Pretend play is important for developing social skills, language skills, thinking skills, and much more. Place a whiteboard on the floor and draw story scenes to spark your child’s imagination.
Whiteboard Story Scenes for Pretend Play
I used our large whiteboard to draw a background for the pretend play. The whiteboard is simply a piece of hardboard marker board from the hardwood store.
Aiden helped draw, too. Can you tell?
In our story scene, we included roads, a train track, a river emptying into a bay, an airport, and grass.
We added pieces from the Melissa and Doug Vehicles Chunky Puzzle. I love using the chunky puzzles for pretend play {and so does Aiden}.
And then Aiden’s imagination took off… as he gathered more toys to join the scene.
He asked for a firehouse.
The firetruck had to rush to put out the fire.
The train is stopped at the train depot. The yellow car is about to stop at the stop sign. Take a look at that view!
Uh-oh, there’s an accident. The police car is getting involved.
The dog is playing in the flower garden.
This is how Aiden and I enjoy spending much of our day – playing. I love to watch his imagination at work and see the stories unfold.
More Pretend Play Ideas
- Storytelling Inspired by The Puddle – Here’s another way that we’ve used the whiteboard as a story scene. This time there’s simply a puddle drawn on the board. Watch the video of Aiden’s story, The Robot and The Puddle.
- Retell your favorite story using props like we did for Are You My Mother?
- Create 3D play scenes to go along with Little Hoot, one of our favorite owl books.
- Check out this post for over 50 storytelling ideas.
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I love this! Makes me wish we had kept some of the whiteboards when we switched to a home office rather than an office-office, but space was limited. I see some posterboard in our future.
Jen Fischer recently posted..{Ten for Tuesday} 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge
I got a large piece of markerboard from Lowe’s for around $10 (it’s back by the tileboard and flooring). Posterboard is a great idea, too. Even a large piece of drawing paper could work.
My kind of play for kids. I love it. We often used craft paper but a white board is a great permanent idea! These are the best kind of play.
I agree! There’s so much happening when they’re pretending and playing.
i love how you used different types of toys. and also that with the white board you can redo the roads when you want. pinning and sharing
andiejaye recently posted..Little Blue Truck preschool activities
I love this! I had to laugh looking at your photos, because it could be my house–our kids have so many of the same toys it’s uncanny. Even that little Lego fire and that wacky yellow Hot Wheels.
Katherine of Aurora Spitfire recently posted..where i work
That’s so funny, Katherine! My son picked out the yellow car himself.