Make a kitchen outside (or inside)
You will need to include any of: large empty boxes for the cooker, fridge etc which can be painted, small table and chairs, children's aprons, foil baking cases, paper cake cases, chef’s hats, recipe books, oven gloves, weighing scales, sieves, baking trays, bowls, saucepans, cutters, icing bags, pretend cutlery, rolling pins, dried pasta, play dough, plastic food.
In addition, you could add empty packages of ingredients – for example, boxes of icing sugar, small glace cherry pots and packets of cake mix.
Encourage the children to pretend to cook and serve food using as many of the resources as they like.
An ice cream parlour
You can turn your kitchen into anything with a few adjustments! This one isn't quite so easy.
An area made over as an ice cream parlour gives the children the opportunity to engage in imaginative play –as customers or waiters.
The customers can make up their own flavours to request and see if the waiter can respond. One day you could actually bring in some different flavoured ice cream and the children could play the same roles – with tastier results! You will need to include the following: pictures of different ice creams,
some pretend ice creams (use a card cone, and cotton wool for the ice cream), ice cream scoops, tall plastic ice cream sundae glasses, empty ice cream containers and boxes, empty ice cream sauce bottles, aprons, a till, and small pads and pens
A Pizzeria
Make pretend pizzas together. Use cardboard as the base and decorate them using coloured paper and yellow wool for the cheese and other toppings. As with the ice cream parlour, the children can take on the roles of waiters or customers.
You will need: empty pizza boxes, pizza cutters, (be careful!) menus from a pizzeria, pictures of pizzas, aprons, a till, a non working phone and small pads and pens for taking orders.