Make a fun invitation to play with pretend pancake making ingredients! Lots of imaginative cooking play and playful literacy learning at the same time with this easy to set up activity.
Most of our Invitation to Play set ups stay simply as photographs o our Facebook page, but occasionally they are enjoyed so much by the kids that I pop them into a post here on the blog for future reference. This was one of those activities which I set up for the girls last pancake day, and have got out again this week for them to enjoy as it was so much good fun!
On our chalk board table (any table top would do, just cover it with paper to draw on first), I made little stove top to make it into a pretend cooking area. Then we set out all the ingredients for pretend pancake making, and this took all of 5 minutes to throw together.
In this set up we had:
yellow circles of felt to represent pancakes
an old egg box filled with Wooden Play Eggs
jar of blue pom poms to represent blueberries
small mixing bowl
whisks and spoons
wooden juice and butter
plastic bottle with flour inside (glue the lid on to keep it sealed)
plastic bottle with water and a squirt of white paint inside to represent milk (glue the lid on to keep it sealed)
chalk
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As with all play invitations like this, I left it out for them to play and they got straight to it, mixing all the ingredients vigorously and whisking up a pretend pancake batter! They flipped the pancakes in the frying pan like they had seen us do at home together, adding blueberries on top to serve. Pop asked for maple syrup which we aded using an old container to pretend to pour from. They loved both the cooking aspect and the serving to others too, pretending to be waitresses at the pancake restaurant!
And I snuck in a little playful literacy by labelling all the items for them to match to and leaving out the chalk for them to make marks with if they chose to as well.
What they are learning as they play:
literacy: recognising words, decoding words, labelling items
creativity: imaginative play, using one object to represent another in play, role play
knowledge of the world: recipes, baking
I really like this invitation to play 🙂 Great idea to put it on the blackboard and label with chalk. I have a little wooden table painted with blackboard paint and will use it similar way next time 🙂
Just love this idea! Fabulous and even though pancake day is officially over I will certainly be trying this, this week. Sure my little ones will LOVE it! Thank you! 🙂
Oh, Anna, I just love this invitation to play. I can just hear the stories my preschoolers will be telling with this one. Thanks, as always, for the ideas you share with us!
Wow. This is just amazing. My kids will be totally smitten with this. Well done 🙂
love love love love this! perfect and fun and awesome in every way possible!!!!! xoxo
We had a pretend pancake flipping competition, but nothing on that scale! This looks brilliant, as usual Anna. Will be pinning for later. Mel
This is such a delightful idea that my boys enjoyed playing! Hope to also share on my parenting page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ConsciousParentingApproach -please pass by and say Hello to us too!!
Thanks so much for this brilliant idea! I LOVE your website and use loads of your ideas but this was one of the biggest successes of all, my kids loved it! Thank you.