You will need: • Costumes, hats, adult clothes, shoes, bags, ties, jackets, gumboots, scarves, necklaces and anything else that might be available or allowable • Props such as a piece of hose, brooms, buckets, dolls, rolled up newspapers, umbrellas, old tools • Simple household items such as containers, wooden spoons, pots, blankets

You can:

• Set the scene by setting up some items and suggest a starting point by saying ‘I wonder…’

• Have the items available for your child to create their own wonderful fantasy

You can also:

• Create a box of items that children can return to. Keep adding and removing items to provide variety

• Create a story for them to act out, for example, you are shipwrecked, you are going to the moon, you are a movie star, you are on X Factor, you are a shop keeper, let’s make a hangi

• Use a pretend game as a distraction

Did you know:

• Children make sense of the world around them through pretending

• Pretend play provides your child with a variety of problems to solve

• You can get great items for pretend play from thrift shops and the $2 shops

What your child is learning:

• Confidence in themselves

• To imagine

• About roles and responsibilities in life

• To organise

• To improvise

• Use materials or props creatively

• Keep themselves busy

• Social and emotional skills

• Problem-solving

• The power of language