Imaginative Play Scene — Desert Island

I confessed the fact that I don’t get down and play with my kids all that often, but I do constantly facilitate and watch them play.   One of the things I love to do is help set up magical play scenes for the children.  I was first inspired by this concept by Kate from Picklebums and I highly recommend this post from her: Imaginative Play at Home. Fostering imaginative play is important to me as it’s evolving play: it starts with the building phase, then the play phase, and the play evolves with the environment. Plus, as a bonus, this sort of play lasts for days!

Today, I’m sharing our most recent imaginative play scene. I was inspired by a photography challenge I am taking with Canon Australia.  My last challenge was inspired by the theme Urban Island, and I made it into a night-time outing to see the city lights with my eldest daughter. You can read about it here: My Daughter and I Visit the City. The second challenge was a Desert Island theme; what a perfect idea for a imaginative play scene!

How to Make

A Desert Island play theme is a fun idea for the summer months. It was easy and inexpensive to set up. It can be used outside on the grass, under a patio/veranda or even inside (if you’re game) on a large towel.

Materials:

Large shallow rectangle box (I used an underbed storage box from Bunnings)

Round laundry bowl (you an also use a standard kitchen bowl — I purchased this from Bunnings)

20Kgs double washed sand (I purchased a bag from Bunnings)

Blue food coloruing (optional)

Note: You only need a small amount so it’s very diluted and doesn’t seem to stain the kids hands or clothes

Washer or teatowel (I bought a $1 tea towel from Best & Less and cut out a rectangle)

Decoration items/toys

• Pebbles
• Shells
• Duplo palm tree (make your own palm tree by threading a large leaf on to a stick)
• Mermaids
• Pirates
• Rocks
• Boats
• Treasure box
• Barbies

Most of the materials you will find around the house, however, because I want to have a large box dedicated for imaginative play scenes, I purchased a few of these items.  The sand, the under bed box and laundry bowl came to a total of $30.

Step 1: The Island

Fill the round laundry bowl with sand and smooth to create the Island.

Step 2: The Sea

Place the Island into the underbed storage box and fill the box with water to the level of the laundry bowl. Add a little blue food colouring if desired.

Step 3: Create the Island

I cut up a cheap tea towel for a beach towel and used pebbles for a path. We used a Duplo palm tree to create the island look; you can make your own palm tree by simply piercing a large leaf on to a stick.

Step 4: Add Toys

Here are some ideas: Barbie, mermaids, fish, sharks, boats.

Step 5: Play

This sort of water play is perfect for the summer months!

Step 6: Create

The best part of this sort of play is it evolves and grows as the kids use their imagination. Last time I checked, this is what their play looked like. I helped create the basics and the kids did the rest, including the leaf trees.

The Picture

Below is the picture I submitted for the Canon Island Blogger competition. I wanted it to capture a dreamy concept because my children remind me there are many ways to bring dreams to life.  I used a Canon Powershot SX 40 HS to take the photographs.

Disclaimer: children should be supervised around water and with small parts (especially under 3′s).

Pintrest

I have found a wonderful collection of Imaginative Play Scenes around the web and included them on a board on Pintrest here:  Imaginative Play Scenes.

Other Imaginative Play Scenes

Fairy Land

Rock Garden

Tree House

Tagged as: desert island, imaginative play, Imaginative Play Scene