Imaginative Play Games, Scenarios, Ideas - Benefits of Pretend Play for Child's Development

The importance of Imaginative play in child's development cannot be stressed enough. In our modern overly technological society a child's imagination is often paralyzed with fast-moving pictures of a television set or brightly colored 3-D worlds of computer games. Often, parents concentrate on getting their preschoolers school-ready by paying a lot of attention to learning the alphabet and numbers but forgetting how important it is to nurture their child's imagination. A number of psychological studies have shown that pretend play prepares children for life in the real world because during play children learn important life skills like taking turns, sharing responsibility, empathy and many others. So let's see what games we can come up with to foster our children's imagination.

House/Cave/Camping Tent

To set up this game you will need two chairs, one big blanket and a flashlight. You can also use a table instead of the chairs.

Imaginative Play Games, Scenarios, Ideas - Benefits of Pretend Play for Child's Development

If you are in a "Cave" or a "Tent" gather some food supplies and water and prepare for an adventure. Turn off all the lights in the room and leave the flashlight on, search the dark room with the flashlight, can you see any wild animals lurking in the woods? What can you hear? Can you hear the birds and that waterfall nearby? You can even make a pretend fire and toast some real marshmallows over it, yum!!

If you are in a "House" you can invite some friends over (furry animals, dolls), put some pillows and blankets on the floor and have a slumber party!

Car

Cut out the wheel from a cardboard box or use anything round you might find around the house. You can sit on a chair (wind the windows down, take down the roof - it's a convertible after all!) or "drive" around on foot. You can even have a race! Ask mum if she wants a ride!

Family

This game is wonderful as it allows the child to swap places with the parent and become mummy or daddy for a short while. You can play it with a doll or mum and dad can play the role of the child for a change. Notice how your child behaves during this game, it will be fascinating to hear what they say and see what they do, how they discipline or reward you - it will be like looking at yourself in the mirror because they, of course, will be mimicking what you do and how you behave on a daily basis. Great for building self-esteem and awareness of self and others.

Boat/Ship

Anything in the house can become a boat or a ship with a little bit of imagination. You can turn two chairs pushed together, a couch or even a bed into a boat or a ship. Get all the passengers on board (do they all have their tickets?) and don't forget your supplies. Take some fishing rods and a bucket with you so you can do some fishing (make fishing rods out of thin tree branches and some rope or wool thread).

If you want something different on your next trip, a boat can become a train or even an airplane.

Doctor's Office

Those toy doctor's kits are excellent for pretend play but even if you don't have one you can collect some household objects to play this game. For example, a pen and pad to write out prescriptions, a plastic syringe to administer medicine or even give those ouchy shots, a small jar of jelly beans in case a patient has a headache or a belly ache and needs a pill, stretchy bandages to tape those serious wounds and band-aids for small cuts. In the absence of a toy stethoscope you can make one out of a simple empty toilet roll by cutting one open, rolling it into a thinner tube and gluing it back together - you can use it as a stethoscope or to check out the ears and the throat.

Shopping

You will need a shopping bag, a wallet with some coins in it, groceries, like a bag of pasta shapes, some apples and bananas, a can of peas and a box of cookies and a cash register made out of a shoe box or any other useful box you can find around the house. Take turns being a shopkeeper and a shopper. If you want your child to learn some math and counting along the way, you can make some pretend paper money out of paper, make sure the numbers on your pretend paper bills are large and clear. Make price labels on all the groceries in the shop and try to pay correct money for everything and give the right change. Make a shopping list so you can check things off the list when you put them in your shopping bag.

Cooking

For this fun and exciting game you will need pots, pans and other cooking utensils. Other things that might help are grains like rice, lentils or dry beans, pasta shapes and even cereal like cheerios. Put the ingredients into the pot, add salt and pepper, stir. When the meal is ready, get some plates out and invite friends for dinner.

Helping mum or dad with real cooking is also lots of fun, like beating the eggs for an omelette or tearing up lettuce for a salad.

Dress-up

Lots of old clothes is, of course, what's needed for this game - anything from skirts and shoes to hats and bags. But the best way to play is to pick a theme and dress accordingly. "Kings and Queens" is a fun theme to dress up for but you will need to make your own crowns and capes. The best thing about this game is that you can use as much dress jewellery as you have lying around the house.

Birthday Party

A pretend Birthday cake and party food can be made from play-doh and you can even use real candles with it. Invite all the stuffed furry animals and all the dolls that live at your house to your party, perhaps even some real friends can come if they are visiting at the time. To make the party more fun you can have a disco afterwards - turn some music on and dance together.

In the park

The park provides so many opportunities to play creatively and imaginatively. Use anything you might find - sticks, stones, dry leaves. You can make little houses out of everything you find, you can even play the shopping or the cooking game - sticks, dry leaves, grass and little flowers make perfect ingredients for a yummy soup.

There are as many of these games as there are objects around you and situations you encounter every day. Eventually, when your child knows that you are free and open to pretend and be anything they like they will suggest their own ideas, like pretending to be butterflies or horses, for example. Don't be shy, spread your wings and fly, stretch your legs and gallop away!

Imaginative Play Games, Scenarios, Ideas - Benefits of Pretend Play for Child's Development
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The Best Gift Exchange Games to Play at School During Christmas

Depending on the school your child attends, you both may be looking forward to school Christmas gift exchanges. Some public schools do not allow exchanging of gifts but many do. Most private schools have their own policies for Christmas gift exchanges. There are many fun games to include in the school Christmas gift exchange to make the experience more festive and fun for children.

The Christmas Gift Exchange

Create rules that make Christmas gift buying more interesting. An example is stating the gift must be handmade or crafted rather than purchased at a store. Another idea is choosing gifts that only feature the school's colors or mascot. Establish a low dollar limit for the gifts, such as or less. Once you establish the rules for the gift exchange, you're ready to create accompanying activities and games to make it even more fun.

The Best Gift Exchange Games to Play at School During Christmas

White Elephants For Christmas

Have a white elephant gift exchange. The kids draw a number and select their present from a pile of gifts in order based on the numbers drawn. Recipients can exchange their gift for a different one if they want to. A gift can only be "stolen" three times. The person who drew the first gift can "steal" a gift at the end of the exchange. Children always have a lot of fun with the concept of "stealing" gifts during a white elephant Christmas gift exchange.

Drawing Names

Children like to buy Christmas gifts for other people. Have them draw names for the Christmas gift exchange. Add a twist by creating a rule that the children cannot tell the recipient they are buying a gift for them. This makes the exchanging of gifts more mysterious so you can play another game with the gifts. As each child opens their gift, make them try to guess who the gift came from. If children were asked to make gifts, this can be really fun. Certain kids may have painting or drawing skills that make it harder or easier to figure out who gave the gift. If the child guesses incorrectly, they must do a silly dance or sing a song before they can guess again. The process repeats until the child correctly guesses the person who gave them a gift.

Game Board Christmas Gift Exchange

Another fun idea during the Christmas gift exchange is having each child make a game piece for a mystery game board. Everyone must make their own game piece. Designate a maximum size, such as 2 inches, so everyone can use their games pieces to play on a communal board. The game board itself can simply be a big rug fashioned into a Christmas game. Create your own version of Santa's experiences in Candyland. Get Santa back to the North Pole with a variation of Chutes and Ladders. Select a board game all the children know so the holiday game is easy to learn and play. The handcrafted game pieces should be wrapped in festive paper and exchanged as gifts before everyone plays together on the oversize game board. The children can use their gifts to play the game.

The Best Gift Exchange Games to Play at School During Christmas
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One last thing -- Imagine the look on your child's face if they received a personalized letter from Santa. You can also include extra goodies with the Santa letter like Reindeer food. It's a gift that makes a strong and lasting impression.

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Kissing Games For Teen Girls

Kissing Games are an enjoyable genre of Girl games. Although played by males too they are in fact aimed at girls, which is quite obvious when you see one. They have been around pretty much since the beginning of the girl game industry although very simple, most companies focus on the design, by which I mean the graphical aspect. Making it look pretty to give the player some more entertainment than just the actual game play.

There are hundreds of examples of this graphical aspect been focused on more heavily than the kissing action in this game genre. With great beauty comes great cost, so there are some companies that go for overall cheap content when producing these Kissing games. Not everyone focuses either on the price tag or the beauty behind it. Many other companies go strictly for game play. It is hard to say which choice is the best because it depends heavily on the theme of the game. If someone was willing to create 2 identical themed games, one focusing on the beauty of the game and the other on game play. Doing this would create a fair platform for developers and producers to understand and analyse the most effective method.

So let's talk about theme, being a producer of these games is like any business. Try selling Halloween masks on Christmas, not going to happen. I use this example because you have to pick the best time to produce certain themed games, because the games success depends so heavily on its theme this is a key part of producing them.

Kissing Games For Teen Girls

Game play now, I find them to be rather enjoyable, it's confusing as of why because it is such an odd type of game, hiding a kiss? Odd, indeed but they seem to make a big hit. Although as discussed the theme impacts heavily on the games overall success but everyone likes unique and developer and producers strive to supply just that.

I've seen quite a couple of unique spin offs of kissing games, where you're a kissing Casanova and you have to shoot your kisses at unsuspecting girls, that was fun because of its uniqueness. Do you remember the board game operation? Well there is even a couple of games with the 'step out the line you get buzzed' sense about them. These are just two in a very wide and ever expanding sea of unique kissing games.

I wrote this article because I enjoy Kissing games for girls and though I would share what I have learned about them, there are other types of girl games this is just a very, very small section. Go find other types and you write an article talking about what you have learned about that specific article, I would love to read it.

Kissing Games For Teen Girls
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This article was to bring to light the fun of kissing games for girls and what publishers and designers alike go through on a daily basis. Doing all this to achieve maximum user coverage in a market revolving around games for girls. You can find more information relating to this article and other genres here.

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Baseball As a Board Game

Often, board games will take a fantastical situation and allow people to experience it through the use of a board, some tokens, and potentially dice or cards. Other games will simply take an idea and allow two people to have a battle of wits using the materials that the game provides. Most people stop right here and don't even consider all of the other possibilities that board games can present.

No one thinks that board games can be based around other games, which already exist, just not in a board game format. The world of sports is ripe for the picking when it comes to making an innovative, fun board game. The game of baseball, in particular, offers players a range of opportunity when it comes to enjoying a fun, thrilling game, perfect for those rainy days when you are stuck inside with nothing to do.

Baseball and board games actually have a long history throughout America, with both growing into popularity around the beginning of the 20th Century. There have been many different baseball games manufactured over the last 100 years, yet many people never seem to realize this fact. Baseball greats throughout history have actually made endorsements of many of these games, with Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, and Roger Maris all having baseball board games with their names attached.

Baseball As a Board Game

One recent board game, which offers a strong entry into the category of baseball board games, is the game Triple Threat Baseball. It offers players with two different options when beginning a game. One can either play in the Rookie League or the Big League, each providing players with a different level of strategy to encounter.

Rookie League is, as the name suggests, easier and more geared for children and beginners to the game. The Big League game, however, is more complex, offering players the chance to have to make decisions around the many different layers of events happening in a professional baseball game.

The game doesn't provide for statistics for individual players, which can be both a blessing and a curse. The lack of statistics will allow the game to flow much more smoothly, granting players the opportunity to get into the flow of the game. It can also be a point of disappointment for any players who want to pretend that they are managing real players in their team, as everyone will be on the same footing.

Great Play is another creative baseball board game, one that works well without the necessity for either dice or spinners. This game works between two players, one playing the offense and one playing the defense.

The entire game works on the strategy used when playing tokens in the outfield. Cards are drawn by the offense, determining how well their batter hit the ball and specifically where it landed. Based on how well the tokens in the outfield are placed, it is determined whether the hit was a run or an out. The player who scores more runs in the end wins the game, just as in baseball. The game offers players a great opportunity to think about the strategy in baseball, giving the second best thing to playing the actual game.

Baseball As a Board Game
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Victor Epand is an expert consultant for board games, chess boards, and dungeons and dragons miniatures. You will find all these things and more if you visit baseball board games, chess boards.

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Fun Adult Party Games

Adult party games can be a little goofier and a little more risqué so have some fun with the following two games we suggest for your party.

The first game for the adult party is a fun romp called 'Feeding Time'. Have all the women at the party sit in a row of chairs on the opposite side of the party area. They should each have a baby bottle filled with something to drink (you can use milk or alcohol for these adult babies) and each should have a bib.

Place an equal number of men on the opposite side of the adult party area. At your 'go' each of the men should run to their partner and get into her lap. The women will tie a bib about the man's neck and start feeding him from the bottle. The man can cling on to the woman but he's not aloud to touch the bottle with his hands. Once the bottle is empty the woman unties the bib and both run back to the men's starting place. The winning couple is the first one across the finish line.

Fun Adult Party Games

Our second suggestion is more of a fun pastime than an actual adult party game. 'Body painting' can be made a little competitive if you give an award at the end of the painting session for the most artistic or most risqué body art. You'll need to spread out some newspapers or a floor cloth to keep paint from coloring the carpet and you'll also need body paints or face crayons, brushes and some water.

Have the guests get into groups of three and arrange themselves so they can paint on each other's body. They can paint anywhere on the body as long as their painting partners are okay with it. At the end have everyone admire each other's body art. This is definitely a game reserved for those adult parties so keep the kids out of it!

Fun Adult Party Games
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Mrs. Party... Gail Leino takes a common sense approach to planning and organizing events, celebrations and holiday parties with unique ideas for Adult party supplies and fun free educational party games. She explains proper etiquette and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Shop has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free holiday printable games and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Party Themes to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or "just because" parties is at the Party Theme Shop. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

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34 Fun School Carnival Game Ideas

1. The Beauty Salon was a popular booth at our Fall Carnival. The boys and girls loved getting their hair colored, blue, green, pink!

2. Karaoke was also very popular this year!

3. About three years ago, our room moms rented an electonic bull. (I can't think of the right name!) The line never ended! The kids and adults loved it!

34 Fun School Carnival Game Ideas

4. My sons' school has a Kissing Booth. They didn't get actual kisses, but they did give you a Hershey's Kiss instead. They also have a lips stamp, and they stamp your face with it! And you see TONS of kids running around their carnival with several kisses! Very cute!

5. We played "Bingo for Books" in the media center.

6. Snack Walk (like a cake walk but kids picked out bags of chips, a box of Little Debbies, bag of cookies, 2 liter bottle of soda, etc

7. We also auctioned off Janitor-, Principal- and Librarian- for-a-day. Those were very popular. (Janitor brought in the most!)

8. We have done Super Twister with dots painted on a large piece of tarp that got taped to the floor with everyone trying to touch the correct color with the correct body part. Ours is big enough that 30+ kids can play at a time.

9. A popular game at our school's carnival was the football toss. Rings were hung from the ceiling (beginning with rings the size of a hula-hoop) and you would try to throw a football through a ring. The smaller the ring, the higher the points.

10. Hit the Teacher With a Wet Sponge. Hugely popular, even with the parents.

11. Bubble-gum Blowing Contest: Popular because gum's usually a no-no.

12. Advanced Spelling Bee- Allowed students to take steps toward prize board if correct; end of the line if missed.

13. Dress up the Teacher: Hit garage sales and the Good Will for outrageous items to dress a teacher. Tie this in with problem solving/ academics standardized test review...use a digital camera to photo results as keep sake.

14. A few years back we had a carnival and one big seller was the "Loonie " Jars (here in Canada we call our dollar a Loonie. ) We asked families to donate jars filled with items - such as packs of gum, small toys, marbles, pencils, - you name it, people filled them. We had over 400 donated. Then people drew a number from a basket and that was the jar they got.

15. We just had our carnival on Thursday and Friday, and I teach third grade. This year we did the toy walk (played just like the cake walk). We used small inexpensive toys (.00 limit) the kids brought in and also got some happy meal toys donated from McDonald's. Another one we did was the Wii game. The kids loved it!!!

16. We do a "Great Pumpkin Obstacle Race" where the student dresses up like a great pumpkin (we use my orange hunting coat, hat, and gloves) then they go through tires, over hay bales, and weave through pumpkins. The kids love it!

17. Last year at our fall festival we had a duck race. You set up a small pool and get the little bath ducks. You also need squirt guns. The students "race" their ducks using the spray from the squirt guns to make them go. It was really fun!

18. We had a carnival many years ago and the booth that was the biggest hit, was the engraving booth. We ordered necklaces from Oriental Trading and had one of those hand held engraving machines and wrote the kids names on them. It was quick and easy.

19. A parent built a Plinko board that travels from grade to grade with his son - it's the most popular item at the fair. We have a stage in our gym so kids stand on the stage to drop the Plinko disks.

20. The Fortune Teller booth is our most popular one.

21. Mystery boxes- boxes with holes that the kids put their hands into- had peeled grapes, cold spaghetti, jello with fruit. We gave each one a scary name.

22. Guess the weight of a big pumpkin.

23. We sold plastic gloves filled with popcorn. Each "hand" had a spider ring on the finger.

24. Musical Chairs with Stuffed Animals. Before the carnival, collect stuffed animals (kids can donate these by the arm loads). Put them in a pile in the center of the room. Place chairs in a circle around the stuffed animals. put numbers under the chairs. Play music for a minute. Have kids sit. Draw a number. Winner picks a stuffed animal.

25. What about sand art? The kids love it! You can get supplies on line, such as small plastic bottles and bracelets. Use salt dyed with food coloring for the sand.

26. Another idea is to make a box maze in your classroom. It could be a crawl through. Maybe kids could solve a puzzle along the way.

27. Guessing contests are fun. Decorate clear glass jars and fill with what ever. Lollipops, M&M's, individual wrapped candies, pretzels, dry beans might add a soup making recipe, so that it shows on the outside of the jar. Here again have different people bring a decorated jar full of something and have them count and put on a folded paper on the underside of the jar lid the number of items in the jar. Only one prize per winner and of coarse family members can't win their jar. The more jars the more winners. Any size jar will work - jelly jars, gallon jars, miracle whip jars and etc. Decorating is fun. Example one person completely covered the jar with wrapping paper and put 1 bag of candy in the jar, so the correct guess was one. Stick on stickers. Make a puff top on the lid. Glue on lace. Tape a pattern on the inside of the jar and use enamel paint and paint the design on the outside of the jar and maybe outline with permanent fabric paint. The outline isn't necessary, but adds an extra nice touch. Don't forget to remove your pattern when complete.

28. Fluky Ball: Set up an easel with a bucket below. Child must bounce a ball off the easel into the bucket to win.

29. Tin Pan Alley: child rolls a ball down a ramp. At the bottom there is a box with 2 muffin tins painted with 3 different colors. The child rolls 3 balls. If 2 colors match, you win.

30. A great carnival idea is do offer a DINO DIG! Take a baby swimming pool, fill it with sand and small plastic dinosaurs (oriental trading has them cheap) give the kids a small shovel to dig for their dino. We also do digging for diamonds! Girls love finding little rings and such in the sand.

31. Pumpkin Ring Toss. We get donations from the local nurseries for pumpkins, hay bales, corn stalks, gourds, etc. We take about ten of the larger stemed pumpkins and use them as the targets for the rong toss. I found wooden hoops at the local fabric store.

32. Gourd Bowling. I purchased a set of those plastic children pins and then used some of the gourds from the nurseries. The gourds roll funny so it makes it more fun.

33. Ping-Pong Ball Toss. We purchased ten of the plastic pumpkin trick-or-treat containers that the kids use and had them placed as the target. I had a half dozen or so orange ping-pong balls that the kids have to toss in.

34. One of my favorite games is "Chicken Chucking". Get a few rubber chickens and set up an area that people can throw them into a pen (rubber maid bin) I place mine about 30 feet away and at 40 feet away. Its hilarious watching everyone throw it. When I did it at my church I found some real cute rubber chicken key chains to give away to the people that made it into the 40 feet away pen.

34 Fun School Carnival Game Ideas
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Would you like to learn more about school fundraising and how to make more money at your school carnival? Visit EverybodyHatesFundraising.com for a series of free articles and the excellent e-book School Carnival Money Making Guide . Jim Berigan is a former elementary school administrator and has been involved with non-profit fundraising for over 20 years. He enjoys sharing advice, strategies, and tips on how schools can raise money without frustrating parents, children, and teachers.

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