Rainy Day Campfire Pretend Play

We had a fantastic time camping this summer with our 3 year old, Onetime. He loved being outdoors all day, and especially loved roasting marshmallows over the campfire! (Surprise, surprise!) When we were at a play centre a few weeks ago, we spotted a really cute setup for an “indoor” campfire and decided to make one for ourselves at home for some pretend play.
Onetime and I made this rainy day campfire and pretend marshmallows on sticks together, then we enjoyed having our little “camping” time in the living room one morning last week.

To make your own rainy day campfire, you will need:

• long sticks for “roasting” marshmallows
• 5 to 8 pieces of brown construction paper
• double-sided tape (or regular)
• a brown or black marker
• tissue paper in campfire colours
• white cotton batting

To start, we collected our sticks while out hiking the day before our indoor campfire.  Back at home, Onetime enjoyed putting his cotton batting “marshmallows” onto the ends of each stick.

Then we got out our brown paper and I showed Onetime how to draw lines on the paper to make them look like the bark on logs.  He enjoyed drawing lines and circles for knots – although his bark looked more like a tic-tac-toe board! Cute!

After drawing on the logs, roll them up and use the double-sided tape to adhere the edges of the paper.  Then have fun “building” your campfire together!  Be sure to add some crumpled up tissue paper sheets to make the “fire!”

Now, have fun “roasting” your marshmallows, singing campfire songs, and maybe even build an indoor tent!

Onetime enjoyed playing with his camping lantern and eventually decided the marshmallows got burnt and needed to go into the fire.

Result?  Lots of rainy morning fun with a side-dish of imagination!  Perfect.

Be sure to FOLLOW our Pretend Play Pinterest board for more great ideas! Follow One Time Through’s board Pretend Play on Pinterest.

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