rhymes and consonances, learn to hear sounds and read the first syllables. Little viewers are helped by amazing creatures that can turn into a letter, a word, and even a whole poem. The play “TSIPA-DRIPA” is the beginning of an exciting game of reading and versification. Come - let's play together! After the performance, children can become participants in the THEATER ABC project: together with the actors of the A-Z theater, they will go to a fairy-tale planet, learn .
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22.10|Sat|19:00 Mom loves me | 12+ | Pushechnaya st., 4
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22 Oct | 19:00 - 21:00
Mosconcert on Pushechnaya, Pushechnaya st., 4, building 2
Moscow, + Google Map
Performance based on childhood memories. On the stage - the orchestra of the theater "A-Ya"! A musical performance for adults who are ready to remember their childhood together with children (10+). Childhood memories of different years - from the 40s to the 80s: evacuation, the first TV, a snowflake costume for a New Year's party, jumping into an elastic band, a queue for Yugoslav boots, a music school, a pioneer oath, etc. As well as musical hits of generations - in performed by the orchestra of the theater "A-Ya". A performance for adults who are ready to remember their childhood - and tell children about it ...
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23.10|Sun|12:00 How the monkey outwitted the king of the sea | 37 years
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23 Oct | 12:00 - 13:00
Theater A-Z, Petrovsky per.
, 5, building 9
Moscow, + Google Map
A musical performance based on African fairy tales and legends. Every year, the inhabitants of one village gather around the fire, sing, dance, put on animal masks, remember and act out the story of how, in ancient times, a clever Monkey saved the inhabitants of the savannah from the wrath of the Sea Dragon.
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23.10|Sun|17:00 Alice in Wonderland (L. Carroll) | 7 – 11 years old
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23 Oct | 17:00 - 18:30
Theater A-Z, Petrovsky per., 5, building 9
Moscow,
Musical Journey to Wonderland (age 7+). The performance played out for little Alice: the Queen, the Jack, the March Hare, the Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit - all these characters are played by two actors. Our young viewers assume that this is Alice's mom and dad telling her stories about Wonderland at night. It is worth falling asleep - and you are in wonderland.
There is no boring school and strict parents. You can do whatever you want - at least stand on your head. However, you won’t want to repeat your “exploits” after waking up.…
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26.10 | Wed | 19:00 Balzaminov's marriage (A. Ostrovsky) | 12+
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26 Oct | 19:00 - 21:00
Theater A-Z, Petrovsky per., 5, building 9
Moscow,
A musical performance in the genre of a business show based on "pictures from Moscow life" by A.N. Ostrovsky. Who does not dream that life will suddenly change, and you will become beautiful, rich, influential, self-confident? Here is the petty official Mikhailo Balzaminov, a sissy, naive, good-natured and simple-hearted, likes to imagine himself in fantasies either as a brave officer, or as a king, or as the owner of all sorts of material goods like a velvet-lined cloak or gray horses. But only matchmaker Akulina Krasavina will help him climb the social ladder, who is cynical, without any .
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29.10|Sat|12:00 Wonder tree (K. Chukovsky, S. Marshak, D. Kharms) | 3 – 10 years NO TICKETS
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29 Oct | 12:00 - 13:00
Theater A-Z, Petrovsky per., 5, building 9
Moscow,
An interactive musical about a child's fantasy: boys become airplanes and steamboats, girls become good hares, parents turn into Aibolit and Barmaley. and from the “secret” buried in the ground, a Wonder Tree grows.
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Where to go with a child in Moscow - Afisha-Children
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