23 Amazing Role Playing Ideas and Games For Kids

Kids are like little sponges and love to copy their parents by mimicking everything they do. Your little ones always want to get dressed, eat, and walk and talk like a grown-up. Have you ever noticed how even a 4-month-old, with no teeth, tries opening his mouth, hoping to eat what his parents are having? Kids just can't wait to grow up!

As parents, have you ever found yourself in a pretend barber's chair as a customer while your child, ever so intently, cuts your hair? Kids love to role-play and pretend like grown-ups. Bring your child's imagination to life with 23 role playing ideas and games.

Explore endless possibilities with your kids with fun and exciting role play activities.

Jump to:

The Importance of Role Play Activities for Kids

Fun fact, children begin learning in the womb, where they can recognize sounds and words. This process of lifelong learning never stops. Role play activities can teach kids important life lessons. Role playing gives children an opportunity to step into a new world of imaginative play every single time.

Little ones can easily feel overwhelmed or frightened in new and unfamiliar situations. Role playing can help make children feel at ease. For example, you can act out the first day of preschool with your child where you can pretend to be the teacher or classmate to help them feel more prepared for the first day of school.

Pretend play is beneficial for both younger children, as well as older kids. Through role play ideas, children can learn problem-solving skills through enacting real-world situations. These games can help kids develop language and communication skills by introducing them to scenarios that require them to act out different gestures and emotions.

Role Play Ideas For Kids

Little kids are always bursting with surprising ideas and untapped abilities. Role playing gives children an outlet to express ideas, experiment, and explore wondrous possibilities by giving life to their endless imagination.

I am A Baker!

So, my kid announced the other day that he wants to become a chef and bake lots of chocolate chip cookies (his favourite). Everyone loves this role playing game at our house. We have our own personal home-baker! You can set up a kitchen area and you can use pretend food to play with and a cardboard box as the oven.

Kids can bake cookies, cupcakes, pizzas, anything they want. Once they turn on the pretend oven, kids can make fun sounds for when the timer goes off once the food is ready. You can all have a tea party later with the items you prepared in the pretend oven.

Detective Mission for Kids

Your kids will love playing detective as they crack the case of the missing spy! Kids can assign roles of detective and spy among each other and take turns. Draw a map of your house and use it as a clue to spot the spy. Have everyone gather around and take their fingerprints on a sheet of paper. You will also need a magnifying glass to look for clues to find the spy in disguise. Kids can use the magnifying glass they already have or make one themselves. It's easy!

Don't forget to keep track of the progress of your mission. Kids can use candies or a box of trail mix all around the house as clues to finally complete the mission.

Little Restaurant Chef

Put on your pretend Chef's hat and start playing this fun and imaginative play pretend game! Kids love pretending to be chefs and cooking. Children can reenact a scene at a restaurant and pretend to be servers as well.

Older kids can also be a part of the game as customers at the restaurant. Assigning roles for this game is a good idea. One kid can play the role of the chef while the other can be the server. Kids can take turns pretending to be chef and servers.

This way, everyone gets to take turns pretending to play different characters while role playing. The servers can take lunch or dinner orders from customers, and the chef can pretend to prepare the food by making cooking sounds and gestures. Once the food is served, kids can take fake money from the customers for the food they ordered.

Children can use food and water bowls from the kitchen as pots and pans, which can be used to prepare and serve the food.

Zookeeper Adventures

This role playing game is sure to make your kids roar with excitement! They can play this role playing game with their stuffed animals or animal plastic figurines. Let your kid's creativity shine as they make cages for their zoo animals out of a cardboard box. Kids can draw and paint the boxes with different colours for each of their stuffed animals.

Kids can then take turns pretending to be zookeepers or even one child can play this game. Children can feed the animals, give them baths, and examine sick animals with a magnifying glass. Maybe one of the monkeys has a loose tooth, and the giraffe has a sore leg!

Hair Salon Madness!

Sneak some social skills into your child's playtime with this exciting hair salon role playing idea. Set up shop at home with a salon chair and start pretending to cut your family member's hair. This role playing game will bring out loads of laughs! You can make tools out of paper and give your family members fun hair cuts and crazy makeovers.

Your child can also give hair cuts and funny makeovers to their stuffed toys and dolls.

Fun Factory Worker

Imagine being a factory worker at a candy factory or, even better, a chocolate factory. This is a fun activity for the children to enjoy with other kids. They can call all their friends over and play factory workers.

Kids can go wild with their imagination and think they are inside Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory as a worker making chocolates. They can set up different chocolate and candy stations with their friends. Kids can distribute different workstations to make chocolates and candies. They can take bowls and wooden spoons from the kitchen to make everything at the factory.

One child can manage the lollypops, one can work on chocolates, and one can work on making marshmallows. Parents can bring real candies and chocolates for role playing. Once the candies and chocolates are ready, the little factory workers can have a party after a hard day's work!

Kings, Queens, And Fairies

Grab your grandma's knitting needles for fairy wands or swords, use your blanket as a cape and step into the magical world of kings, queens, prince, princess, wizards, fairies, dragons, goblins, and gnomes. Act out your favourite fairy tales. Take a role playing adventure with all your friends.

First, think of a theme for your adventure with all your friends. You can make a mattress fort and pretend it's a kingdom under attack. Everyone can take turns playing different roles in the game.

Calling All Medical Experts!

This role playing game encourages children to learn more about the importance of health care workers. Kids can be real-life Doctor Mcstuffin's with this role play idea. Kids can divide healthcare roles. One can be a nurse and one can be a doctor. Doctors can wear white coats while the nurses can wear caps made from newspapers. Kids can get creative and paint their coats and hats.

Children can use their stuffed animals and toy babies as patients that need medical care. Maybe your toy baby has a fever, or maybe they have a tummy ache. You can check their vitals and temperatures. The doctor can then prescribe medicines according to the patient's diagnosis and should be under the nurses' supervision for the day.

Library Fun

For this pretend play game, kids could take turns being librarian and customers. To set up a dramatic play area, you can use the kid's desk as the librarian's spot where the customers would line up to check out books and a little cart or kids wagon as a bookshelf. The customers at the library can pretend to go through books and ask the librarian questions about new books.

The librarian can pretend to add check-out dates to new books with stickers lying around the house. Join in on the fun role playing game with your kids and pretend to be a customer and the library.

Life As A Soldier

This action-packed pretend play game is sure to keep your kids moving and on their toes. Children can make an obstacle course, fit for a soldier, at home or out in the garden. You can help the kids and do a DIY army obstacle course for a boot camp at home.

Use a ladder, kid's sandbox, hula hoops, and some pretend heavy objects to create the obstacle course for the kids to role play as soldiers.

Host A Tea Party

Are you ready to whisk your stuffed toys and dolls off to an imaginary tea party? This role play idea will get your kids cooking, setting up tables for their tea party guests, and playing host.

Kids can use chairs at home to set up a table for their guests for the pretend play tea party. Children can use household items from the kitchen to pretend to serve real food and tea to their guests and have a chit-chat with them at the party!

Let's Fly!

Let's take an airplane ride on board a cute little pilot's flight. Children can make airplanes out of big cardboard boxes and make two rows for the passengers to sit in, paint them, and assemble them together.

You can play this game with your older siblings as well. Take turns to fly the airplane. One person can also be an air hostess and serve food and beverage to the passengers on board. The pilot can also put on a uniform. Kids can also create their own airport and don't forget to flap out your arms while you make a smooth landing!

Kids Bank

Kids can have fun with finance with banking role play ideas. Make fake money from paper. Help the children in making a cardboard ATM machine. They can role play as cashier and customer or someone who needs to use the ATM at the bank. Customers can deposit and withdraw cash from their piggy banks.

Customers can line up at the bank to make their transactions. If they have complaints, they can contact the bank manager. They can also fill out forms to open a bank account. You can use cardboard or plastic boxes and label them as 'Account'. Customers can also visit the ATM machine to withdraw cash or pay their bills.

This role game is good for building social skills and learning more about the banking and finance procedures. You can also turn this into a fun counting game for the kids!

Hop On Board The Choo-Choo Train

Your child will love this role play idea. In fact, the entire family can take part and get on board the choo-choo train. You can use painter's tape to help your kids and make a train track and put chairs in two lines for the passengers.

Make a separate train compartment for the train driver and line up passenger chairs. Everyone can make choo-choo sounds as the train goes around the tracks. One kid can also distribute train snacks to the passenger.

Police Heroes

Kids can put on their police outfits and become crime-fighting machines against bad guys. This is a fun game to play for kids with their siblings and friends. Some can be police officers and others can pretend to be criminals. Use cardboard boxes to create your own police car to chase and catch criminals. Kids can use building blocks to hide behind while they have a showdown with the criminals before they catch them.

Kids can use hula hoops to create jails for criminals caught during a crime-fighting spree. Use a gun made from paper plate and kitchen utensils to catch those bad guys.

Anchors Away!

Put on your sailor hats and role play an exciting sea journey with your friends. Kids can use paper towel tubes to make binoculars at home to use on their sailing adventure. Children can take turns becoming ship Captain and turning the steering wheel. A hula hoop would make the perfect steering wheel. The Captain of the ship can order the crew to do chores like cooking, cleaning, opening up sails, and putting the anchors away.

The captain and the crew can sing their favourite songs and dance with each other on board the sailing ship.

Budding Journalists

Imagine being a reporter in the midst of a zombie apocalypse! Now is your chance to shine at your job. For this role play, you will need to set up a dramatic play area in your living room. Kids can hide behind sofas pretending to be journalists trying to report breaking news and save themselves from the zombie outbreak.

Siblings, friends, and other family members can play the part of locals and zombies. Do a funny and awkward zombie walk to scare all the locals away!

Most families have toilet paper in their household items. Kids can make a DIY camera from toilet paper tubes and paper clips to take pictures of the zombie. Use a pen and paper to take notes of the breaking news, and don't forget to interview the locals the next day, if any survive!

Crazy Space Adventures

This imaginative play will take your child far away into the unknown world of space. Kids can make an astronaut suit from cardboard boxes and brown paper bags. You can help kids cut out holes in brown paper bags to make an astronaut space helmet. Children can create different shapes and drawings on the helmet and suit to make it colourful.

Other kids can also join your rocket ship and go on a space adventure. Pass by different planets and land on the ring of Saturn. Make new cute little martian friends and bring them back to earth with you.

Flower Shop Florist

Let a child's imagination bloom with this flower shop role playing game. As a kid, I remember every time I walked by a flower shop, I would pause for a minute. The pretty, vibrant flowers in the display always made me feel good. I wanted to be around flowers all the time. So, we set up a DIY flower shop, and the children loved the idea of role playing as a florist.

This is a great art and crafts activity for children. I helped them in cutting out flower patterns in different colours. We used pipe cleaners to make flower stems. To give the shop a more realistic feel, we sprayed a little fragrance on the flowers.

One kid pretended to be the florist while the others were the customers. Everyone took turns playing different roles during the game. The florist provided customers with information about flowers and also wrapped them up for the customers.

Dancing Diva

Ask your kid to imagine being the owner of a dance studio. What moves would they teach their students? This role play idea will get you and your child singing and dancing in no time!

Create a dance studio at home. Kids can give dancing ideas to the students. The students must follow the instructions to pass the dancing class. The class can have a dancing competition among teams. This game gives the entire family a chance to participate and have fun.

As an instructor, kids can also introduce exercise dance classes. Get moving and get fit with your kid's role play dance routines!

Farming Fantasy

Gather your kids and ask them to give farming ideas. What do they think farmers do? They can choose their favourite farming chore. One child can drive a tractor while the others can collect eggs and take care of farm animals. Children can use household items to make the game interesting.

Children can make their own hay out of crepe paper to feed the animals and use kitchen bowls to give food and water to all the farm animals. You can use real food from your pantry for this game.

This game is a great way for your child to learn different responsibilities like looking after animals or their pets. Kids will also learn the importance of hard work. You can reward them for each farming chore they complete.

Alien Invasion

Help your child out with an alien invasion. You're sleeping and wake up to scary creatures all around. It is complete chaos! Make DIY alien costumes at home and dress up as different extraterrestrial beings to invade the earth. Make a UFO from a cardboard box or paper plates.

Now that the aliens have successfully invaded, earthlings must obey their every command, otherwise there will be consequences. Your child will have fun playing this game and being a cute little crazy alien and riding around a UFO.

A Day At The Post Office

You can teach children about community helpers with this role play game. Set up a post office dramatic play centre for role playing. Kids can put their crayons, colours, and markers as old office supplies. They can use coloured paper and set up a station for people to come to the post office, write letters, and put it in the mailbox. Make a separate box for junk mail.

You can make a colourful mailbox with cereal boxes. Kids can assign tasks and take turns pretending to be mail man. People can bring delivery boxes, made from cardboard boxes, to the post office and write the receiver's name and address before handing them over to the postman for delivery. Make a delivery bag out of cloth and put all the mail and packages in it.

Have Fun With Role Paying Ideas for Kids

Role playing games give children a chance to tap into their imaginations and create a world of their own. The games are full of excitement, magic, mystery, and more. These role play ideas for kids are fun activities that can help develop cognitive, emotional, and social skills. Role play games also give parents a chance to spend time with their children and have some fun family time.