Through pretend play, children have the opportunity to develop many skills while reliving scenarios that they have had previous experience with. In this learning experience, we create a mini community with Duplo blocks to represent buildings and homes and painter’s tape to create roadways. This can be as simple or complex as you choose and can be added on to daily as an ongoing home project or what educators usually refer to as extended projects. 
 

Materials to Consider: 

You can start this activity with a single strip of painter’s tape on the floor, “Look at this line, this is our street. Let’s drive this car to the end of the street. Which way would we turn to get to the park?” Create more streets with the tape and slowly add on to the neighbourhood. Ask your child what kind of stores, buildings, and homes you have in your neighbourhood, “What else do we see on our way to the park? Do we pass the library?” Build block structures to represent these buildings and continue to add to your neighbourhood, while talking about your community with your child.