Home sweet home
7 Jul 2008
Have fun acting out familiar scenarios in your role-play home
Playing house
Turn the role-play area into a ‘home setting’. Include a kitchenette with commercial or child-made appliances such as a cooker, microwave, refrigerator and sink. Provide toy utensils such as plates, cups and spoons. Set up a low-level table and chairs and provide decorative items such as tablecloths, plastic vases and pretend flowers. Use a bookcase or shelf for the children to store cookery books, family photo frames and household ‘knick-knacks’ such as keys, pens and pretend bills. Hang framed pictures or the children’s paintings on the walls.
Encourage the children to take turns to act out the role of different characters within a home such as mum, dad, brothers and sisters. Make sure that all the children are included and be sensitive to the needs and experiences of individuals who may not live with their birth parents.
1 House party
Prepare a party in the role-play home setting
Communication, Language and Literacy
Handwriting
Development matters: use one-handed tools and equipment (30-50 months); begin to form recognisable letters (40-60 months).
Early learning goal: use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.
What you need
Group size: small groups.
Home setting role-play area; brightly coloured paper; child scissors; glue; glue sticks; long strips of plain paper; thick felt-tipped pens; plain white folded card; coloured pencils.
What to do
Talk about different types of parties that the children have enjoyed at home with their families. Ask them to recall any special memories, for example, colourful decorations displayed around the house; party food; gifts and cards; music and songs; and games.
Invite the children to use strips of paper to create a variety of colourful bunting or streamers to decorate the home setting for a party, and help them to make simple banners and write messages such as ‘Welcome home’, ‘Happy birthday’ or ‘Happy Eid’ on them.
Encourage the children to make pretend greetings cards or party invitations to display around the home setting with relevant phrases on the front and imaginary messages inside.
Support
Help the children to write their name or initial letter inside the pretend greetings cards that they make.
Extension
Place a commercial or child-made postbox near to the home setting. Invite the children to write pretend names and addresses on party invitations to post during role play.
Birth to 36 months
Invite the children to draw colourful shapes on to a sheet of paper or card using crayons, finger paints or thick pencils to create colourful party decorations.
Cross-curricular links
PD – use a range of small and large equipment.
CD – explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions.
2 Fly away home
Join in imaginative play based on safety in the home
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Dispositions and Attitudes
Development matters: take pleasure in learning new skills (16-26 months); begin to develop self-confidence and a belief in themselves (22-36 months).
Early learning goal: be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group.
What you need
Group size: small groups.
Home setting role-play area with pretend log, coal or electric fire; toy fireguard (alternatively, draw a mesh design on to a large sheet of cardboard and then fold the two sides inwards so that it is free-standing); pretend candles (or candles with wick removed); craft matchsticks (create a black tip using a felt-tipped pen); real household fire alarm (adult use); toy telephone; firefighter’s dressing-up clothes.
What to do
Talk about positive actions that can be taken in the home to help prevent a fire, for example, using a fireguard and not leaving tea lights or candles unattended. Use this opportunity to emphasise the importance of never playing with matches.
Look at a real household fire alarm with the children and let them hear the loud sound that it would make if it was set off by smoke. Talk about the fire service and the emergency telephone number ‘999’.
Encourage the children to explore the theme of safety in the home further during role play using simple props to prompt ideas and actions.
Support
Gather the children together to talk about their role-play scenarios.
Extension
Set up a simple role-play fire station near to the home setting. Encourage the children to act out scenarios between the home setting and the fire station.
Birth to 36 months
Say the favourite rhyme ‘Ladybird, Ladybird’ with the children.
Cross-curricular links
CLL – sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard by relevant comments, questions or actions.
KUW – ask questions about why things happen and how things work.
3 Spring cleaning
Clean and tidy the role-play home setting
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Place
Development matters: show an interest in the world in which they live (30-50 months); notice differences between features of the local environment (40- 60 months).
Early learning goal: observe, find out about and identify features in the place they live and the natural world.
What you need
Group size: small groups.
Home setting role-play area; real or toy cleaning tools such as a dustpan and brush, mop, feather duster and broom; digital camera and computer with printing facilities.
What to do
Talk with the children about different ways that they help at home, for example, putting toys away, dusting and washing up. Talk about other jobs that need to be done to keep a home clean and tidy, for example, cleaning the windows, making the beds and washing the floor.
Provide a range of cleaning tools for imaginative play, for example, a dustpan and brush, mop and long feather duster. Invite the children to take turns to ‘mess up’ the home setting for their peers to clean and tidy during role-play. If possible, invite the children to take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs to show the difference between a tidy home and a messy home.
Home links
Help the children to feel proud of their home setting by encouraging them to show their parents or siblings the area, including how clean and tidy they are keeping it.
Further ideas
Enlarge a copy of the ‘Welcome to our home’ photocopiable sheet. Invite the children to decorate the objects shown using felt-tipped pens, fabrics and magazine pictures, then cut them out and place them in the home corner.
Support
Show the children how to handle the cleaning tools safely.
Extension
Encourage the children to extend their play by imagining different reasons for spring cleaning, for example, a flood inside the home, the day after a party, moving house or visitors coming to stay.
Birth to 36 months
Let the children help to wash a dirty toy, doll or teddy.
Cross-curricular links
PSED – work as part of a group, taking turns and sharing fairly.
CD – respond in a variety of ways to what they see, touch and feel.
Welcome to our home activity
Use felt-tipped pens, fabrics and magazine pictures to put books on the shelf, a picture in the frame, objects on the table and toys in the toy box. Cut them out and use to decorate the home corner
Role-play Ted poster notes
Great activity ideas covering all six Areas of Learning and Development to use alongside the charming Nursery Ted poster.
Let's pretend poster notes
A variety of activities covering the six Areas of Learning and Development to accompany the wonderful illustrated ‘Let’s pretend’ poster
Let's pretend poster
Read this delightful rhyme and talk about the accompanying images on this captivating poster to motivate the children’s interest in dressing up and taking on different roles
Role-play Ted poster
This charming poster introduces our teddy bear character, Nursery Ted, dressed for different roles. Display it to encourage discussion about occupations and enhance imaginative role play
Dress up Ted game
Help dress Nursery Ted in his different role-play outfits. Click on the items of clothing and drag them onto Nursery Ted. See if you can complete all six outfits!
