Imaginative play or role playing is how children learn and make sense of their world. By modelling what they see happening around them, children build their social skills, vocabulary and understanding of actions and consequences.
One of the ways as a parent you can support this is through providing kids role play props. As well as providing a source of inspiration for their play, kids role play props also help develop the social, emotional and developmental skills too.
Today we’ve put together a great list of six of the best role play props to have available for your kids to play with.
Top 6 Kids Role Play Props
There are so many wonderful props kids can play with! We know we haven’t listed all of them, so please tell us in the comments below what kids role play props would make your list and we’ll make this a great resource page for everyone to use.
On our current list, the top six role playing props for children are:
1. Cardboard box – to be honest, you can’t beat a good old cardboard box. Use it as a stove, a shop, a dolls bed or a rocket ship; the possibilities are endless!
2. Dress up clothes – these can be tailored towards your child’s interests. You may have an army-mad soldier, in which case our camo coveralls or overpants would be perfect. Or for a doctor, provide a white blouse with a stethoscope drawn around the neck. Check your local op-shops for second-hand dress ups.
3. Kitchen accessories – most kids love to eat and are interested in how food is prepared. Pull out your old pots, bowls, spoons and plates to be used in their pretend kitchen.
4. Post office and letterbox – who doesn’t love getting mail? Provide pens and paper, a cardboard letterbox with a mail slot and stickers to use as stamps.
5. Food boxes – organise some empty food boxes, some fake money and a cash register for your very own supermarket.
6. Odds and ends – now this doesn’t sound very interesting, but providing a large amount of objects which don’t have a specific purpose is a great idea! For example, bits of plastic pipe and sticks can be used as combs, walking sticks or even microphones. This is where your child uses their imagination to decide how best to use a prop.
When you were growing up, what props did you love to play with? Have you used them when playing with your own children? Are there any props we’re missing from our list? Let us know in the comments now!
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Tools that mum or dad use often like hammer and nails and pieces of wood. Or perhaps their own set of garden implements to help when mum or dad are in the garden.
Fantastic ideas Jenny! Thanks so much for sharing with us.
I totally agree that boxes are a very exciting toy for kids. Often we have seen our two play more with the box that the gift came in, rather than the gift itself!
Yes, same here!!