Putting The Pretty In Preschool

Finding Beauty In Everyday Early Childhood Experiences

dramatic play

Winter Wonderland Pretend Play

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A sparkly, kids' Winter Wonderland tablescape with snowman, snowflake, and snowball accessories for little learners to explore.

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Catching fluttery snowflakes on mittens, building a humungous snowman, and having a splattering snowball fight are all activities little learners gleefully participate in outside. This inviting kids’ winter wonderland pretend play tablescape takes snowflake, snowmen, and snowball activities indoors for further snow-themed exploration.

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Kids’ Winter Wonderland Pretend Play Supplies

Let your little learners explore a sparkly Winter Wonderland tablescape with snowmen, snowflake, and snowball accessories.

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For this cozy pretend play setup, I feature snowmen, snowball, and snowflake accessories from the supplies I have available. Craft bits and other loose parts feature prominently in the resulting collection.

Items in the winter tablescape:

  • snowman-themed tablecloth, dinner plates, cups, baking dish, oven mitts, cookie tin, and bottle
  • snowflake erasers
  • foam snowflakes
  • snowflakes cut from garland
  • blue and clear gem snowflakes
  • snowflake serving utensils, cupcake liners, and tin
  • large and small styrofoam balls
  • round winter-themed gems
  • cookie sheet
  • muffin tin
  • plastic forks and spoons
  • play food buns
  • Winter Wonderland sign

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Setting Up The Winter Tablescape

Changing up the decor in our play kitchen is one of my favorite things to do. And little learners always eagerly dive into each new setup.

When it's cold and chilly outside little learners can explore snowmen, snowflakes, and snowballs indoors in a Winter Wonderland play tablescape.

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For this kids’ winter wonderland tablescape, a fabric snowman-themed tablecloth is a base.

The buns are the only real play food on the table.

A variety of loose parts add a dose of glam, and little learners can imagine them to be any number of foods. For instance, the foam snowflakes make good cookies to bake in the play oven. The large foam craft balls can be reimagined as snowball cookies.

A sparkly, kids' Winter Wonderland play tablescape with snowman, snowflake, and snowball decor for little learners to explore.

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And the smaller loose parts displayed in the snowman baking tin and scattered around the table could be candy.

A sparkly, kids' Winter Wonderland pretend play setup with snowman, snowflake, and snowball play kitchen decor for little learners to explore.

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A polar animal theme would work fabulously for winter wonderland pretend play too. Here’s a super fun penguin-themed tablescape by birdsparty.com.

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Snowflake Cafe Dramatic Play Printable Set

This Snowflake Cafe dramatic play printable set is an alternative pretend play center. It

• is ideal for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary classrooms
• supports dramatic play, counting, writing, and social skills
• is great for winter units, indoor recess, or learning centers
• is perfect for a play date
• is an excellent activity to pack on trips
• is easy to prep—just print, cut, and play
• is easy to store

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Related:

Winter Playdough Recipe

Spray Paint Snowflake Silhouette

Blue Candy Cane Science Experiment

Winter-themed Treasure Blocks

Igloo Camping Pretend Play

Polar Bear Small World

Winter Sensory Trays

Painting Ice and Snow

Winter Wreath Paper Plate Craft

Ice Drum Musical Instruments

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Chinese New Year Pretend Play

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Little learners will love to explore this Chinese New Year tablescape set up filled with Asian artifacts and red and gold loose parts.

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This Chinese New Year pretend play invitation features Asian artifacts and decorations. Little learners will love exploring the unique items and will learn about Asian culture.

Chinese New Year, also called the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is an important celebration held in late January or early February in China. Many other East Asian countries, as well as Chinese people around the world, celebrate the holiday too.

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Chinese New Year Pretend Play Supplies

A Chinese New Year tablescape filled with Asian artifacts and red and gold loose parts for little learners to explore.

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The following red and gold Asian-themed supplies are featured in the pretend play tablescape:

  • wicker decorations and hat
  • gold serving bowl
  • chopsticks
  • red bowls
  • gold glitter cups
  • tiny cups with calligraphy
  • candy decorations
  • fish ornament
  • play food fish
  • gold garland “noodles”
  • game chip “play food”
  • tin ornament candies
  • coin purse
  • money envelopes
  • small tins
  • vase with artificial cherry blossom branch
  • gold coins
  • lion string puppet
  • fabric ornaments with tassels
  • plaque with Chinese calligraphy
  • red tablecloth

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Chinese New Year Pretend Play

A Chinese New Year tablescape filled with Asian artifacts and red and gold loose parts for little learners to explore.

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In setting up the dinner table play invitation, I used artifacts collected long ago, supplies available in stores around Chinese New Year, and red and gold loose parts.

Bowls and chopsticks are important pieces, as they are commonly found in Asian tableware.

Fish is a traditional New Year’s dish and is equated with an increase in prosperity.

The gold bead garland strips represent longevity noodles: long, uncut noodles that symbolize a long life.

A coin purse and money envelopes are ready for coins to be added.

And a lion string puppet is poised for the lion dance.

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Little learners will love to explore this Chinese New Year tablescape set up filled with Asian artifacts and red and gold loose parts.

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More Chinese New Year Play Inspiration

This pretend play invitation is bound to engage little learners. For more Chinese New Year play ideas or to host a vibrant party, view the blog post “How To Throw A Stellar Lunar New Year Party” by So Fort Worth It. The post showcases a host of decorating and activity ideas that can be adapted for little learners.

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Lunar New Year Lantern Craft

Add a festive, cultural touch to your Lunar New Year celebration or Chinese New Year theme in minutes with this beautiful Lunar New Year Lantern craft! It’s a great addition to a pretend play center in a preschool, kindergarten, or elementary school classroom.

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This gorgeous printable set comes in five designs and two sizes, offering multiple decorating options.

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The paper lantern themes are dragons, cherry blossom branches, flowers, a knot emblem, and a lion.

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Download this easy-to-assemble, stunning lantern craft on Etsy today!

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“Year of the Horse” Wall Art

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This “Year of the Horse” wall art is perfect for an entryway, classroom, or office. Download it at Skills N Smiles on Etsy for Lunar New Year or Zodiac-themed decor, or a cultural celebration display.

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The “Year of the Horse” art print will elevate your Lunar New Year decor, and is available as an instant download on Etsy. It comes in four print sizes, and PDF and PNG formats.

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Get this “Year of the Horse” Chinese Zodiac-themed wall art today!

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Related:

Chinese New Year Money Tree Activities

Chinese New Year (Year Of The Rabbit) Rice Bin

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Winter-Themed Treasure Blocks

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Winter-themed treasure blocks your little learners will be excited to play with. The blocks add beauty and interest to small world activities.

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Winter-themed treasure blocks add interest and beauty to any block play activity. Pick a winter color palette, scrounge around for loose parts in your chosen hues, and add them to the blocks. It’s that easy!

Treasure blocks are a fairly recent addition to my block collection, and I love adding seasonal supplies to them. There are eight see-through blocks in different sizes and shapes in the featured set, allowing various kinds of loose parts to be displayed. I highly recommend getting a set. They are so versatile.

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Follow me on Pinterest for more winter activity ideas.

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Winter-Themed Supplies To Collect

An online search reveals a variety of beautiful winter color combinations. For this post, I use loose parts in silver, white, cream, and shades of blue.

Winter-themed loose parts to use in treasure blocks or art activities.

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Here’s what’s in the blocks:

  • blue, silver, and white pom poms
  • turquoise snowflake gems
  • white and shades of blue round gems
  • clear and shades of blue ice rock crystals
  • silver and teal metallic snowflake confetti
  • white paper punched snowflakes
  • cream and shades of blue potpourri
  • snowflake and snowman erasers

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Winter-Themed Treasure Block Activities

These winter-themed treasure blocks pair well with polar animals. Offer the blocks on a table along with animal figurines such as polar bears, seals, arctic foxes, narwhals, and walruses.

Pair these winter-themed treasure blocks with polar animals and additional loose parts.

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Or go extreme south, and set out the blocks with penguin figurines.

These winter-themed treasure blocks make the perfect backdrop for a pair of penguins.

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After using the blocks in setups with polar animals, I look forward to pairing them with “Disney Frozen” sets.

Do you have a favorite way to use treasure blocks? Share below.

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Snowflake Cafe Dramatic Play Printable Set

Bring wintertime fun into your classroom or playroom with this Snowflake Café Dramatic Play Center Printable Set! Perfect for cold-weather learning, this cozy café invites children to step into imaginative play as bakers, servers, and customers—offering winter-themed cookies and warm cups of hot chocolate.

This engaging, winter-themed pretend play resource

  • is ideal for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary classrooms
  • supports dramatic play, counting, writing, and social skills
  • is great for winter units, indoor recess, or learning centers
  • is perfect for a play date
  • is excellent activity to pack on trips
  • is easy to prep—just print, cut, and play
  • is easy to store

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What’s Included in This Printable Set

  • 9 winter-themed cookie choices
  • Cookies in cookie pans
  • 3 hot chocolate choices
  • Snowflake Café signs
  • Open & Closed signs
  • Price list/menu
  • Daily Special sign
  • Two styles of order forms (perfect for different ages and skill levels)
  • Store labels for organizing your café setup
  • Play money
  • Recipe suggestion form
  • 40 printables in all

Whether you’re creating a seasonal dramatic play center, adding fresh excitement to your winter curriculum, or introducing a fun winter activity at home, the Snowflake Café printable set is a delightful way to keep children learning and playing throughout the season.

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More Winter Activities

Snowman Sensory Play

Spray Paint Snowflake Silhouette

Blue Candy Cane Science Experiment

Igloo Camping Pretend Play

Polar Bear Small World

Winter Sensory Trays

Painting Ice and Snow

Winter Wreath Paper Plate Craft

Ice Drum Musical Instruments

Frozen-Inspired Shadow Box

Scissor Skill Snow Cutting Activities

Kid’s Winter Wonderland Play Tablescape

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Christmas Village Tuff Tray

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An inviting, snowy pioneer Christmas village tuff tray filled with people participating in outdoor winter activities.

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This Christmas Village tuff tray is filled with people figurines participating in outdoor activities. It’s the perfect winter play invitation to include in holiday celebrations.

A tuff tray is a sturdy, portable tray that can be used on a table, on the floor, or outside on the ground. Although it stores easily, it can also be set on a stand. I recently purchased a tuff tray online at Education Station, and love using it for this snowy activity.

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Supplies To Collect

A winter-themed pioneer village tuff tray filled with people participating in outdoor winter activities during the Christmas season.

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For the holiday tuff tray set up, gather the following:

  • wooden train tracks and train
  • wooden vehicles
  • silver and white placemats
  • tin foil disposable lid
  • snowflake window cling sheet
  • gem snowflakes
  • Christmas village-themed gift boxes
  • winter-themed people and animal figurines
  • miniature village signpost, mailbox, light post, fence, bench, and tree props

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Setting Up The Christmas Village Tuff Tray

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Place a large, round silver placemat in the center of the tray to represent a skating rink. Or add a circle cut from tin foil.

Lay wooden train tracks around the circular placemat.

Set in another snowy or icy area by trimming a white or silver rectangular placemat into a curved shape.

Add a round tin foil or white cardstock disposable container lid to suggest a third outdoor play space.

Then arrange the gift box buildings around the edge of the tray. These can easily be found at a dollar store.

Cut out large window cling snowflakes, leaving the backs on. Set them in open areas in the tray.

Next, put winter-themed people figurines and miniature village props on and around the “snow” and “ice.”

Generously sprinkle in gem snowflakes.

Finally, set a wooden train on the track. Or add community helper vehicles.

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Your little learners will be excited to investigate this Christmas Village tuff tray. If some of the figurines and props you choose to use are breakable, they need to be used carefully by little ones. The holiday play invitation must be supervised by an adult at all times!

This tuff tray setup is non-messy, so can easily be added to a session where there are ample other activity choices.

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Spider Theme Activities

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Spider theme activities little learners will love. Art, Math, dramatic play, and gymnasium play ideas are featured.

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For years I have been collecting supplies for spider theme activities. And fall is the best time to add to the theme, as spider décor and toys are everywhere in stores.

But I’ve been hesitant to do a whole theme about these little crawlers. That might involve just too many spiders for some children’s comfort!

This fall I decided to introduce just a few spidery things in the classroom, and touch on the theme a little more than usual. I added spider activities sequentially over a two-week period. It didn’t hurt that a family on the route to preschool positioned a humungous spider on top of their home, with a web that extended from rooftop to ground. I’m sure this helped break the topic in!

An oversized spider decoration.

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Here are some spider theme activities we completed. They would work well for the children in your life too.

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Spider Mask

Easily transform into a spider with this easy papercraft mask.

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First, we decorated a spider mask. I used a wooden puppet as a template and traced it on pieces of black cardstock. I cut out enough spider masks for each child to have one and then glued on little orange hats. Each preschooler glammed up a mask with sticker gems. Afterward, I punched holes on each side of the masks and attached 18-inch pieces of thin elastic cord. The activity went over well, and children were happy to pose for pictures wearing their masks.

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Spidery Dramatic Play

Oh so fun spider-themed accessories for the play kitchen.

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Next, I added a few spider décor pieces to a pumpkin store and play kitchen. The items were a hit with everyone, and both centers were popular play areas for the children.

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Spiders and Spouts Sensory Tray

An Itsy Bitsy Spider inspired construction and sensory tray little learners will love.

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The following week I added a “Spiders And Spouts” sensory tray, inspired by the Itsy Bitsy Spider sensory tub blog post by Rubber Boots And Elf Shoes.

For the tray, I selected tubes from a sports net, a musical instrument set, a marble run toy, and a construction set. I added paper webs, spiders in many sizes, and bug viewers.

We followed up the sensory play with Itsy Bitsy Spider nursery rhyme picture books. Some favorites were:

  • The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Joe Rhatigan
  • Pete The Cat And The Itsy Bitsy Spider by James Dean
  • The Eensy-Weensy Spider by Mary Ann Hoberman

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Other Good Spider Books

We also squeezed in the storybooks “Aranea: A Story About A Spider” by Jenny Wagner, and “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle.

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Spider Math Tray

Once the children thoroughly explored the spiders and spouts tray, it was turned into a Math center where students could roll a dice and put the correct number of spiders on a paper web. They could also add in tiny ants as prey.

Bring on the math with spiders and dice counting game.

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Spider Web Printable

Feel free to download this printable for use in a sensory or math center.

Downloadable spider web printable for math, sensory, and art activities.

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Spider Web PrintableDownload

This printable is for personal or one classroom use only.

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Gross Motor Activities

Finally, we had spoon races with spiders, and used bouncy spider balls in our gymnasium. Playing with the bouncy balls was definitely the favorite activity of the children.

Easy to play spider and spoon game.

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Spider balls to get little learners moving.

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Throughout the spider theme, I stressed that all the spiders in the classroom were “play spiders” and “spider pets.” I assured the children that we would continue to rescue real spiders and set them outside.

All in all, the preschoolers embraced the spider theme activities and were not intimidated. As the theme wound down, two little girls insisted that some play spiders should be companions for sleeping baby dolls!

More spidery activities are featured in the blog post: World Book Day Theme: Just Itzy

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Related:

Green Huntsman Spider Facts and Activities

Ladybug Wand Craft

Spin Painting Butterflies

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[Read more…] about Spider Theme Activities
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