Wooden playshops are perfect for encouraging creative and imaginative play
We have a range of amazing wooden playshops that are fun, safe and eco-friendly. Children learn through play and particularly love to emulate the things they see us do in everyday life, whether that’s going to the store, cooking dinner or cleaning the playhouse. Adding a wooden play shop to your collection is a great way to encourage creative and imaginative play. Building a child’s vocabulary and confidence, sparking narrative thought, and developing all sorts of vital key skills. Shop our range today on our website!
Wooden Play Shops
Shop our range of amazing wooden play shops that are fun, safe and eco-friendly. Children learn through play and particularly love to emulate the things they see us do in everyday life, whether that’s going to the store, cooking dinner or cleaning the playhouse.
Adding a wooden play shop to your collection is a great way to encourage creative and imaginative play. Building a child’s vocabulary and confidence, sparking narrative thought, and developing all sorts of vital key skills. Our toy collection is also eco-friendly!
Play Shops for Kids
Playing with play shops and pretend play can be a great way to encourage turn-taking, as children take it in turns to be either the shopkeeper or customer. Playing together can also be great for practising their negotiation and problem-solving skills as a village store could easily be a cafe or an ice cream parlour, a child’s imagination knows no limits.
This kind of role-play also has great possibilities for practising numeracy and literacy skills as children grow older. While younger children will develop and practise their vocabulary older children are likely to want to write shopping lists and menus as they play. They may want to write a board with special offers or a dish of the day like they have seen in real life. Add a wooden till for the perfect budding entrepreneur (have you seen our gorgeous toy till range?) or even a toy trolley so they can play with their friends, improving social skills and communication skills.
And when it comes to numeracy you can easily encourage this by playing along. Asking for a specific number of items or making sure they give you the correct change. Or getting them to count how many pieces of fruit are in a tower.
Toy Shop
The amount of space you have in your living room or playroom will probably come into play when deciding which playshops to buy. We absolutely love the BigJigs Village Shops! But it does take up a fair bit of room so it’s not an option for everyone.
That said if you have the space this is any little shopkeeper’s dream. It has shelves at the back, a counter for service and a slanted display area to show off fresh produce. Customers can choose their fresh produce directly from the display or ask the shopkeeper for items that are kept behind the counter.
There’s plenty of space on the counter for a till and a set of scales or perhaps a cake stand to display yummy treats or wooden play food to tempt shoppers. And this lovely village play shop could easily become a cafe or ice cream parlour with a little imagination and the right props. It’s clock face has moveable hands helping with learning to tell the time as well.
If you don’t quite have space for a full-size store the Tidlo shop and theatre is perfect. It tucks away neatly when not in use and if you spin it around you have a theatre ready to go on the other side. Meaning you get double the fun! Tidlo also have a fabulous range of play kitchens which work gorgeously with this set.
We love the blackboards under the wooden shop shelves. These are great for older children learning to write and perfect for encouraging arithmetic skills as your little shopkeeper adds up how much money you owe them before you can leave the store.
The fact that it’s a theatre as well means there are so many more possibilities for imaginative and creative play. It’s great for storytelling and a wonderful toy for children that have a vivid imagination or just love putting on a show. There’s no reason you couldn’t perform magic tricks from the stage. And of course like the village shop this could easily be a cafe, ice cream parlour, fish and chip shop or food van at a festival.
If you are looking for something even dinkier then the BigJigs Market stall could be just the ticket. This tabletop stall is perfect for displaying your wares and has handy compartments to separate fruit, veg, pastries, cakes and whatever else might be on offer. This is also a great stall for kids to display the crafts or trinkets they have made. Perfect for any budding entrepreneur. And it’s small enough to take into the garden on sunny days.
Accessories
Once you have chosen your shop it’s time to move on to the all-important accessories. No toy would be complete without a till for adding up purchases, taking the money and giving out change. And we love the addition of a set of balancing scales for weighing fruit and veg.
Both these toys have great educational value in their own right and are perfect for encouraging creative and imaginative play. The Goki Till is particularly good for older children as it has a working calculator and can be used for educational as well as play purposes. They can write price labels for their wares and then add them all up on the till.
Little ones will love to have their very own shopping cart to collect groceries in and take them home to cook a delicious dinner. Fill up the cart straight from the shelves or get some cute reusable shopping bags to take your play food home from the store. And don’t forget trollies are also great for pushing round dolls and soft toys, or pretty much anything else from your wooden toy collection.
Then there are lots of accessories you could choose depending on how you think your child will most enjoy using the store. The crates are great for displaying fruit, veg or other produce. And a cake stand is perfect for having sweet treats available from the counter. Or of course, you could get a little ice cream stand that would be perfect for summer days.
Then all you need is a selection of wooden play food and you are good to go. We have a great range that is perfect for any shop or kitchen and great for learning about where we come from and the importance of a healthy balanced diet through play.
The cupboard groceries and little jars of jam, peanut butter and chocolate spread look excellent displayed on the shelves. And you always need to have bread, milk, butter and eggs available for hungry customers.
