Ice Cream Shop Dramatic Play ideas and printables

My 3 year old daughter is obsessed with ice cream. I’ve lost count of how many random things from around the house have become a pretend ice cream, so I knew an ice cream shop pretend play scene would get much love from her. And so I created her dream ice cream shop with these ice cream shop dramatic play printables!

These Ice Cream Shop Dramatic Play Printables were a labour of love and I had so much fun putting them together and coming up with a few activities and games to go with the dramatic play printables. And of course, her reaction when she saw her very own Ice Cream Shop was priceless! There have been hours and hours of imaginative play and everyone in the house has has their fair share of ice cream. She just can’t get enough of this set up!

The Ice Cream Shop Dramatic Play Printables include:

Shop front sign (3 color options)
Menu / Flavors sign
Price list sign
Ice cream order form
Ice cream cone templates
Ice cream flavors and toppings labels
Ice cream illustration (I used this as part of our shop sign)
Coloring page
2 play dough mats
Ice cream color matching game
Ice block matching game
Ice cream counting cards

It’s a PDF with 20 pages of fun activities to keep the ice cream themed play going! Some pages, like the shop signs and labels have editable text, so you can add the child’s name and personalize the printables to suit your play space and props.

I set everything up in back of our Ikea play kitchen. I trimmed the shop front signs to fit the top part and added the menu to the side. Everything was stuck in place with a bit of blu tack. The price list fit a 4×6 Ikea frame, next to the paper cups and ice cream cones.

Then I made a divider for the kitchen sink with 2 pieces of cardboard and used it to display our flavors, marked with matching labels. I kept the set up really simple, as from my experience young kids can get overwhelmed and not play so well when there’s a lot going on in their play space.

For the ice cream scoops I just used some Kmart pom-poms I had laying around. They were so cheap and are the perfect size for the ice cream paper cones. Just make sure your child doesn’t mouth them or supervise at all times.

To finish it off and make it even more fun, I added the ice cream color matching game to the bottom part of the kitchen. It doubles as an activity and decoration! I laminated all the pieces and stuck the cones to the kitchen with blu tack. Then I gave my 3 year old the ice cream tops with a tiny bit of blu tack at the back and she stuck them in place while matching the colors. I love how colorful and fun they look!

Also included in this set are ice cream counting cards, an ice block matching game, 2 play dough mats and a coloring page. We’ll be having lots of ice cream fun around here this week!