Imaginative Play Scene: Pond

I enjoy setting up imaginative play scenes for my kids. You can read the reason why in this post: Desert Island Play Scene.  My latest creation is a pond scene. It’s easy and cheap to set up.

The inspiration for this project was milk bottle lids; on water, they look like lily pads so I created a play scene around that.

Materials

Large rectangle plastic container

Rocks/pebbles

Leaves/grass

Plastic bowl

Stick (log)

Milk bottle lids

Lily Pad Template

Blue food colouring (optional)

Small plastic figurines (frog, duck, kangaroo, fish)

1. Print and cut out lily pad template and press into milk bottle lids. See the end of the post for more ways to use this template.

2. Fill a bowl with a little water, add blue or green food colouring (optional) and place lily pads on the water. This goes inside the plastic container as pictured.  We found a log-look-a-like stick outside and used it in the water too.

Note: The lily pads tend to get wet and the picture blurs but the idea is to set the scene to stimulate imaginative play.  It’s easy to replace the lily pads if kids worry about it.

Add a few rocks and leaves in the plastic container to create an environment.  On the template, there are stepping stone cut outs to use inside milk bottle lids too.

Play inside or outside.

Pond Eco System

The pond theme is only an inspiration and I don’t force educational learning while my children play. What I mean is: we set up the play scene with a particular theme in mind but the children can add anything they like to the play environment.  That said, it can be interesting to link play to real life so we set up the pond environment with a some typical pond animals.  We already had ducks and a turtle and I also found a Schleich frog while I was shopping, so all up, this activity cost me $4.50 (the frog) and everything else I found around the house.

{image credit}

{Matching: Schleick Pond-inspired animals to look out for or find them online here}

* Small parts. Not suitable for young children, especially under 3’s.

More

Milk Bottle Lid Crafts

More ways to use the Milk Bottle Lid Template