Lemonade Stand Dramatic Play

We were given some lemons the other week, which naturally resulted in lots of fresh lemonade and home baked lemon cookies. This gave me the idea to design a lemonade stand dramatic play scene for my girls to play with.

Setting up a Lemonade Stand Dramatic Play Scene

I started by drawing some lemonade cups and baked goods like lemon pie, cupcakes and cookies. I also threw in some ice blocks for good measure. Since this is a Summery play scene I thought it made sense.

Then I put together the customer order forms. I love including these in our printable dramatic play kits to encourage writing / mark-making and communication during pretend play. I laminate them so the kids can wipe and reuse them over and over!

Ikea Play Kitchen Hack

As with our other dramatic play scenes, I set this one up using our Ikea Play Kitchen as a base. I just turn the kitchen around and add a sign to the top back panel, in this case a Lemonade Stand sign. My printable dramatic play kits always include a sign that will fit this panel of the Ikea play kitchen, but also an A4 size that you can use instead if you don’t have one.

I also added a decorative bunting to the front of the shop, some signs, and displayed the play food in a tray at the front. To make the food I printed and cut the templates included in our printable lemonade stand kit, and then mounted them on cardboard to make them sturdy and chunky.

They are perfect for little hands to hold and environmentally friendly, as you can just recycle them when they’re no longer needed. Another option would be to laminate them.

Lemonade Stand Signs and Props

To complete the look and extend the play, I added themed signs to our set up. I also made some lemon and lime slices (printed and mounted on cardboard) that the kids could use to garnish the drinks.

My girls are used to pretend play, so they just pretended to fill the paper cups with lemonade (I put a drink dispenser filled with yellow tissue paper for a lemonade effect on top of their play kitchen), then they added a straw and lemon slice to the cup.

Our lemonade stand was very well received by my girls, who have been serving me unlimited amounts of lemonade and treats every day since!

I hope this post inspired you to create a new play experience for your little ones.

If you’d like to set up a play space like this one, you can grab our Lemonade Stand Dramatic Play Printables that include all the signs, labels and forms shown in the photos. Or check our Dramatic Play section for other imaginative play printables!