Here are 25+ quick and easy ways to spark imagination in young children, perfect for child care providers to use during the day:
1. Give them a cardboard box. Let them decide if it’s a spaceship, a car, or a house.
2. Create a prop box.
Fill it with hats, scarves, cooking utensils, costume pieces, etc.
3. Tell half a story.
Pause and ask, “What do you think happens next?”
4. Play “What if?”
Ask: “What if animals could talk?” or “What if your teddy bear went to school?”
5. Set up a pretend play station.
Rotate themes like vet clinic, grocery store, post office, or pirate ship.
6. Let them make their own superhero.
What’s their power? What’s their name? What do they wear?
7. Give them odd materials.
Buttons, tubes, fabric scraps, and ask, “What can you make?”
8. Use toys the “wrong” way.
Use blocks to make food. Use a play phone as a camera. Let them decide.
9. Host a puppet show.
Even if the puppets are socks or paper bags!
10. Offer “open-ended” art.
No instructions. Just supplies and time.
11. Make a “magic potion” station.
Use water, glitter, soap, colored water, eye droppers, and jars.
12. Go on an “invisible” adventure.
Narrate a walk through the jungle, a trip to the moon, etc.
13. Invite them to “talk” for their stuffed animals.
Ask the toy questions and let the child answer as the character.
14. Have a dress-up day for toys.
What if the dinosaurs wore hats? What would the baby doll wear to a party?
15. Make your own books.
Staple pages together and let the child draw the story.
16. Encourage sound effects.
Let them make their own soundtrack while playing or reading a story.
17. Play with shadows.
Use a flashlight and hands to create shadow stories.
18. Pretend to be something else.
You’re a cat. I’m a robot. What do we do?
19. Use paper plates as masks.
Let them become animals, monsters, or aliens.
20. Put on a music playlist.
Have them move like different animals or characters.
21. Create a “tiny world.”
Use rocks, grass, toy animals, and small containers to build mini worlds.
22. Turn snack time into a story.
The crackers are a train. The raisins are passengers.
23. Use empty containers as props.
Lotion bottles become microphones. Cereal boxes become computers.
24. Make up new rules for a simple game.
What if we hop instead of run? Or whisper instead of shout?
25. Pretend with nature.
Sticks are magic wands. Leaves are money. Dirt is chocolate.
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