A fun DIY craft project creating some pretend play food. The perfect addition for imaginative play in the dolls house, with Maileg mice or your child's favourite figurines.
Time to make and create!
Getting crafty is lots of fun and when you can make something that can be used for play, it is even better! Miss 6 and I recently made these little pretend food pieces using air dry clay. They were fun to make and paint, ready for some imaginative small world play.
I was initially going to buy some mini play food, but decided to take the time to make some with Miss 6, as I feel it is important to show her that we can make and create things ourselves, instead of always needing to buy things. It brings great joy and pride when you have created something yourself, especially when it is enjoyed for playtime!
She has enjoyed playing with her mini play food. They are the perfect size to fit into the cupboards and drawers in her doll house, which is currently being used for the Maileg mice that she was bought for her birthday.
Modelling the air dry clay may be tricky to begin with for you child. It was for Miss 6. She did enjoy making a few of her own items and experimenting with the clay.
Most of the mini food items pictured above were modeled by myself, with Miss 6 helping draw on details using a toothpick and painting them. We did make a plate and bowl. We tried a mug, but it was too hard to make at this stage.
Air dry clay can be bought from lots of online toy shops or from craft shops like Spotlight.
What we used:
A packet of white air dry clay
Watercolour paint palette
Paint brushes
Life of Colour paint pens
Baking paper
Toothpicks
What we did:
First we covered a tray in baking paper as a surface to work on.
Then we broke off small pieces of the clay and shaped it using some water to help model the clay easier. We used some mini toothpicks (closely supervised as sharp) to create marks and add details to our mini food.
We left the mini play food overnight to dry.
Once the clay was dry we used watercolour paints and paint pens to decorate the play food, leaving it to dry between coats when needed.
Mini Food that we made:
Banana
Orange
Watermelon slice
Baguette
Cheese piece
Croissants
Donuts
A bowl and a plate
Mini bowling ball and vase (not pictured).
Time to Play!
With some imagination and a few props, the little pretend food turned into an afternoon tea party for the big sister, her Mum and Nan. It has been enjoyed in the doll house, which is where it currently lives. I found the pieces inside the little dolls house cupboard and drawers, where Miss 6 had been playing with them.
They make a nice addition to the little dolls house kitchen for pretending the mice or dolls are having tea or cooking lunch.
Learning in a playful way!
Small world play (such as using a dolls house or mini figures) is great for:
Developing imagination and creativity
Role-playing real life situations
Developing oral language and vocabulary
Making up stories
Having lots of fun
And so much more ...
Thank you for reading this weeks blog post! I hope you found some inspiration for your play. This was a really fun DIY project that turned out to be a fun item for play.
You could also make your own pretend food by drawing or painting on cardboard and cutting them out, if you didn't want to use clay. Stay tuned in the next week or so - I have another free printable coming for our wonderful subscribers!
Getting your child to help make their own things to play with is a great way of spending some time together and helping them see the possibilities of what they can make and do with some creativity and imagination.
Let me know in the comments below if this is something you would like to try or if you have already made some mini play food from clay.
Until next time, have fun learning in a playful way!
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