We buy a lot of books (mainly from supermarkets or ‘The works’) but we also visit our local library too. Recently, I have started to bring stories into our play as well. This was to encourage a love of stories and to know that books aren’t just for bedtime.

 I thought I would share with you some of the ‘play set ups’ because it just shows how much fun and learning can come from a story. It makes the story more memorable and is a simple way to encourage children to be a storyteller. Most of these play set ups are simply created by just gathering toys and items we have around the home. I just lay them out as an invitation to play.  More often than not it helps encourage Emilia to play with toys she hasn’t in a while.

So here are 10 book play ideas…

1. THE TIGER THAT CAME TO TEA (Judith Kerr): This is a family favourite and perfect to role play. We made a tea party and Emilia enjoyed playing the tiger.

    

2. GIRAFFES CAN’T DANCE (Giles Andreae): This is my favourite children’s book and I set this up the morning before we visited Longleat Safari Park. A bit of role play, colouring and a counting activity for in the car.

   

3 FOX’S SOCKS (Julia Donaldson): Emilia loved this one and trying on my socks gave a lot of entertainment. I put letters in the socks and hid them around the house. The letters spelt key words from the book.

 4. THE TOOTH FAIRY (Collectif): Emilia loves fairies and enjoys putting on a tutu and prancing around casting spells so this was very popular. She counted out teeth with beads and  Playdoh and pretended to be a fairy leaving a giant coin for Peppa.

  

5. SUPERTATO (Sue Hendra): This is a must for superhero fans. We used a potato to make the main character. Emilia also matched food to their initial sound. The story is set in a super market so we played shops too.

    

6. WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT (Michael Rosen): This is Emilia’s favourite story so it was a much loved book play. I used a tray to recreate the journey to the bear cave. The mud was the most popular, made from cocoa, water  and cornflour. We played hide and seek and I set up a bear hunt game, hiding bears numbered 1-10 to find and order.

  

7. THE DINOSAUR THAT POOPED A PLANET (Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter): I left craft items for Emilia to make a rocket. She then used this in the space sensory tray I made using dough and beans. We also practised counting forwards and backwards for the rocket launch.

8. COCK-A-MOO-MOO (Juliet Dallas-Conte): This is a simple farm story involving animal noises so using a free app Emilia recorded animal sounds. We then played them back in shuffle and she listened and added counters to the correct animal. We also did some letter matching. Emilia’s favourite was retelling the story using the farm sensory play tray.

9. MEG’S EGGS (Helen Nicoll): This story is where Meg makes spells that create dinosaur eggs. I wrapped up some dinosaurs to reveal whilst sharing the story to bring it alive. We also made a new spell using a collection of Halloween items. Emilia also used a selection of craft materials to make her own magic wand.

10. ELMER (David McKee): I love all the colours In this story so all the play ideas were linked to colour. Emilia used stickers to match colours and numbers. Stickers are great for developing fine motor skills too. She also did some craft by painting her own Elmer.

For more book play ideas check out my Instagram feed @myteachermummyandme.