1. Unit 24: Supporting Children’s Imaginative Play
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 1):
Introduce the unit by asking learners the following questions to generate discussion about children’s imaginative play.
Have you ever seen young children pretending to have a tea party or picnic, imitating animals, or using cardboard boxes to make cars or a doll’s house? Have you noticed how much young children enjoy dressing up? These are all examples of imaginative play. Many experts agree that the development of imagination through imaginative play develops essential lifelong skills. Acting out situations and stories through imaginative play provides children with many learning opportunities and enables children’s learning and development in a number of areas:
language development
emotional development
social development.
Imaginative play also supports learning by allowing children to learn mathematical concepts and to use technology by incorporating them into their play.

2. Learning aims
A Understand the importance of imaginative play for children B1 Understand planning for imaginative play
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 2):
There are two learning aims for this unit. Learning aim B is split into two parts, B1 and B2.
Learning aim A will help learners to understand the importance of imaginative play for children’s development and how imaginative play supports learning and values children’s ideas and interests.
Learning aim B will help learners to understand the valuable role that observation plays in developing and extending children’s imaginative play. They will also learn about supplying and maintaining a range of resources to support children’s imaginative play both indoors and outdoors.
Learning aim B1 will help learners learn about the role of the adult in extending children’s learning and thinking skills and ideas through support and questioning, how imaginative play can be used to develop writing, drawing and ICT skills, the importance of challenging stereotypes and promoting gender equality.
Learning aim B2 will help learners to understand how to help parents understand the value of imaginative play.
B2 Understand the role of the adult in imaginative play
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3. LA A – Key learning point
There are different types of imaginative play which have benefits for young children and support learning in a number of ways:
Imaginative play includes: domestic play, fantasy play, superhero play and small-world play.
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 3):
Types of play
The four main types of imaginative play that learners need to know about are:
domestic play – sometimes called role play – is where the children use everyday experiences they have seen and re-enact them. For instance a ‘home’ corner playing mummies and daddies, a ‘shop’ where they play shopkeeper and customer or a ‘health clinic’ to play doctors and nurses.
fantasy play – is sometimes called pretend or make-believe play. Unlike domestic play where children are often acting everyday situations, in fantasy play children make up their own stories and act them out. For instance, children could go to the seaside, become firefighters fighting a fire, explorers in the jungle, or astronauts travelling to the moon. It could be a simple story or an elaborate adventure that develops over time.
superhero play – in this type of play children copy superheroes such as Spiderman or Disney characters. This has caused some concern as sometimes superheroes can use violence and guns to win the day. However, although play may involve rough and tumble the play more often includes dens, hiding and rescuing others. Learners should check out their placement’s policy on gun and superhero play.
small-world play – children create their own ‘small world’ using, for example, small figures, cars and trucks, farm animals or dinosaurs. They may use these in the sand box or in water play, in a dolls’ house or they may build a small town with blocks. They may make up their own ‘stories’ or re-enact real experiences.
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4. Types of imaginative play
Think back to when you were younger. What types of games did you play?
Were any of them imaginative play?
What type of imaginative play were they?
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 4):
Encourage learners to discuss further the four types of imaginative play. Recap on the types of play listed in PS 3.
Put learners into small groups. Ask them to discuss what the children in the photograph are doing.
Ask: ‘What are the benefits of imaginative play to these children?’
Ask learners to think about when they were young. What types of imaginative learning did they take part in? What did they learn from their imaginative play experiences? Ask learners to discuss with the rest of the group and then feed back to the class.
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5. LA A – Key learning point (cont.)
There are different types of imaginative play that have benefits for young children and support learning in a number of ways:
Benefits – self-expression, exploring feelings, developing empathy, cooperation and skills to negotiate, exercising choice and resolving conflicts
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 5):
Explain to learners the benefits of imaginative play by making the following points.
Imaginative play benefits children’s emotional and social development by allowing children to:
explore and express their feelings and emotions (thoughts, wishes, fears etc.)
develop empathy and consideration for others through pretending to be someone else and experiencing that person’s feelings
learn essential social skills such as negotiation, cooperation with other children through taking turns, and skills for resolving conflicts with others.
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6. LA A – Key learning point (cont.)
There are different types of imaginative play that have benefits for young children and support learning in a number of ways:
Supports learning – creative thinking, extending thinking, problem solving, exploring mathematical concepts, using technology, exploring and selecting materials, developing language and literacy.
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 6):
Learners should understand that imaginative play supports learning by:
developing creative thinking – acting out situations allows children to use their imagination and develop ideas
extending thinking – it allows children to begin to extend their thinking to cope with new situations
problem solving – giving children opportunities to think ‘beyond the box’ and solve any problems which arise
exploring mathematical concepts – sometimes mathematical concepts (such as counting, shapes and space) can be introduced into the play to help children become familiar with numbers and solve simple mathematical problems
using technology and ICT – the use of technology (such as phones/mobile phones, recording equipment, walkie-talkies, cash registers, programmable toys) can be built into the play to help children make sense of their world. Learners need to remember that technology is more than just computers
exploring and selecting materials – play can involve having to select materials, for instance whether to use wet or dry sand for small world play, which paper or card and glue to use to make a hat, which materials to build a den. This can involve creating things and making choices
developing language and literacy – language is developed through imaginative play as children begin to give and carry out instructions, negotiate with others and to describe things which can develop a rich and more complex vocabulary.
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7. LA B1 – Key learning point
The role of observation of children in imaginative play is:
to help with planning future activities
to check on a child’s progress and development
to help with understanding a child’s needs, interests and preferences.
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 7):
Discuss with learners the role of observation in imaginative play, including the following ideas:
Planning: observation allows to the opportunity to monitor how children engage in imaginative play and evaluate children’s interests and experiences in order to make improvements and plan for future activities.
To check on a child’s progress and development: recording children’s learning will help adults to understand their progress and development, which in turn will help in creating imaginative play opportunities that will further their development and learning. Having an understanding of children’s skills will help in planning play that will encourage children to practise and develop those skills. Having an understanding of children’s developmental levels will enable the adult to predict what level and type of questions children will be able to answer and therefore structure their questioning accordingly to encourage problem solving, development of vocabulary and creative thinking.
Understanding a child’s needs, interests and preferences will help learners think of suitable environments for imaginative play and know what topics children will enjoy and what topics to avoid in order to encourage learning and development through imaginative play.
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8. Observation of imaginative play
Discuss what is happening in the photograph.
What other props could you use to enrich this activity?
How could you use adult engagement to enrich this activity?
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 8):
This slide considers further the role of observation in supporting and extending imaginative play.
Ask learners to discuss what is happening in the photograph.
If they were observing this activity, what notes might they make? Given that they can only see a snapshot of the activity, ask learners to use the questions on the slide to shape their thoughts.
In small groups, ask learners to discuss how they would use the observation to support their planning and how they would use it to extend the children’s imaginative play. Ask learners to make notes to feed back to the class.
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9. LA B2 – Key learning point
The role of the adult is important in observing and supporting play:
assessing the effectiveness of play
supporting play and extending thinking
promoting gender equality
working with parents to help them understand the value of play.
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 9):
Learners need to understand the importance of the role of the adult in observing and supporting imaginative play to extend and enrich play, and how the use of questioning is important in achieving this.
Questioning is important in order to extend children’s thinking. Children-focused, open-ended questions offer children the opportunity to explore and experiment with words, ideas and concepts that they are thinking about and take them further. They allow adults to gain a deeper understanding of children’s thinking skills and understanding and plan next steps based on children’s responses.
Practitioners should use a range of creative questions to encourage problem solving, vocabulary development and creative thinking.
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10. Supporting play and extending thinking
Asking children focused, open-ended questions during their play encourages:
problem solving
new vocabulary
creative thinking.
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 10):
Ask learners to take a few moments to discuss in pairs what they understand by open ended questions. Ask them to note down an example of each type of question. Learners to feed back ideas.
Problem solving: asking questions about how they might develop an activity or use materials will encourage children to problem solve.
For instance: ‘Why does it float?’ ‘How could you make it sink?’ ‘What could you add to the yellow paint to change the colour?’ ‘How could you make it go faster?’ ‘What could you use to make the bridge stronger for your truck to drive over?’
New vocabulary: children love to learn new and unusual words. While they are playing the adult could give them words to describe what they are doing or for naming and describing objects or materials. They could also ask children to describe their play so that they can ‘try out’ the new words. ‘How did you rescue the princess?’ ‘What are you going to make the baby for their dinner?’
Creative thinking: asking children about how they might develop their play or to describe their play will encourage creative thinking: ‘What would happen if you could became invisible/could fly?’, ‘What would you need to take if you went on a long expedition?’, ‘How could you catch the dinosaurs?’, ‘How could you make a den so that the baddies can not find you?’ Ask questions with lots of possible answers. When an adult asks a child a question which requires a variety of answers, they are aiding creative thinking.
Ask learners to form small groups and discuss possible open-ended questions that they could ask children who are engaged in small world play where they are using blocks as buildings and fences and a range of dinosaurs and fantasy creatures to act out a story. Learners feed back their suggestions to the whole group.
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11. Supporting children to explore and extend ideas
How can children be supported to explore and extend ideas through:
writing
drawing
ICT?
Teacher/Tutor notes (PS 11):
Introduce the importance of the use of writing, drawing and use of information and communication technology and ways to include it within imaginative play. Draw learners attention to the picture of children involved in ‘home’ role play.
Learners discuss in small groups:
how writing, drawing and ICT could be incorporated in this play activity
how writing, drawing and ICT will encourage children to explore and extend their ideas.
Learners feed back their ideas to the whole group.
They may discuss, for example: providing a notepad for shopping lists by the bags, a notepad by the telephone, forms that can be filled in. To encourage the use of ICT there could be a computer with linked software program, electronic toy kettles, microwaves that respond when buttons are pressed, digital cameras to take photographs to place on the wall of the ‘home’, or recording equipment.
Ask learners to take part in the group activity in week 13 planning their own role-play activity based on a shopping trip and then complete the questions in AS 5 individually.
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