Pretend Play: Preschool Ice Cream Store

We have been having fun with our toddler and preschool ice cream theme. Whenever we go to the ice cream store, my girls are fascinated with all the colors and flavors of ice cream available. I knew they would have so much fun running their own ice cream shop. With just a little advanced preparation, toddlers and preschoolers can run their own ice cream store right in their own home---or outside, which is where my girls set up their shop.


First make sure to have several “flavors” of ice cream made ahead of time. Our ice cream consisted of 4 scented playdough creations.

I made one batch of vanilla-scented playdough. I used my regular playdough recipe and added some vanilla extract to the water. One batch fits perfectly in a pint container.  The chocolate playdough smells soooo good! I used the chocolate playdough recipe from Pre-Kinders.  Mint was the basic version plus mint extract, and for the strawberry---I forgot to buy the strawberry-flavored Kool-aid---but that’s what I would have used. Doesn’t it look good?
I made a little menu so the girls could take ice cream orders.

I’ll have a sundae please! :) I printed this on cardstock and laminated. The girls used a dry-erase marker, but a wet-erase or dry-erase crayon would work too.

  
I picked up a couple of ice cream scoops and bowls from the Dollar Tree.


It’s hard work scooping out ice cream! I love how her little tongue sticks out when concentrating. She was very excited about having a pretend playdough ice cream party!

I filled an empty Hershey’s Cocoa container with pieces of brown string. The girls pretended this was chocolate syrup.
 
Doesn’t the playdough ice cream look real?

The nice thing is that this kind of ice cream does not melt. And you can use it more than once. I’m sure we’ll be playing ice cream shop many more times this summer!
 

(click to download the ice-cream shop menu and labels)

  click for more ice-cream ideas