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How to Make Your Own Playhouse Games

Children love to play house. Playing house is actually a form of dramatic play and many of the benefits of participating in a theatre class can be gained by doing dramatic play based games. While young children often create their own dramatic play games, adults can help children to engage in more rich play experiences by making additional props and games. Ideal playhouse games will extend the dramatic play activities that the children already enjoy doing. Engaging and educational playhouse games are simple and inexpensive to make and can be used in homes and classrooms.

Things You'll Need

Colorful beach towels
Bathing suits
Plastic wading pool
Old magazines with pictures of food
Scissors
Contact paper
Plastic or paper plates

Instructions

Summer in December
- 1
  Spread out beach towels on the floor to turn an area of the classroom or home into a beach during the winter season. Set buckets and shovels around the room for the children to play with.
- 2
  Dress the children in bathing suits. Put the bathing suits on over clothes if the temperature is too cold to wear bathing suits alone.
- 3
  Place a small, plastic wading pool on the ground and fill it with 2 inches of water.
- 4
  Encourage the children to sit in the pool and pretend to be at the beach. Demonstrate how to pretend to play at the beach.
Lunch Time Game
- 5
  Cut out pictures of food from glossy, color magazines using scissors.
- 6
  Place the pictures on the surface of plastic plates or paper plates.
- 7
  Cut out pieces of clear contact paper large enough to cover the pictures. Place the sticky contact paper over the picture to affix the picture to the plate.
- 8
  Place the plates in the dramatic play area and encourage the children to eat. Model how to eat the food from the plate to encourage the children to participate in the game.

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