Pretend Play Mask – Free

Practice scissor skills, coloring and imagination with this freebie to create owl and peacock masks with these pretend play masks for free!  Combine fine motor skills with gross motor skills with this fun activity.  Print the black and white versions of the masks, color the masks and cut them out (an adult can help cut out the eye holes).  Laminate them for durability or print them on heavier paper.   Then start moving around the room like an owl or a peacock.

Check out the complete Pretend Play Mask download which  includes 20+ masks to print and role play. The download is in color and black and white (color it yourself). Play pretend, retell stories or use with different classroom themes. The masks included are: owl, peacock, fox, bear, goldilocks, little red riding hood, wolf, pig, superheroes, princesses, pirates, clowns, firefighter, police officer, boat captain, chef and construction worker.

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Inexpensive DIY "Therapy" Gifts for Kids, Teachers and Parents

Make Your Own Play Time Kits

Are parents asking you for gift ideas for the holidays? Maybe you want to give your child's teacher a special gift for the classroom? Why not try creating your own gifts to give. Just like the craft stores sell all of those kits to create anything that you can think of, how about create some fun play time kits on your own.

Step 1: Buy a plastic container with a lid or decorate a cardboard or shoe box.

Step 2: Decide on a theme. Here are some suggestions:

• Ball box - include various sizes and textures of different playground balls
• Bubble box - include bubbles, different bubble wands and bubble trays
• Jump rope box - add traditional jump ropes, chinese jump ropes and double dutch ropes
• Sidewalk chalk box - have an art contest, create new black top games, hopscotch, etc.
• Activity card box - write one playground game on each, i.e. freeze tag, hide and go seek, obstacle course, etc. The children can pick out one card at a time to choose a game.
• Science box - magnifying glasses, bug containers, tweezers
• Water paint box - buckets for water, large paintbrushes and paint rollers to "paint" the black top with different designs
• Beach party box - include beach balls, tether ball set, paddle ball and Velcro mitt set
• Celebration box - include streamers and ribbon sticks to run and play with
• Catch All Box - Velcro mitts, Frisbees, soft footballs, small balls, recycled plastic milk jugs with tops cut off but handles left on to catch balls
• Hula Hoop Box - suggest hula hoop contests or use hoops to create obstacle courses
• Race Box - include stopwatches and cones; the children can set up races and time each other

Don't forget to create some active free play boxes for indoor recess or staying active on those chilly winter days as well.  These would make nice gifts for teachers and parents.  

• Pedometers - children can see how many steps they take during recess and try to increase each time.  You can get these at some dollar stores.
• Dance party box - radio with batteries, dance music.  Find an old radio player at a garage sale.
• Indoor balls - balloons and cardboard tubes.  Have the balloons all blown up.  Put them inside stockings if you are worried about balloon pieces if they pop.
• DVD box - collection of exercise DVDs for kids
• Bean bag box - include bean bags and targets to throw at
• Ebooks - Print these ebooks and put in a box or folder for teachers/parents to use to encourage motor activities:  Mini Movement Breaks, Classroom Activity Posters, Roll Some Fun , Dancing with the Owls , Imagination Action Journeys and Motor Minute Challenges.   

Creative Play

• imaginary school - include a wipe off board, paper, red pen, pretend play school packet, pencil holder.
• imaginary hospital - band aids, ace bandages, gauze and flashlight.  Try printing and laminating the pretend play doctor and hospital packet.
• imaginary play with animals - stuffed animals, pretend play animal packet, simple cages and brushes
• imaginary office - tape, stapler, paper, calculator, pens, pretend phone and name tags
• arts and crafts - unusual crayon colors, scented markers, rainbow pencils and paper.
• sensory - dollar store fidgets, different types of fabric swatches, smock and kids shaving cream
• fine motor - Lego's, fine motor breaks notepad, beads, lacing string and small clips.

With the amount of active and imaginary free play time dwindling, physical and occupational therapists can play a crucial role in educating school staff and parents on the benefits of play for ALL children.
Reference:   Dowda, Marsha, Brown, William H., McIver, Kerry L., Pfeiffer, Karin A., O'Neill, Jennifer R., Addy, Cheryl L., Pate, Russell R. Policies and Characteristics of the Preschool Environment and Physical Activity of Young Children Pediatrics 2009 123: e261-e266

Giving Meaning to Sensory Play

The Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools and Early Intervention published a small study of eight participants with sensory sensitivities according to the Sensory Profile. The participants engaged in messy play either with a pretend theme or without. When pretend play was incorporated with the messy play, the participants showed improvements in the initiation of pretend play.

In the testing conditions the researchers provided meaning to the sensory materials - ie glue the sticky cotton balls onto the bunny picture, make a shaving cream mustache on the smiley face, etc. 

Here are 5 other suggestions to provide meaning to messy play though pretend play:
1.  Use baking materials such a cupcake pans to pretend to bake cupcakes with your sensory materials
2.  Make pretend cupcakes using cupcake lines, play dough, cotton for icing and beads for sprinkles
3.  Use the hands to put shaving cream on a doll and shave it off with a pretend shaver or popsicle stick.
4.  Use sand to make a small playscape for Lego figures
5.  Wash up dolls or plastic animals with sudsy soap and wash clothes.

What are your favorite pretend sensory play ideas?

Reference: Kristin R. S. Miller OTDOTR/L & Alexia E. Metz PhDOTR/L Pretending Enhances Engagement in Messy Play for Children with Sensory Sensitivity. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention. Volume 5, Issue 3-4, 2012  

Adaptive Pretend Play

Recent research indicated that children with cerebral palsy displayed less affective expression and imagination when engaging in pretend play as compared to typically developing peers.  When the children with cerebral palsy played with adapted pretend play toys positive affective expression and imagination increased.

Pretend play is a learning experience for children that requires so many skills.  Pediatric therapists should provide consultation services to adapt toys and activities in the home, preschools and early elementary schools.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Use a switch - is it possible to adapt the toy to provide switch access?  Some pretend play toys such as pretend kitchen sets have knobs to turn on/off.

2.  Use open ended, easily manipulated, pretend play objects - For example items such a play silks are light weight and can be adapted with a wrist cuff for a child to use.  Maybe large hats to represent role playing instead of having to put full costumes on.  Costumes with velcro or ones with easy closures may work better.

3.  Make sure toys are within reach - if a child can not reach the toy it is useless.  Shelving can be lowered,  place toys on the floor or put toys on an accessible table top for all the children to experience them.

4.  Adapt handles if necessary - If objects are hard to grab try to build up handles or knobs to make it easier to grasp.  For example, you could use foam around toy baby bottles to make it easier to hold.

5.  Try large, bright materials - For example if playing grocery store use regular size recycled boxes with adapted grips if necessary.  You could cut handles into cereal boxes making them easier to lift.  Limit visual stimulation in the background.

6.  Provide demonstrations - Not necessarily an adaptation but sometimes children may benefit from suggestions of how to use the toys for pretend play.

What ideas or suggestions do you have for adapting pretend play?

Need ideas to help teach pretend play?  Check out the Pretend Play School forms, Pretend Play Doctor and Hospital and Pretend Play Animals to help spark the imagination.

Reference:  Hsieh HC. Effectiveness of adaptive pretend play on affective expression and imagination of children with cerebral palsy. Res Dev Disabil. 2012 Jun 22;33(6):1975-1983. [Epub ahead of print