Section: Role Play

Today we are excited to be part of the 100 Days of Play blog hop! For 100 days, 100 bloggers are sharing play ideas which are simple and fun for you to share with your children at home. We are sharing an old favourite of ours, den building with a theme based on your child's current interests.

Den building is a traditional and brilliantly fun activity for children. Making it thematic encourages imaginative play and can build on individual interests.

Handy items for indoor den building:

• dining chairs
• tables
• sofas
• blankets
• pegs
• large pieces of material
• sheets and duvet covers
• old curtains
• large cardboard boxes
• pillows and cushions
• string
• rugs

We made our den based on the den in the story 'Ellie's Magic Wish' as my daughter loves all the pink fairy illustrations in this book.

What we used for our fairy den:

• coloured rainbow scarves
• pink fairy lights
• pink blanket
• pink rose
• ribbon
• glitter
• foil
• lollipop stick and card (to make a fairy wand!)
• clothes horse
• Large bed sheet

How can this benefit your child's development?

A tent or den can have a positive effect on children's emotional development as it gives children a small space which is private and just for themselves. A den can give a child a sense of security as they are away from everything else around them and provide somewhere they can create their own world. Imaginative play and story-telling may emerge as they play within a den and new language can be encouraged.

Involving children in the construction of the den helps them think and talk through ideas before putting them into practice. It can help your child learn positional language and start to use mathematical concepts such as problem solving, space and size.