Imaginary Play & Role Play
To help them get there, Kurtz Bros offers a wide range of early learning toys for sale online, including props, figures, puppets and play sets.
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A set of characters with interchangeable pieces which enable children to freely create likeable characters.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Puppets kit allows toddlers to bring the classic Eric Carle book to life with creative, hands-on play. This set includes 2 fuzzy socks, 10 finger puppets, and self-adhesive felt shapes to easily create the caterpillar and butterfly characters.
The New Sprouts™ Deluxe Market Set includes 32 pieces of freshly designed produce, offering 30 different types of fruits and vegetables. Made of soft, durable plastic, this set is perfect for children aged 2 and up.
Clothes for Social Skills Newborn Baby Dolls are designed to enhance toddlers' fine motor skills and help them practice dressing techniques.
The Big Feelings Pineapple Deluxe Set is a fun and engaging social-emotional learning (SEL) toy designed to help preschoolers explore and understand their emotions.
The My Farm Animals block set includes 10 hand-sized pinewood blocks, each featuring real images of popular farm animals like a horse, cow, and rooster.
La Baby Play Dolls are charming, realistic baby dolls designed for young children. At 11 inches long, they are the ideal size for little hands to hold and cuddle.
Discover endless "tots-ibilities" with this classic Mr. Potato Head set! Little hands (Ages 2+) can create wacky characters using the potato body and 12 easy-to-handle parts. Features a "tater tush" storage compartment. Great for imaginative play and fine motor skill development!
The Sort & Seek Polar Animals set is a fun and interactive way for toddlers to learn counting, sorting, colors, and more. This educational toy includes 5 colorful, numbered igloos (orange, purple, blue, teal, and white), each containing a different polar animal finger puppet: walrus, penguin, arctic fox, polar bear, and narwhal.
The Calculator Cash Register is a fun, interactive learning tool for children in grades PreK and up. It features a working solar-powered calculator with oversized buttons and a large display, making it easy for kids of all ability levels to use.
The Mini Number Cookies set is an engaging and playful learning tool for young children. This set includes 20 mini cookies, each featuring a different number from 1 to 20, designed to help children with number recognition, counting, and basic arithmetic.
The Up-Close Science: Magnifying Glasses & Tweezer Activity Set provides young learners with the tools to explore science in a hands-on, engaging way. The set includes four magnifying glasses and four kid-friendly tweezers, all neatly stored on a colorful stand.
Detailed expressions help children to learn about and express feelings of happiness, sadness, fear, anger and embarrassment.
Create wacky characters with the classic Mrs. Potato Head! Designed for little hands (Ages 2+), this set includes a potato body and 11 mix-and-match parts (hair, skirt, shoes, etc.). Features convenient "tater tush" storage and helps develop fine motor skills.
The Ocean Animals play set includes six realistic plastic ocean replicas designed to introduce young children to the fascinating world of underwater life.
This fun and challenging matching game gives children multiple way to learn and play.
Types of Early Learning Imaginary Play Toys
Imaginary play can come from anywhere — a pencil that becomes a sword, a plastic cup that turns into a fancy glass at a restaurant or a stuffed animal that transforms into a roaring, ferocious tiger. Of course, that means there are loads of different items to choose from to elevate students' playtime. Some of the early learning toys we carry include:- Active play items. Get kids moving with floor mats, tunnels and games to spark the imagination.
- Play sets. Play sets feature a range of kid-friendly versions of items to fulfill their creative visions. We have play sets with camping items, kitchen sets, fake food, doctor and vet supplies, and tools.
- Dolls and figures. Let kids get a taste of parenthood or place their toys in new situations with our collection of dolls and figures for young children.
- Props. The right toys can go a long way in boosting kids' immersion. Cash registers, cleaning supplies, costumes and small houses provide more realistic environments and help students enact big-kid jobs such as sweeping or handling money.
- Animals and puppets. Whether they're playing with critters from the home, farm, jungle, ocean or Mesozoic era, kids love animal role-play, and it can help them discover more about the natural world.
- First toys. We also carry many first toys designed for engaging the youngest of early learners.
The Benefits of Imaginary Play
Aside from the plain fun it offers, imaginary play can also provide a range of developmental benefits:- Social skills: When they play with their peers, students naturally improve their social skills. They can learn about cooperating with others and showing empathy as they take on the role of another person or animal. They might also learn about expressing themselves better, the importance of listening and how to better describe their emotions and mental states.
- Language development: Speaking with other kids and adults in these engaging scenarios provides an opportunity for students to practice and hone their language skills.
- Creative skills: Creativity is often described as a muscle. By using it more often and being imaginative, students can better learn about their creative sides and use these skills in the future.
- Life knowledge and cultural awareness: When they play with other people, kids learn more about the world around them. They might pretend to be a firefighter and start to understand how important that role is or play house with children of other ethnicities and backgrounds to get a glimpse of how their lives may differ.