Dramatic play 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.
Reader Interactions
Drama games in preschool | Preschool education
Author: Tomilova Olga Viktorovna
Organization: GBDOU DS No. 67 comb. type of Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg
Settlement: St. Petersburg
Dramatic play is a spontaneous amateur activity during which the child tests, clarifies and expands knowledge about the world and about himself. As they play, children reenact places and scenes they have seen in life, imitate the actions of family members, and assume the roles of various people they have met. They reproduce the world that they understand, or one that brings confusion and fear into their minds.
From early childhood, children imitate the sounds they hear and the actions they see. While enjoying pretend activities, children react to new situations with movement and voice.
That's how they play. This game, if supported, develops into dramatization: an art form, a socializing activity and a way of mastering reality.
Creative dramatization and play, especially in young children, cannot be isolated or limited to a certain place and time. In a group, at home or in a public place, creative dramatization and play help the child develop responsibility, develop new interests and, especially in a group, absorb new knowledge.
Dramatization is one of the most personal and individual ways of learning. In creative dramatization, there are no performers who memorize roles and use accessories and costumes to influence the audience. In such creative activities, children spontaneously invent, act out and interpret familiar situations and themes for themselves. For example, they act out situations based on real or imaginary roles that they have come into contact with in life, such as going to the zoo. In dramatic play, children create their own world in which they master the real world.
In this imaginary world, they try to solve real life problems. They repeat, play again, and relive their experiences. In this way, dramatic play helps the child develop from a purely egocentric being into a person who is able to interact with others.
Developmental Influence
In dramatic play, children often spontaneously take on the role or actions of someone else (pretend to put out a fire like firemen), use objects in a substitution function (sit on a building block while pretending to ride on a truck through the streets) and play out familiar situations (going to the market or grocery store). For a rich and meaningful preschooler, this is the ideal arena for emotionally rich and meaningful learning. Dramatic play develops the child in every way. If the educator correctly organizes the activities of children, they will receive a versatile (mental and motor) experience that is adequate to their individual characteristics.
In creative dramatization and play, a preschooler performs actions that:
1) contribute to the development of the five senses;
2) develop active and passive speech;
3) help children understand human relationships and learn patterns of behavior;
4) link ideas to each other;
5) stimulate creative thought and problem solving;
6) increase self-respect;
7) develop ways of expressing emotions and feelings;
8) develop fine and general motor skills;
9) signify the joy and freedom of childhood.
While playing, children learn to concentrate, exercise their imagination, try out new ideas, practice adult behaviors, and gain a sense that they influence the world around them. In addition, children gain a growing understanding of the beauty, rhythm, and organization of their environment and their own bodies as they learn ways to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and emotions to others.
Social development
The role-playing game almost always involves the participation of several children, so it is the most important factor in the social development of the child. The game often includes elements of joint planning and cooperation. Children may argue and get upset, but they get used to dealing with the interests of others. At the same time, they begin to understand that it is interesting and pleasant to play and study with peers.
Emotional development
Children bring to play what they know about life: their knowledge and delusions, their wishes and fears.
Play reflects children's understanding of social roles and relationships. Children can also act out events they have experienced or heard about. They may act out a frightening event, such as an accident they witnessed, to help deal with difficult emotions. They may also replay pleasant events to re-experience the pleasure.
In role-play, children can dress up and become whoever they want to be. Children depict people and events not only as they would like to see them, thereby expressing their desires or fears. The game gives the child the opportunity to express negative feelings that the child cannot yet put into words.
In play, children act out life experiences by selecting and organizing roles and events in accordance with the desire to maintain emotional well-being. Through play, children increase their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, their attachments and dislikes, their ability to lead and persuade or obey. All this contributes to the development of self-awareness.
Intellectual development
During drama play, children develop cognitive skills, learning to connect one with another, to understand patterns of behavior and to organize information. They try ideas and learn from trial and error, they plan and execute plans, and form a vision of the past, present, and future. Children use memory to reconstruct people and events. In the game, children create using materials and toys in completely new ways. Thus, dramatic play stimulates mental development not only through the support of creative manifestations, but also through the involvement of speech skills that play a key role in thinking and communication.
Literature used:
1. Filatova O. Theatrical game-dramatization // Game and children. - 2013. - № 2.
2. Silivon V. The development of creativity in children in the process of dramatization games // Preschool education. - 1983. - No. 4.
3. Makhaneva M.D. Theatrical classes in kindergarten: A guide for employees of preschool institutions.
