One Friday after school

Esther and I were making Chinese dragons out of play dough

Neither of us were really very good at it

Esther decided instead to make cakes

And so I followed her lead

And together we had a play dough tea party

The next morning Esther and William went swimming with Daddy

Bea and I were busy setting up a second play dough tea party

But then I had an idea

I would check Twinkl to see if they had any play dough mats

For cake making and tea parties

What I found was so much more

Twinkl Twinkl Little Tea Shop!

Woo Hoo!

Knowing how much Esther and William would love playing tea shops

And knowing how much learning they would get from their play

I sent my printer into overdrive

It took me less than half an hour to turn our shop, kitchen and table set

Into The Tea Shop

It was wonderful and I could not wait for Esther and William to see

Next time I do this

I am going to try and plan a little better

If I had been forward thinking

I would have sliced and laminated all the resources

Meaning that they could be used time and time again

But this was an impulse invitation to play

And oh my goodness!

What a success!

Esther entered the playroom first

And she immediately called out to William to come and see

And then they got to work

Making cakes, setting up crockery

Reading the signs, checking the prices

It was just magical to see

Esther soon filled the cake stand with play dough cakes

William was taking orders and serving cups of tea

Esther wrote down orders

Some real writing, some emergent

They were busy, busy, busy

And they remained immersed in their play for the rest of the day

I was honoured when invited to be part of their play

And equally happy to watch them together

So happy together in their Tea Shop from Twinkl

They played all day

And when they woke the next morning

They opened their tea shop

And played again

Twinkl is a virtual Aladdin’s cave of resources for learning through play

Over the coming weeks and months I am going to be sharing with you

How we are using Twinkl Resources to enhance and extend school learning at home

The tea shop is the tiny tip of a huge iceberg

Of real life role play, imaginative play

And play based learning

I hope you will join us on our learning through play adventure

We are going to have so much fun!

I have been given a Premium Twinkl Subscription free of charge