Pretend play for 5 year olds

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 Helen 

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Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!

20 role playing games your kids will love

We all understand how important play is for a child, especially role play. In it, he models life situations, lives through them, finds a way out of them, learns to communicate, and prepares for adulthood. We can say that during the role-playing game, the child to some extent socialization occurs - the accumulation of social experience and its application.
Role-playing games develop the kid's imagination, broaden his horizons. With the help of such games, you can even organize the education of the child. In addition, role-playing games can provide a lot of useful information about how children see their family, relationships in it, what they like or, conversely, worry about. Watching a child's game, you can draw conclusions about the features of the development and mental state of your child, his character and temperament.

Role play is an important part of a young child's development. They stimulate the imagination. Pretending or artistic play is an important part of the development of a young child.

List of the best role-playing games according to

CREATIVE BABY:

1. Hotel

My children and I travel a lot and children love to visit new places. Therefore, such a role-playing game appeared in our family. Children pack their suitcases and backpacks, draw plane tickets, and the rug in the nursery can even become a swimming pool in a hotel.

2. Grocery store

This role-playing game is as old as time. Children love to play shop.

We have accumulated a lot of toy food and we even have a small grocery basket. The daughter draws prices and hangs them over the goods. Also, over time, a cash desk was acquired in IKEA. And now it's all for real. In a playful way, it is easy to learn addition.

3. Post Office

Here again, a cardboard box comes in handy! From it you can make a mailbox. Make envelopes out of paper, find old postcards. Have the children draw the stamps.

4. Doctor

Children love to pretend that they are providing medical care to their dolls and soft toys. The doctor's set is one of the most necessary toys for children. I also added a couple of used pill bottles, bits of bandage and band-aids. My daughter loves to play this game especially with her grandmothers, because this topic is so close to them.

5. Beauty salon

In the beauty salon, children play in turns: one child sits in a chair while the other child uses a comb, brushes and a water bottle to dye their hair. My daughter loves doing my makeup with a brush. And once I even allowed to paint myself with real cosmetics. It turned out very funny, but the daughter was very proud of herself.

6. Veterinary clinic

Children use the same doctor kit, only now they are veterinarians and treat toy animals instead of dolls.

7. Restaurant

Children or parents come to a restaurant and place an order. You can create a menu in advance (for example, write on a chalkboard). Teach your child to be polite if he is playing the role of a waiter. Tell me about the rules of etiquette.

8. Chef

Now one of the most popular toys is a children's play kitchen. And indeed my daughter spends a huge amount of time in the kitchen. She cooks, puts food in drawers, puts things in order. I often notice how she copies my habits. And it's good that she has a place where she herself is the mistress.

9. School

We have a school chalkboard hanging in the nursery and my daughter often pretends to write lessons on it. The daughter puts on a backpack and pretends to go to school. She sits at the table or collects her soft toys and teaches them to write and count.

10. Superheroes

Well, what can I say? Every child wants to have superpowers. Think about how to make a costume for your child's favorite superhero. Or maybe he will come up with his own character with unique abilities? As a rule, while playing this role-playing game, children simply run and jump, and adults do not even have time to follow the course of the raging childhood fantasy.

11. Family

What if now you change places? Your children will become parents, and you will become children. How will they talk to you. Surprisingly, during this game you can look at your relationship from the side, see the pros and cons. See how your child sees your communication.

12. Library

I buy a huge number of books for my children and I am always surprised how my daughter, not yet able to read, orients herself in them. It's a great idea to play and test your child how well he knows where which book is. And of course, read along! Ask your young librarian for a recommendation on what his favorite book is.

13. Ice cream shop

There are many ice cream-themed crafts. You can make cones out of colored paper, and stuff them inside with rolled balls of toilet paper. Make an impromptu counter with your child, decorate it with flags.

14. Pirates

My children love to play pirates and go on treasure hunts. They often ask me to bury the treasure and draw a treasure map. And here a cardboard box comes in handy, because it is from it that you can make an excellent ship! Don't forget the props: sabers, eye patches and talking parrots!

15. Tea party

Have a real tea party and invite animals and dolls. Almost every nursery has a table with chairs. This table is used for various activities. My daughter often hosts tea parties. She prepares for it, sets the table. And then the guests knock on the door.

16. Daughters-mothers

Playing with dolls is especially suitable for girls. My daughter loves to dress up her dolls, wash them and take them in a stroller for a walk. In addition, she sits them down at the table and prepares food for them. Of course, everyone understands that this is part of the important skills that are laid in girls from childhood. Therefore, this role-playing game is one of the first that children learn to play.

17. Train, bus or plane

To do this, you can put all the chairs in the house and place them in the children's room. One of the children becomes the pilot or guide, while the other child sits with dolls and stuffed animals in other chairs. To create an atmosphere, print tickets.

18. Camping

It is not necessary to have any special props for this. Enough backpack and blanket. Play how you leave the house, where you go, how you will set up a tent, how you will spend the night in the open. Let the children drag pillows and blankets from the beds. To create an atmosphere, turn on the sounds of nature (the sounds of the forest or the sea, depending on where you go hiking). Such a role-playing game is a great opportunity to teach how to navigate in the forest, how to light fires and other skills needed in the wild. Talk about pollution.

19. Car Wash and Tire Service

Let the children wash all their toy cars in the bathroom. Give them sponges, soap, buckets. In the summer, in the country, you can allow an outdoor car wash for bicycles and scooters. And also let them put all their vehicles in order: find the parts that have fallen off, fasten the wheels.

20. Dry Cleaning

I often advise in articles not to throw away cardboard boxes, because they make the best games in the world. In the dry cleaning role-playing game, you can make two washing machines out of 2 cardboard boxes. To do this, paint the boxes with a marker. Teach your child that things need to be numbered and marked in a special journal, observing the order. Also tell us what, how and with what you can wash. What happens when you put a white item in a colored laundry basket. This knowledge will be useful to the child in adulthood.

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Role-playing game for children 4-5 years old | Plan-summary of the lesson (middle group) on the topic:

Role-playing games for children of middle preschool age

For the plot-role-playing game of children 4-5 years old, it is characteristic, firstly, the emergence of new topics related to the knowledge acquired by the child from fiction, from adult stories, from television and radio programs, etc. (games to travel, in ship, sailors, military, construction, mail). Secondly, the increased interest of children in the book, in the environment contributes to the enrichment of the content of the previous games. A child of this age has an increased interest in the relationship of people at work. Children begin to understand that in joint collective work it is necessary to help each other, to be attentive, kind; they have ideas about friendship, camaraderie. These ideas are reflected in the game. However, sometimes in the games of children one can observe the manifestation of the negative aspects of our life. The teacher should direct the course of the game in a positive direction in time.

Games with new content require special attention of the teacher. It is important, on the one hand, to support children's interest in the game, on the other hand, to direct their communication.

In the play activity of a child of 4-5 years old, theatrical play also finds its place. Children are happy to dramatize familiar fairy tales (“Gingerbread Man”, “Fox and Hare”, “Cat, Rooster and Fox”), K. Chukovsky’s poems “Telephone”, “Confusion”, “Aibolit”, etc. At the age of 5, the child there is an interest in bold, courageous deeds. He likes to dramatize stories on the subject.

When dramatizing literary works, children strive for a truthful portrayal of the characters, emotionally experience all the events described. The game image, created on the basis of a literary work, also finds a way out in other games, which characterizes the level of development of creativity in children, their ability to reflect the main, typical in the game.

Children of this age love joint games, uniting in small groups of 6-7 people based on personal sympathies and affections. However, in collective games there are some contradictions. On the one hand, the accumulated stock of knowledge and the desire to use it in games and share it with peers contribute to the emergence of exciting game ideas, the implementation of which in most cases requires a certain number of participants. On the other hand, the opportunities for the manifestation of sensitivity, kindness, responsiveness, for the coordination of play actions in children of 4-5 years old are still small. Such a discrepancy between the desire to develop collective gaming activity and its practical implementation is associated with an insufficient level of development of moral feelings. Knowledge, ideas about what is good, what is bad, which includes the concepts of "evil", "good", why it is necessary to help each other, etc., the child has, but he has little life experience, no stability in the manifestation of moral feelings, the ability to give up one's desires, interests in favor of another, to take into account the capabilities of a peer, to evaluate his positive qualities is not sufficiently developed. Hence the inability of children to coordinate their plans. It seems to one that his invention is more interesting, to another - that his proposal is more interesting.

Often the inability to coordinate ideas leads to the disintegration of the game, the destruction of friendly contacts. This feature should be taken into account when managing the game. It is necessary to help children choose the most interesting from many proposals and at the same time use others as much as possible, thereby educating the ability to respect each other's intentions, to be attentive, to give up personal desires.

In shaping preschoolers' ability to independently distribute roles, taking into account each other's abilities, interests and desires, such techniques as revealing to children the best, positive qualities of each child, supporting his proposals, as well as creating practical situations where pupils could show a sense of responsibility for the performance of the role, kindness, sensitivity, responsiveness, knowledge of moral standards of behavior.

If several children apply for the same role, the teacher should come to their aid in such a way that, if possible, all applications are satisfied. Based on the characteristics of the development of the game, in the middle group, leadership methods should be aimed at enriching children with impressions, knowledge about the events taking place in our country, about the social essence of the collective work of adults, their conscientious attitude to their work. When getting acquainted with others, it is necessary to use methods and techniques that help the child emotionally experience the situation of labor actions with which he is currently being introduced. The connection of emotions with thinking and imagination in the process of cognition helps to focus the child's attention on the perception of specific facts, images, actions, enhances the feelings experienced by children, and contributes to the emergence of a desire to act on their own. Dramatization of literary works in the process of ethical conversations, meetings with people of different professions, didactic games, excursions provide not only the accumulation of knowledge, but also the development of children's feelings, the formation of a positive attitude towards the work of adults, towards professions.

Along with the general methods of familiarization with the environment, it is necessary to use specific methods that directly affect the development of the game concept, creativity, complicating the content of the game, enriching the game images. Such methods include the story of the teacher with the demonstration of illustrative material on the topic of the game.

In the 5th year of life, children have favorite roles. Depicting a specific or invented person in the game, the child seeks to realize his own knowledge, ideas about his actions, feelings, thoughts, deeds. And throughout many games, he conveys through his favorite role personal qualities, his attitude to a particular profession, etc.

Playing a favorite role in various game situations increases the duration and strength of the feelings experienced by the child, strengthens the emerging friendly relationships.

Equally important are the teacher's conversations about the further course of the game, conversations-stories about the possible actions of children in one role or another. Such conversations contribute to the formation of independence in choosing the theme of the game, the development of its content. Children are faced with the need to negotiate among themselves, calmly listen to each other's opinions and choose the most interesting, exciting. They develop the ability to independently think through the further course of the game, plan what needs to be done, what toys they need, how to use building material.

Special attention on the part of the teacher is required to assist the child in creating a playful image. In order for each pupil to be able to convey in role-playing the dynamics of the actions of the depicted person, his emotional manifestations, actions, relationships with people, thoughts, deeds, it is necessary, through a special selection of literary works, to give him knowledge, ideas that enrich the game image. The creation of game images by children is beneficially influenced by individual conversations about the performance of the role, individual tasks, assignments.

The teacher, participating in games, can take on the main, leading role or be one of the ordinary participants, but in any case, he must lead the game, direct the initiative and creativity of children.

Children are not always satisfied with the finished toy, they often have a desire to make their own attributes for the game. A handmade toy brings creative joy to a child, fosters interest in the creative process and, of course, contributes to the development of the content of the game. I bring to your attention some abstracts of gaming - classes on creating attributes for children for role-playing games.

"Cucumbers and tomatoes for a greengrocer's shop."

Program tasks: to teach children to depict oval-shaped objects, to develop the ability to change the direction of movement along one arc to another; convey the difference between oval and round objects; evenly place two objects on a sheet of paper; to fix the techniques of painting objects with paints of the corresponding color; learn to operate with scissors, cutting out an object in the office.

Materials: monochrome geometric shapes: oval and circle, tomato and cucumber pictures; sheets of paper according to the number of children, brushes, gouache.

Game in progress.

Game situation: “A familiar salesman from a vegetable store called me and said that they did not have time to get vegetables, and the store would open soon. He asked me to help him, but I guys will not have time to cook so many vegetables for sale, I need helpers, and you want to help me (children's answers). The seller asked the guys to cook cucumbers and tomatoes. Look at the picture (you can see the dummies), pointing to one of the vegetables, ask the children what kind of vegetable it is, what shape it is, what color. It is necessary to draw the attention of children to the fact that the tomato is round and red, and the cucumber is oval and green.

In the process of work, watch how children draw round and oval shapes, whether they use paints correctly when painting.

At the end of the work (after the work is dry) invite the children to cut the finished vegetables, load everything on the truck and send it to the greengrocer.

Next, the plot-role-playing game "Vegetable shop" is held.

"Vegetable store"

Building a store. Its design can be any - a box, a house from a designer, etc. We tell you what stores there are (grocery, toy store, furniture store). "We have a grocery store." We put goods on display. We introduce the baby to the work of sellers, at the beginning of the game the teacher takes on the role of the seller, and then can transfer it to the child. The product can be taken from children's toys or molded from plasticine, as well as drawn and cut. We pay attention to the culture of communication between the buyer and the seller. We introduce new words: cash desk, check, showcase.

Another option to prepare for the game "Shop"

Mathematical theme.

Draw price tags next to each product. The buyer must give the same amount of "money" (let's say squares). We fix the names of geometric shapes and colors. For example, price tags can be of different shapes. Money - geometric shapes cut out of colored paper. They must match. We talk: how much they paid, how much they brought the goods, how they placed them (above, below).

Another option is to buy by description. To buy any product in the store, describe it: this item is round, it has arrows and numbers, it says “tick-tock”.

A long-term plan for a role-playing game in the middle group of preschool age.

Games	Content for game skills and skills	Methodical techniques
	Mom preparations prepa The daughter fell ill, the father is taking the daughter and mother to the clinic. Mom washes and irons clothes, goes with her daughter to the puppet theater. The daughter is ill, the mother calls the doctor. Mom and daughter decorate the Christmas tree, mom takes her daughter to the hairdresser, buys food in the store, cooks dinner, meets guests. Grandmother came to visit for her birthday, mother prepares a festive dinner, sets the table, gives gifts, reads poetry. March 8. A picnic trip to the forest, preparing sandwiches, eating in the forest, playing in the forest, admiring nature.	Review of illustrations by topic. Conversations: who cares for children at home, who loves children. "Like you were in the puppet theater." “How we went shopping to the store”, “How we went to the hairdresser”, “How we prepare for the new year”, “How to meet guests”, “What would the car drive”, “How we went to the nurse's office”, “My birthday”, “My grandmother”, “What they carry and how different cars work”, “What kind of dishes are there”, “Different cars drive through the streets of the city”, “Our friend is a traffic light”, “How we play and do in the nursery garden”, “How we celebrate mother’s holiday in kindergarten”, “How we congratulated mother at home”, “Our beautiful site”, “How we measure weight and height”, “What to do if you get hurt”, “There are a lot of different departments”, “Our spring holiday”, “How we went to the forest”, “How the seller works”, “Polite buyers”, How the cafe works”, “Aibolit’s hospital”, “My dog ​​got sick”, “What is sold in the pharmacy ". Productive activity: Preparing tickets for the puppet theater. "Canned vegetables". "Fruit on a beautiful platter." "Comb for Sharik". "Christmas gifts". "Let's build a big car." "Truck for the cat." "Car with a load." "Tea-set". "Let's decorate a plate for Mishutka." "Fire engine". "Ambulance". "Gifts for Mom and Grandma" Doctor's prescriptions. "Traffic light", "Showcase", "Menu for a bunny", "My favorite pet", "Labels for medicines". Reading: Z. Aleksandrova "My bear". K. Chukovsky “Aibolit”, V. Borestov “About cars”, reading poems about mother, grandmother, A. Barto “Tamara and I”. Didactic games: “Let's treat the doll with tea”, “Let's feed the doll with lunch”, “Let's tell how the doctor treats”. "Let's measure Mishka's temperature", "What the doctor needs", "Beautiful hairstyles for dolls", "Let's learn how to tie bows", "Choose a bow for a doll", "What people ride", "Hurry up and name", "How to meet guests ”, “What are these dishes for”, “Let's set the table for tea (lunch)”, “Announce stops”, “Traffic rules”, “My friend is a traffic light”, “Let's teach the bunny to talk to the seller correctly”, “What are superfluous”. Observations: Targeted walk to the store, supervision of a nurse at work, targeted walk through the streets, observation of older children at play, observation of adults at work, feasible work to help adults,
Polyclinic Help” “Pharmacy”	A mother brings her daughter to the doctor. The doctor receives patients, asks where it hurts, measures the temperature, puts a thermometer. A doctor comes to a sick girl, examines her, puts a thermometer, prescribes medicine, and her mother buys medicine. The doctor receives patients, examines, prescribes medicine, the nurse gives an injection. The doctor arrives in an ambulance, examines, gives an injection, writes a prescription for medicine. Parents bring their children to the doctor. He examines the children, measures height and weight, writes out a prescription, the nurse lubricates the wound, bandages it. Patients come for medicine, shop windows, choose a medicine, ask a pharmacist or show a prescription.
Puppet Theatre.	Children showing a familiar fairy tale in kindergarten The builders are building a theater building, the artists are rehearsing, the usher is selling tickets, seating the audience, the artists read poetry, sing songs, and dance.
"Beauty Salon"	Male and female halls are open. Masters cut, shave, wash their hair, comb their clients. They are polite and attentive.
"Transport, construction"	Drivers take cars, refuel with gasoline, drive carefully so as not to run over people, carry materials for construction, builders build a garage. Different cars drive on the street, they carry goods. Firefighters arrive on a fire truck, put out the fire, save people. Drivers drive different cars: trucks, cars, ambulances, fire trucks, following the rules. The bus driver announces a stop, passengers enter the bus, pay for the fare, are polite and attentive to other passengers. Learn more My birthday moon Preschool learning site Peanut butter and jelly friendship Short vowel lesson How to teach colours Finding the reading level of a book Dog going to vet Working with words games How many basic shapes are there Letter h preschool Learn how to read for kindergarten