Discover one hundred ideas for hours of happy, open-ended play with our new range of Adventure Silks
How do children play with silks? Fabric, ideally squares of colourful, malleable, floaty silk, is one of our top recommendations for open-ended play. But it’s also one of the most unexpected; many people assume silks are for only for dressing-up. But there is so much more to playing with silks, from small-world play and making dens, to playing in water and making seasonal nature tables. Like all the best open-ended toys, the ways to use silks in play are myriad. You can give your child a silk or two and see where it takes them. Or, if you’d like some inspiration, here are our top 100 suggestions for open-ended play with silks:
Make a den
A quick and easy way to make a den for children is to drape a large silk over a table edge or across the tops of two chairs. If it’s sunny you can hang it over a washing line in the garden. However you choose to use it, building a den with play silks gives children a glimpse of independence, a chance to create a space of their own, where they can make the rules. Fill it with cushions and books and plenty of rations.
Make a sling for a doll baby
Tie a silk around you and make a toy sling for a doll baby, just like mummy and daddy did when you were small.
Peekaboo/cover and discover games
Babies who are learning the concept of object permanence, love to play games of Peepo
Peekaboo. Use a silk to cover your face and then reveal it again. Or use a silk to cover something on the play mat, just out of your baby’s reach. They’ll love to lift the silk and see what treasures lie beneath it.
Make a Roman soldier’s tunic
Clip two silks together for the shoulders and pop it over your head. Use a belt or tie another silk around your waist, grab a cardboard sword, and you are invasion-ready.
Be a ghost
If you’re looking for an easy ghost’s costume for Halloween or storytime, a white or silver play silk makes a great sheet to throw over. If you want to add ghoulish eyes you can avoid cutting holes in the silk by making some of your own with cardboard and clipping them on with a grip or large paper clip.
Bandage for a poorly teddy
Wrap a silk around a teddy’s head when he has had a bump
Lead for a pet for a pull-along toy
Pull-along toys are great friends for the newly-confident walker. Tie a silk around the neck of a dog-on-wheels or pretty much any toy you like and you have an instant pull-along.
Streamer(s)
Streamers don’t only look pretty, they provide an excellent workout for gross-motor skills and in their swirling and twirling are precursors to the first shapes and letters your child will make when they learn to write. Tie your silks to the end of long sticks (a branch from the woods is perfect) and watch them whizz and whirl.
Fairy wings
Two silks attached to the back of a t shirt of top and then tied at the wrists make a pair of pretty wings for a fairy - whether it’s a good one or a wicked on.
Butterfly wings
Tie two or more silks to each wrist and attach at the back to create a multi-coloured butterfly.
Bird wings
When your game requires an eagle-eyed hawk or a nosey seagull, fold a silk into a triangle and attach to the cuffs of a long sleeve top and at the back. Add a beak and you have an instant bird.
River in a small world (blue)
Use blue or green silks to run a river through your small-world setting and you open up a world of possibilities. Boats can sail down it, fish can swim, bridges go over it, all with one piece of fabric.
Ocean or sea
A flat silk can be a calm ocean, or if you want stormy seas and giant waves, drape it over cushions and other props to create swells.
Rapunzel’s hair
A yellow silk, or ideally three silks tied in a plait, makes the prop you need for the story of Rapunzel and/or the prince who climbs up her hair.
Doll’s parachute
Children exploring their trajectory schema will often enjoy watching and experimenting with things that move through the air, for example throwing food from their high chair or watching a pendulum swing on a clock. Try tying a silk to a doll and watching as they parachute from a tree. How long does it take to land from different heights? Which doll falls fastest?
- A fortune teller’s turban
- A Land Girl’s headscarf
- A desert nomad’s headscarf
- Bride’s veil or train
- Baby doll’s nappy
- Curtain or doorway to a magic kingdom
Grass or lawn in a small world (greens)
Use cushions and other props underneath for hills and valleys.
Sand or desert in a small world (yellows and browns)
You could let real sand roll down a yellow play silk for a desert sandstorm. Brings a scene to life when you’re playing with animal figures like camels and figures from the Nativity.
Lunar landscape in a small world (silvers and blues)
Create a luminescent lunar landscape for your junk modelling robots and other play figures, using silver and blue silks. Pebbles, sand and LED lights can all work together with the silks to make an out-of-this-world small world.
Fire
For campfires, witches cauldrons, rockets and other situations requiring (imaginary) flames.
- Mermaid’s tail
Night sky
Fix your own tin foil stars and planets to black or dark blue silk for an atmospheric backdrop to a small world.
Pony’s tail or mane
Combine with a broom for instant cowboy or jockey
- Lion’s mane
- Beds/curtains in a teddy or doll hospital
Sunloungers at the pool
Take a staycation in the garden and lay silks out around the paddling pool like deckchairs.
- Lily pads in a pond
- Swirlers for rhythmic gymnastics-style dancing
Princess’s bed
For the full princess bed effect, hang your silks from the ceiling over the bed, or make a frame using the poles from a Wendy house or similar. Much like a den, you may find your princess wants to stay in her (or his) private little world for some time.
- Royal robes
Superhero’s cape
Superhero play is incredibly popular with pre-schoolers, who use the exaggerated characteristics of their favourite goodies and baddies to explore themes of right and wrong in a safe setting. A silk tied loosely around the shoulders makes a great cape for flying, or if you are more of a bodysuit kind of hero, you can tie it around your middle and add your initials in cardboard.
Trees
Create a forest with broom sticks and chairs and a canopy of green silks above them.
Jungle plants, hanging down
Tie green and brown silks around the spindles on the stairs or up chair legs to create the kind of vertical greenery you need in your jungle.
- Scrunched up as flowers
- Monkey ropes
Ropes for raft building
Collect sticks in the woods or garden and weave together with a strong and sturdy silk for a raft for your figures in the paddling pool.
- Waiter’s apron in a restaurant
- Chef’s hat/outfit
Nurse’s uniform
(with an upside down clock)
Doctor’s uniform
(with a toy stethoscope)
Caveman’s robe
(with mud)
Greek goddess or god
(with an ivy crown)
- Old lady’s shawl
Flags
To fly, or to use as a base and create your own
Doll’s clothes
Wrapped around a doll a silk makes an excellent ball gown
Hair in the hairdressers
Tie it or clip it on to you customer and (pretend to) cut it
A jellyfish
In the bath or paddling pool
Fishing net
See how many toy fish you can scoop up in one go.
Knapsack
Pack a picnic in your silk knapsack and off you trundle to the bottom of the garden for an adventure.
Red Riding Hood
Traditional fairy tales are still so popular with children because they provide an opportunity to explore difficult and sometimes scary ideas and concepts. Getting into character when you are reading a story can take your explorations even further. Throw a red silk over your shoulders and you have a real-life Red Riding Hood.
Laundry bag
For helping with the chores.
Hammock
For snoozey teddies and dolls
- Picnic blanket
Flames from a rocket
Stuff into a rocket made from a kitchen roll or empty bottle and pull out just enough fabric to create rocket boosting flames. We have lift off!
Waterfall
For mermaids
For a nature table
Just one or two colours can provide a seasonal backdrop for a nature table. Choose greens for spring, yellows for summer, oranges and browns for autumn and silvers and greys for winter.
Liquid in a bowl to stir
When you are making tea for all your dolls, a silk in a bowl with a wooden spoon makes a very pleasing liquid.
- Potions in a witch’s cauldron
Wrapping for presents
Children exploring their enveloping schema often enjoy wrapping things up, either as pretend presents or simply as way of researching what happens when you ‘hide’ something. Silks make a quick, easy and re-usable way to enjoy wrapping pretend gifts and almost anything else you can think of.
Postman’s sack
Another favourite with children exploring an enveloping schema is posting items, seeing what happens when something disappears. Make a postman’s sack and fill it with letters and parcels to deliver to all your family members.
- Santa’s sack
- Chinese dragon
- Snake
- Eel
- Wind in a storm
- Clouds
- The sun
- A rainbow
Outside for a fairy’s den
Sunlight streaming through silks makes a beautiful, dappled light that’s perfect for a fairy kingdom or a troglodyte’s cave.
- Blanket for a pet bed
- Ballerina’s tutu
- Astronaut’s suit
- Skipping rope (tied together)
- Tied around a ball to make a comet or shooting star
- Rope for pirates
- Curtains for a bunk bed
- Sleeping bags for teddies on a camping trip
Bird’s nest
Intertwine with twigs to make a nest on a spring nature table and fill with eggs, real or pretend.
Vampire/Halloween costume
Black silks make a great cloak for Dracula, or pad out an orange one for a pumpkin.
- Easter egg basket
A sling for a broken arm
Keep a silk handy for imaginative play at the hospital and doctors’
- Tied to baby gym or play arch
Belt for a carpenter or builder or hairdresser
Hang all your tools from your handy belt.
Bat wings
It’s essential for children to move in different ways for healthy development of their brains, muscles and complex balance mechanisms. That’s why so many of them like hanging upside down so much! Most children will also enjoy exploring their orientation schema at some point - hanging upside down is a way of seeing the world from different viewpoints. They can add an imaginative layer to this by turning into a bat (or a vampire.) Pin black silks to the back and the cuffs on a long sleeve top and you are a bat!
- Tabard for team sports
- Tie for legs in three-legged races
- Tie for a business person
- Wig for a judge or gown for a barrister
- A kite on a windy day
- Table cloth in a real tea party
- Sheets in an operating theatre
- Ice in the Arctic
- Curtains on a stage or puppet theatre
- Magic carpet
- Sheets to hang on the washing line
Caring for your Adventure Silks
Handwash in lukewarm water with a small amount of delicate-friendly liquid detergent. Lightly swish for five minutes and rinse well. If machine washing, choose a gentle, cold-water cycle.