Home » Misc » Imaginative activities for preschoolers

Imaginative activities for preschoolers


What is imaginative play? 10 ideas for the whole family

  1. Home/
  2. Inspire Environmental Play/
  3. What is imaginative play? 10 ideas for the whole family

What is imaginative play, and how can it help kids? Find out here – and discover 10 fun imaginative play ideas to try with your little ones.

Have you ever bought your little one a toy, only to watch them play with the packaging for hours instead? With a little imagination, children can turn the simplest of objects into toys worthy of hours of attention. This kind of pretend-play is worth encouraging, too – here’s why.

What is imaginative play?

Imaginative play is when a child uses their imagination to role-play scenarios they have seen, experienced or would like to experience. It’s a kind of open-ended, unstructured play, with no rules, goals, or result – except that kids learn a lot along the way. 

Examples of imaginative play can include pretending to cook, clean, save the world, beat bad guys, host exceptionally dignified dinner parties, become the mayors of cities, slay dragons and extinguish fires. There is no limit to what can be considered imaginative play, as long as your child is using their imagination (and sometimes, props) to act out the scenario.

So what are the benefits of imaginative play?

Kids these days are surprisingly busy. As well as school and homework, plenty of them also play sports, join clubs, are tutored, and take music or language lessons. Imaginative play allows kids to relax, let go, and just be kids. 

But the benefits of imaginative play don’t stop there. Experts believe (pdf - 3.8MB) that this kind of real play can do a lot for kids’ development, improving their social and language skills, boosting their creativity and problem-solving abilities, keeping them active, and (most importantly) making them happy.

So how do you pull kids away from TVs, tablets, and laptops, and encourage them to simply play? Here are some examples of imaginative play activities to get you started. 

10 imaginative play ideas to try with your kids

While the imaginative play ideas below can help you kick off some amazing games of pretend with your kids, it’s important to avoid imposing your own idea of what the game should be on them. If your kids say the rug you bought for an imaginary picnic is a patch of deadly quicksand, go with it – and start looking for a branch to pull them out!

  1. Cook an imaginary meal.

     

    Children love to act out the ordinary things their parents do. Help your little one get into the role of future chef by laying out cooking equipment, “ingredients”, or even a drawn-out hob for them to play with. Let them serve you up a meal, and prepare to pretend that mud pie is your favourite.

  2. Throw picnics and tea parties.

     

    Bad weather outside? No problem. Set up your own indoor picnic with a picnic rug, your child’s favourite toys and a few kitchen-related props. Remember: pinkies up at all times, and never fail to ask whether Teddy would like more tea or cake. Etiquette matters. 

  3. Play super heroes.

     

    Don a cape or choose an action figure and embark on the greatest fight between good and evil that the world has ever seen. It’s even more fun if you play the villain and let your child defeat you. Perfect your “I’m meeeellllltiiiing” speech, and remember that you would have gotten away with it, too – if it weren’t for those pesky kids . . . 

  4. Turn a box into . . . anything.

     

    One of the best things about imaginative play is that you don’t need any special props to do it. For example, an ordinary large-ish cardboard box can become a house, a car or an aeroplane. Flatten it out, and you have a desert island. Give your little one a few boxes and watch for a bit to see what they do. Jump in once they’ve decided what the game is going to be.

  5. Put on a performance.

     

    It’s the ultimate improv exercise: using whatever props you have to hand (puppets, dolls, action figures, hairbrushes, boxes can all help), act out a play with your child. Let them dictate the plot as you go!

  6. Plant up a (fake) garden.

     

    They might only be cardboard cutouts of flowers and imaginary vegetable patches, but your child can still have fun watering, weeding and looking after them. All the fun of a real garden, with none of the risk.

  7. Build a city.

     

    Toys like Lego and building blocks can be useful props for this game. Help your little one build a metropolis, then run the town together.

  8. Clean the house.

     

    Ever turned around after doing a household chore, only to find a little helper copying you? Kids are often strangely fascinated by housework. The next time you’re vacuuming or mopping the floor, give your child a prop so they can follow you around the house and take part.

  9. Run a shop.

     

    If your child owned a shop, what would they sell? Help your child stock their shop’s cupboards, pretend to be a series of customers, and use (fake) money to buy their wares.

Play explorer. With a simple magnifying glass, accompany your child on an expedition around the house. Could a hair clip be the key to a lost temple? A sweet wrapper the cloak of a tiny magician?

Sounds fun, right? Remember, the benefits of imaginative play can extend to you too — so connect with your inner child and lose yourself in a world of imagination.  

Share

FacebookTwitter

7 Imagination Games for Kids

Imaginative children are generally more creative, better problem-solvers, and more confident than their peers, so child psychologists emphasize the need for imaginative play. Unfortunately, the modern world’s fixation on television, video games, and highly structured activities tends to stifle, rather than encourage, imagination. We’d like to suggest seven imagination activities for kids to help them grow and develop their creativity.

Dress Up

Dress-up and let’s pretend games have fostered imagination activities for kids for centuries. Encourage them to create their own imaginary worlds with a trunk of dress-up clothing. Old Halloween costumes, interesting clothing from thrift stores, and a selection of hats and accessories can keep kids occupied for hours. A personalized book like Super Kid! comes with a superhero cape and mask, perfect for superhero playtime!

Reading

Reading encourages children to actively use their imagination in ways movies and television simply cannot. Reading introduces children to a near infinity of worlds and characters to include in their imaginative play, while encouraging them to visualize the book’s story. A television story doesn’t require any mental effort from a child, but books ask them to imagine locations, acts, voices, and feelings. A book like I Can Change the World! builds empathy and kindness in children, teaching them that even small acts can make a larger impact.

Combine favorite books with props and toys stimulates pretend play. For instance, if your child loves a pirate book, offer toy ships, bandanas, and a plastic sword and you have all the ingredients needed for swashbuckling adventures on the high seas. Book gift sets like My Very Own Fairy Tale come with a fairy wand to transform your child into a fairy prince or princess performing magical deeds.

Boxes

Few toys hold the imaginative possibilities of a large cardboard box. To a child, a large box is a fort, a rocket ship, a palace, or a secret headquarters. Boxes just seem to generate imagination activities for kids.

If you don’t have a large box, ask your local furniture or appliance store if they have any boxes you can take. children can decorate the box with crayons and markers, and you can help cut out needed windows, doors, or portholes.

Cloud and Star-Gazing

People have created shapes in the stars and clouds for millennia. Grab a couple of blankets, lie on your back with the kids, and ask them what they see. Have contests to see who can come up with the silliest shapes for new star constellations, or try to guess what each person sees in a cloud.

Arts and Crafts

We’re big on children’s crafts at I See Me!, but right now we’re not talking about the kinds of artwork that requires close supervision from adults. Instead, we’re talking about providing children with paint, pencils, or clay and letting them create their own masterpieces.

Sure, the resulting art may not be as nice or well-formed as more complicated, adult-led crafts, but that’s not the point. You’re allowing your child to explore creativity on her own terms, which helps build a healthy imagination. Personalized coloring books offer parent and child quality time together and ignite a child’s artistic imagination!

Spend Time Outdoors

Nature has inspired the imagination of some of humanity’s most brilliant artists, so why not your child? Ever-changing, the great outdoors offers all manner of opportunities to explore and play, as well as an ongoing source of all-natural leaves, twigs, and flowers for art projects.

Let Them Get Bored

As parents, we’re expected to provide scheduled activities for children on a near continuous basis, as if boredom is the greatest disaster we could afflict on a child.

It isn’t. In fact, allowing children to get bored can stimulate their imagination. Cries of “I’m bored” can be met with a challenge to use their resourcefulness and creativity to entertain themselves. If you’ve already primed them to use their imagination, children will think of something to do (or something they aren’t supposed to do—it pays to keep an eye on things, just in case).

9 ideas for creative activities with children


Irina Balmanzhi

The 500 Creative Ideas Collection contains original games and workshops to inspire your child to draw, build, write poetry and stories, sing, dance and improvise anywhere, anytime. We publish some interesting exercises from the book.

Creativity with babies (2-3 years old)

The kid is interested in everything around. Unquenchable curiosity and a craving for experimentation fuel creativity like nothing else.

Between 2 and 3 years of age is an excellent time to explore creative activities such as music, dance, acting, building with blocks, word art, and writing.

Children at such a young age cannot sit still for more than a couple of minutes. But even these moments of passionate creative pursuits are extremely important.

Flyer Collage

Finally, there is a worthy use for all these flyers and brochures - we will make a bright and original picture out of them!


Resource

You will need:

  • Non-toxic markers or crayons
  • Cardboard sheet
  • Advertising thrown in your mailbox (flyers, brochures, envelopes)
  • Non-toxic white glue (PVA glue; use with parental supervision only)
  • Child safety scissors

Create with your child! Let everyone create their own collage from scraps and scraps of colorful flyers and complement it with drawings made with felt-tip pens, pencils or crayons.

Cardboard city

Baby, mom (or dad, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, etc.) and a huge box - what an adventure!


Source

You will need:

  • 4-6 medium to large cardboard boxes (available at the grocery store, just make sure the boxes are clean)
  • Colored paper and tape (to cover boxes)
  • Dolls, animal figurines, stuffed animals (“inhabitants” of the houses you will build)

Place the boxes in a large room or take them outside and show your child how to play: build a tower out of boxes, on each “floor” of which toys will “live” - let them sit in boxes. Or line up the boxes. Now let the kid play on his own. What house will he build? Who will he put there?

Basket of fairy tales

To compose an interesting story, all you need is a piece of paper with only one word written on it!

You will need:

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Basket

Think of ten words or topics that could be the plot of a fairy tale and write them on slips of paper. On each sheet, you can also draw something or stick a small photo or picture. Fold the leaves in half and throw them into the basket.

Ask your child to take a piece of paper from the basket. Make up a short children's story or story (2-3 minutes) using the word, picture, or story that comes up. The story can be funny and unpretentious, about events and actions that are understandable and familiar to kids from everyday life.

Accompany the story with facial expressions and gestures. Attract interest with your voice: make non-scary sounds, move to a whisper, speak in a high voice or bass.

Creativity with preschoolers (3-5 years old)

Three, four, five years old is a great age for a variety of creative activities. At this time, role-playing games and acting skills come to the fore. Children love trying new materials. They like to play with the constructor. They listen carefully and love to be told funny stories and read children's books. They are attracted to music and dance.
You can do a lot to develop your preschooler's fantasy. Spend more time with him, listen to music, tell stories, put on puppet shows, draw and construct. Over time, creativity will become something familiar, familiar, and after many years your efforts will pay off a hundredfold!

Stick puppets

Take a wooden stick, attach a picture of your favorite character to it, make a costume for him - the stick puppet is ready!

You will need:

  • Markers or wax crayons
  • Cardboard
  • PVA glue
  • Fabric scraps
  • Wool threads
  • Color paper
  • Glitter adhesive
  • Child safety scissors
  • Insulating tape
  • Wooden stick (e.g. for ice cream)

Sit next to each other and make your own doll. Draw some character on the cardboard. Decorate the drawing with pieces of fabric, woolen threads and colored paper. Use glitter glue to draw details and add sparkle!

When the design is ready, carefully cut it out along the outline. Attach a wooden stick to the back of the picture - you get a chrysalis on a stick. Then put on a puppet show on the kitchen table (for example, you can act out your favorite children's fairy tale).

My Family Poster

Kids love making large colorful posters with letters and pictures. And this one is also dedicated to the family.


Illustration from My Family Book

You will need:

  • Large size solid color cardboard sheet
  • Photos of family members (or child with other family members)
  • Glue or tape
  • Markers

Have the child choose their favorite photos of family and friends, lay them out on a large piece of cardboard and stick them on. You can come up with funny captions for pictures together. Help older children write names under the photo.

Six questions

A simple and fun game that adults can use. It will help you write incredible stories!

You will need:

  • Pencil and paper

Explain to your child that together you will make up a funny story about animals, people or imaginary creatures. Then ask him six questions (see below) and you'll have ideas on where to start. (If you are afraid to forget, write down the answers.)

  • Who will be the hero of our story? (Child answers: "Crocodile!")
  • What is his name? ("Lesha!")
  • Where does he live? ("In the house")
  • What color is the house? ("Pink")
  • What does the crocodile like to do in his free time? ("Play football")
  • What is his favorite food? ("Ice cream!")

Collect all the answers and start composing! Introduce your hero and come up with a funny and ridiculous plot, weaving all the details into it. Do not drag out the story, because the attention of a 3-5-year-old child will not be enough for a long time (no longer than 3-6 minutes).

Creativity at school age (6–12 years old)

Ages 6 to 12 are ideal for creative activities. The motor skills of the child are already quite developed, and he is well controlled with any tools and materials. Drawing, music, construction, dancing, theater, storytelling - everything is subject to him!

The task of adults is to create conditions so that the child can try himself in all kinds of creativity that he likes. Remember: he must like what he does. Do not put pressure on him, and he will take on new projects with optimism and confidence.

Creative activities for young photographers

Children aged 6-12 love taking pictures! Collections of original shots can be saved, made into collages, and used for other creative projects.


Source

You will need:

  • Camera

Give your child a task: find and photograph objects of a certain color or places of interest. He can choose the theme for his pictures and make his own collection of photos. To get you started, here are six topics for photo finds.

1. Colors . The child chooses a color or color combination and takes pictures of interesting objects of the same color that come across to him.

2. Nature . Plants, animals, water, sand, clay, puddles - the list is endless. Let the child capture all the most beautiful things in nature.

3. Places . Just take a closer look at the most familiar things: buildings, sidewalks, hills, villages, schools, playgrounds, auto repair shops, supermarkets, banks... Is it possible to photograph all this in an original way? Maybe from close range or far away?

4. Friends . It can be people or four-legged friends. Invite your young photographer to take some pictures of your friends in unusual situations and try to capture their actions, movements, facial expressions.

5. Toddlers . Babies and baby animals are the perfect subject for photography: they sleep, play and move in a completely different way than adults! Encourage your child to take pictures of babies or baby animals in the yard, at the zoo, or in the countryside.

6. funny photo . Can your young photographer catch strangers (and acquaintances) or your pet in funny situations? Or take a picture of you laughing heartily? (Maybe your photographer would like to collect a whole collection of pictures of laughing and smiling people.)

Strange Familiar Tales

This is a very fun and useful exercise for developing the imagination.


Source

You will need:

  • Paper and pencil (or computer and printer)

We choose one of the classic fairy tale plots and come up with a new denouement! We write it down or tell a new story aloud.

Classic fairy tales to remake:

  • Snow White
  • Wolf and Fox
  • Ugly duckling
  • Geese-swans
  • Cinderella
  • Puss in Boots
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Little Red Riding Hood
  • The Princess and the Pea
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Three Bears
  • Three Little Pigs
  • The Frog Princess

Cardboard Robot

Gather the supplies and let your child feel like an innovator robot builder! Robots can be painted in different colors, painted with unusual patterns, and even give them different facial expressions.


Source

You will need:

  • Various sizes of cardboard boxes (small, medium and large)
  • Various types of tape and electrical tape - plastic tape, packing tape, transparent tape
  • Scissors
  • Possible, but optional: toilet paper rolls, plastic bottles, plastic cups, bottle caps, egg cartons, markers, glue, fluffy wire

This is a co-creation project: make your own cardboard robot from the suggested materials. (Older children can work on their own.)

The project is challenging and trial and error, but it helps children learn how to find the best solutions and put parts together in the most efficient way.

Keep a positive attitude, remember that the main thing in any business is the pleasure of the process itself, and be ready to help correct small design flaws.

Based on the book "500 Ideas for Creative Development"
Post cover from here

11 creative activities for adults and children

Nurturing a creative person is a terribly exciting thing! I have collected a selection of ideas that I know about thanks to my passion for TRIZ pedagogy and the method of developing creative imagination (CIT). I write about this in my blog.

So, games and activities for kids and adults that help them become more creative.

1. Draw with both hands.

The essence of the process is that you draw with both hands at the same time, creating a symmetrical, "mirror" pattern. Pencils, pens, felt-tip pens are suitable for drawing. An advanced option is when the right and left hands draw different patterns, for example, a circle and a square.

2. Look for patterns in patterns, natural objects, abstract wallpapers.

This lesson is great for developing imaginative thinking. The ability to see images in abstract squiggles is the basis for the development of creative thinking and imagination.

3. Read long words backwards.

Einenert!

The word sounds like it is in an unfamiliar language. What associations does it evoke? Maybe it's a name or title? What can you tell about it?

4. Create short-lived paintings from unusual materials.

Products, buttons, flower petals, thread, stones and so on.

5. Play shadow play.

By the way, tracing different shadows on paper is also a good trainer for the ability to see images.

6. Come up with as many uses for familiar objects as possible.

Cans, tubes, disposable tableware, boxes… Resource thinking develops in such games. A "volumetric" look at familiar things appears, it is inherent in all real inventors!

7. See situations as both positive and negative, playing good-bad.

Rules of the game: take any statement or situation. For example, "leaves fall in autumn." Next, we look for all the pluses, then the minuses of this statement: good - you can pick beautiful bouquets, rustle with fallen leaves, bad - the trees stand bare, fallen leaves can slide unpleasantly ... Then follow suggestions on how to turn harm into benefit (an important postulate in TRIZ!) . For example, while the trees are without leaves, decorate them with garlands to make it more beautiful and cozy.

Learn more