Create a Family Restaurant Night for Dramatic Play
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How to Set Up a Pretend Play Restaurant for Your Kids!
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Pretend play is always more fun when there’s just a hint of realism in it, and setting up a family restaurant night at home is a perfect opportunity to engage in some dramatic play with your kids. You can have fun creating a menu together, setting up the kitchen or dining room as a restaurant, and sharing a meal together.
Why Set Up a Pretend Play Restaurant?
Engaging in pretend play is a great way for kids to explore new facets of life, and setting up their own pretend restaurant can teach them lots of great skills. Pretending to eat in a restaurant helps kids understand how to behave and engage with people in the real-world setting, and it can also help them with decision making. Preparing a simple meal and cleaning up after reinforces their independence, and paying for the meal supports critical thinking and math skills. But most of all, it’s just plain fun!
Creating the Pretend Play Restaurant Menu
The most important part of setting up the pretend play restaurant in your home is creating the menu. The foods you select should be those that are easy for kids to prepare with minimal supervision. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit salad made of grapes and berries, deli meat sandwiches, and microwaved chicken nuggets are all great options. You can also do some prep work ahead of time by making macaroni and cheese or other pastas, which kids can heat up in the microwave later. You can also purchase family-size microwaveable entrees (think Stouffer’s lasagna), which are easy to prepare and serve.
Have your kids make menus for the meal service using construction paper or cardboard. They can decorate the borders, write descriptions of each menu option, and think of prices for the different foods. Depending on the age of your children, they may need some assistance with wording and spelling, but they should be encouraged to do as much as possible on their own. They can make a menu for each family member or create one to share. If you and your kids are tech savvy, you might even consider creating the menu on a website like Canva. These menus may be printed out or you can create a QR code to print out instead. Everyone can scan the QR code at mealtime using Mom or Dad’s phone to select their meal items.
Naming the Restaurant
Naming your pretend play restaurant can be a lot of fun! Encourage your kids to be as creative as possible. They may want to name it after your family, such as The Smith Brothers Restaurant, or they might go with something that sounds like trendy eateries in your neighborhood (The Pork and Bean or Silver Sippy Cup come to mind). If they need inspiration, have them look at the menu options and consider naming the restaurant after their favorite dish (think Mega Mac ‘n Cheese or Chompin’ Chicken Nuggets). If your kids will take turns serving as waitstaff and cooks, they can even come up with multiple names.
Decorating the Pretend Play Restaurant
Let your kids have fun with decorating your kitchen or dining room to create a restaurant experience. Making flowers out of construction paper or tissue paper is a perfect way to build a centerpiece for the table. They can also make placemats out of construction paper to set the table. A white paper tablecloth is great on its own to decorate the table, but consider letting them draw and color it to create the perfect look. A roll of butcher or kraft paper also works for decorating, plus it can be used for other crafts and activities later. You can even move a small end table or bookcase near the entrance of the room to create a pretend host/hostess stand. Construction paper signs with the restaurant’s name adds the perfect finishing touch. Be sure to ask your kids how they want to decorate first; they might have some great ideas that surprise you!
Supplying the Pretend Play Restaurant Staff
Make sure everyone has the supplies they need to play waitress, cook, and busboy for the night. A small memo pad and crayons are perfect for taking orders, but you can create a more realistic experience with actual restaurant guest checks. Your kids can use them whenever they want to play restaurant or bakery, and they’re not very expensive. Waitress costumes add a playful touch too. If you have a large pizza pan or baking sheet, that can be used to bring the food out to the “dining room” when it’s ready.
Chef’s hats and aprons help kids feel like real cooks in the kitchen. Have them make their own name tags to add even more realism to their costume. They can even wear Crocs (if they have them) to give the chef’s outfit the perfect finishing touch! If you have a small dish tub or a very large food storage container, it works as a tub for cleaning up the table after the meal is over. Depending on how many kids you have in the family, you might have one dress up in their Sunday best to play host or hostess.
Creating the Dining Experience
Taking turns playing customer and restaurant staff ensures everyone gets to experience both sides of dining out. The kids may want to serve the parents on their own, but they might all want to take turns serving their sibling and parent or parents. Be sure to take a turn as the restaurant staff yourself so they get to experience ordering and paying for the bill at the end of the meal. You can use money from a board game as payment to keep things simple. Play money sets are also available, which are also great for teaching kids about different denominations and how to use money in the real world. If everyone agrees, consider serving as restaurant staff first to set an example the kids can follow when it’s their turn.
Additional Ideas for a Dramatic Play Restaurant
There are lots of other ways you can make the pretend play restaurant a unique experience.
Set up a dessert cart or tray with “samples” of the desserts available. You can purchase single slices of cake and pie at your local grocery store, which are perfect for creating a dessert cart.
Have the kids offer some tableside services, such as adding parmesan cheese to pasta or pouring a bowl of cereal and milk tableside.
Have “doggy bags” ready to go for leftovers. These can be simple food storage containers or brown paper lunch bags.
Create a restaurant playlist using your Bluetooth speaker or Amazon Alexa device. The music can set the scene for the meal, and it’s fun to see which songs the kids pick out.
Turning your home into a pretend play restaurant for the night is a fun, new way to share a meal with your kids while spending extra quality time together. If they love the experience, consider doing it again one day for breakfast and let them serve you fresh juice, microwave pancakes, and other goodies to start your day.
