The Restaurant

The restaurant dramatic play theme has so much scope for learning and having fun. Children can work in the kitchen, weighing, measuring and preparing ingredients or they can work front-of-house, setting tables, greeting customers, taking orders and serving meals. It is a really hands-on theme with lots of opportunities to get messy in the kitchen whilst exploring ingredients and recipes.

Our authentic Chef uniform certainly help transform children into real chefs. To make dramatic-play even more immersive our Restaurant pdf’s, available in Irish or English make it easy to set up your own Restaurant.

Our large format “I am a….”poster is designed for an early years environment where children can discuss the theme of The Restaurant. Character Traits flash-cards can be added to the poster to encourage children to think about and identify the behaviours that they expect from a Chefs. The “I use..” flash-cards help to introduce some new vocabulary; common equipment used in Restaurants and the blank cards can be used to scribe the roles and responsibilities that the children consider part of a Chef’s job.

The Restaurant resource pack is free to download for our Imagination in Action email newsletter subscribers. The pack is a digital resource and it will be emailed to you when you sign up. You can download it, save it and print it as and when you need. Once you have signed up you will receive an email with the English and Irish language pdf resources, if you do not receive an email please check your spam/junk mail. To make sure you receive information about future free resources please add us to your contacts list in your email.

Make your own Restaurant

Our printable Restaurant pack includes lots of resources so that you can easily set up a Restaurant dramatic-play area of your own. In addition to the “I am a…” theme poster there is another large format poster, Welcome to the Restaurant that can be used to designate a specific role-play area. The pdf includes A4 posters for the walls to designate different areas such as the Kitchen area or the Opening hours. We have included plenty of mark-making and writing opportunities with Order pads, and of course, every customer loves a loyalty card so there are plenty of those! The personalisable Name Badges can be filled in and attached to a lanyard so that everyone knows the head Chef is today

What is included


The A4 posters included in the pack allow you to set up several of the different areas that you might find in a restaurant.

*Kitchen area
*Hand washing sink
*Staff only area
*Opening hours
*”Closed” notice


There are lots of writing and mark making opportunities included in the pack.

*Order pads
*Name badges
*A recipe book


The pack includes resources for the kithcen and dining area.

*Table number cards
*Ingredient flash-cards for pizza making


*An extensive menu
*Loyalty cards
*Order pads

Props

We always recommend using real-life and authentic props whenever possible. A lot of kitchen equipment can be used quite safety with adult supervision. Key skills such as using a scales, scooping and leveling measuring spoons, mixing, stiring and whisking are all things that can be done with common kitchen items. Setting tables and using cutlery and delph is a great skill which can use normal kitchen items without any additional investment required. Everything you need in terms of forms, signs and posters are in the pdf pack.

Available As Gaeilge

“It is always great to find resources in Irish as they are hard to come by and often the Irish isnt quite right. These resoures are just brilliant though. I know the children will love them.
~Grainne O’S, Teacher. ”