Last year, my class of preschoolers were so fascinated by the artic animals that we learned about from our icy sensory play time that we extended their interests into our pretend play area. I covered our play mat with a light blue sheet as our pretend cold ocean water and some white pillow cases on the blue sheet to be floating bits of ice for the polar bears and penguins. I covered our small tables with a white sheet as our pretend snow cave. The children enjoyed pretending to be the artic animals themselves as well as having toys of these animals to the play with too.
Having different dress up items in the dress up area that are related to the winter weather gives children to the chance to learn and use this winter clothing vocabulary in the fun and natural context of pretend play. Saving small or miniature-sized paper or cloth bags from over the Christmas holidays is a very interesting pretend play item that little ones will surely enjoy. Children not only enjoy re-creating real-life experiences in their pretend play scenarios with their friends such as shopping outings over the Christmas break, but doing so is an important part of their social and emotional development as they further process their experiences and enjoy the sense of control and autonomy they can experience through pretend play.