Travel agents

Turn your role-play area into a travel agents. Display commercial and child-made holiday brochures and leaflets featuring hotels; bed-and-breakfast accommodation; caravans; and campsites on bookshelves and low-level tables.

Put commercial and child-made posters on the wall showing a selection of holiday destinations such as the seaside; snowy resorts; hot cities; water parks; theme parks; hikes in the country; and cruises on boats. Hang a large calendar on the wall, at child-height, for the children to find real or imaginary holiday dates. Provide a globe, atlas and maps for the children to identify different places around the world.

Set up a ‘Bureau de Change’ with real or pretend money from a variety of countries. If possible, place a computer nearby so that the children can view holiday-themed material on the internet (with adult supervision). Provide simple dressing-up clothes, such as blue shirts for the ‘travel agents’ to wear, or official name tags to distinguish the staff from the customers during role play. Provide bags, purses, pretend credit cards, tickets and passports for creative play and encourage the children to bring in pictures, leaflets or holiday-themed items from home to enhance the area further.

Suggested resources

Role-play area; commercial and child-made items such as holiday brochures and destination posters; calendars; adverts and leaflets featuring hotels, bed and breakfast, caravans and campsites; globe; atlas; maps; low-level tables; bookshelves; toy till; real or pretend money; dressing-up clothes; computer with printer (optional).

1 Delightful destinations

Create a holiday catalogue