Bakery role play

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You are here: Home > Meet the Family > Errol Eagle > Role Play and Early Years home corner themes > Bakery role play

The Bakery role play page

This page lists lots of ideas and ways to turn your role play area into an operational bakery ... without a hot oven!

Download the PDF

If your planning includes the opportunity to have a bakers shop in your role play area here are a few ideas and suggestions along with printable resources you can use to make the role play more realistic for your children.

There are a great many learning opportunities that surround a role play scenario - please enjoy the following ideas ..

Your Shop

Have you an existing role play frame/wooden house that will serve as an enclosed area to have your shop? Other possibilities to create a shop area are...

Borrow/buy a large tent for the purpose.
Purchase an open topped wooden play house.
Cordon off a corner of your room with rope and then drape sheets over the rope to form ‘walls’ leave a space for the door.
Put out an SOS for large cardboard boxes. Cut these open and paint to resemble the exterior of the shop you are planning for. Prop the boards up into your allocated shop area.
Try to recreate as many physical elements of the real shop in your own role play one. Authenticity is very important when teaching our children how things operate, smell and look.

Items you could include

Open and Closed sign

Opening times notice

Posters made up in advance and featuring products that are associated with your shop theme.

Telephone and computer keyboard for the children to take orders!

Shopping list paper and pencils

Till & Money

Shopping bags or baskets

Aprons/white jackets and hats – make the hats from paper or ask a local food business if they have some disposable fabric hats you could use.

Sheets of paper and bags to wrap the cakes and breads in (template for bag below)

Decorative boxes to take your cake home in – available from Fiesty Firefly’s page on silkysteps.

Table cloths and napkins.

Oven mitts/gloves

Tea towels and cloths to wash up the dishes!

Selection of cakes and breads. – have some real and some plastic if possible. Maybe some parents could make some clay or salt dough cakes in advance once painted
and varnished they should last for years (you may have to remind the children which foods are edible and not though!!).

A cardboard box decorated to look like an oven – or use a wooden play oven if available.

Scales – these could be modern digitalised, old fashioned with a weigh lever or a traditional set with counter balance weights.

Selection of cutlery

Plates

Bowls

Jugs

Cutters

Rolling pins

Display trays for your foods.

Playdough in various colors for the children to make their own cakes and breads to sell!

Maybe include information on ultra violet light. Introduce health and safety to the children by explaining that this light helps keep flies and wasps away from the sugary foods.
House fly from Wikipedia

Ingredients!

Look at the type of ingredients bakers use - the basics can be – flour, butter, sugar, eggs

additional ones – baking soda, corn starch/flour, Icing sugar, jam, fresh fruit, cream etc

Essences and spices for taste – extend this maybe to a blind folded sniff challenge!

Cakes for maths!

Using a single layer sponge cake, cut it into sections that can visually demonstrate fractions to the children, for the very young ‘half’ = 2 and ‘quarter’= 4 is probably more than sufficient. Gauge the development stage of your children for yourself as to whether you can use more or less fractions.

For something more permanent cut a circular piece of wood about 2.5cm thick, decorate with paints to look like a birthday cake and then cut into quarters. Use thick cardboard for the same job if you haven’t the equipment to woodwork.

Using a baguette or longer French stick - allow the children to cut it into a designated amount of pieces. Regardless of size see if they can stage the process of cutting the required amount

Shopping/ Note Pad Paper

Use these designs to help your children take notes on what they want to buy.

This will highlight what knowledge your children already have on the types of items you are using in the shop. Build on their positive experiences by explaining, naming and demonstrating new and unfamiliar items that you intend to stock in the shop.

Click here for SHOPPING PAPER 1 SHOPPING PAPER 2

Paper Bag

Use this template to help show the children how to wrap breads and cakes once sold.

Explain that this is how the shop keeper tries to make sure the produce is protected.

Print the sheet, fold in half and glue the side and bottom edge together. Allow to dry.

Click here for BAG - colour BAG - B&W

Baking

There’s nothing more welcoming than the smell of baking bread.

If possible do some cooking with the children on your ’Bakery’ day.

Fresh yeast demonstrates a scientific change in turning from a solid to a liquid that rises. Mixed into bread flour, a spoonful of oil, pinch of salt and sugar you can also show the ‘proving’ stage of bread – where the dough rises by itself and is then knocked back (flattened) and moulded into loaves or rolls and allowed to rise once more before being cooked.

Explain to the children that the bread rises because the yeast make bubbles of air in it and that this pushes the dough up and out!

As a more visual example of this process have the children ‘be’ yeast and with straws blow a pot full of soapy water, making a growing pile of bubbles!

If you haven’t access to a cooker – buy a newly baked loaf and leave it out on a tray – the aroma will soon fill the air.

Sprinkle some sugar over a baking tray and then sprinkle on some cinnamon powder ~ Place it in a warm oven and soon your room will be filled with the ‘smell’ of home cooking.

Names for Cakes!

How many Varieties of cakes commonly available in a local bakery can you name?

How many cakes from another county can you name?

What about another country? Or the origin of the cakes you already know!

Could you use this idea as a fun fund raiser quiz?

How about a competition for a new cake variety - could you get a local bakery interested to judge originality of the recipe? and then bake them and pass on some of the sale revenue?

Getting things together

If you wish to ask your parents/members to help with providing some of the resources for the shop use this letter to request help. To save on paper – pin the letter to your notice board and make everyone aware of it.

If you are going to have and use a large amount of fresh produce in your shop, write the amount you will need next to that item – avoids overstocking!

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Dear Parents/ Carers

Our topic will soon be focusing on……………………………

We are going to include a …………………………………… shop in the role play area and would love to have you join in this fun activity by helping us to provide a few items for the shop.

Please write your name next to the item you can loan or donate to us.

All donations need to be in on _______________________date

Thank you

Please label anything you wish us to return to you.

-ITEM-----------------QTY--------NAME-------------------------------

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