Worker Bees is a role-play village where children can explore different occupations with wooden toys. They pop up at various locations around Berkshire and surrounding areas.
The toys are all Montessori aligned so that they are practicing real life activities made accessible to them. One of George’s favourites was the fire-fighter area with a beautiful ride on fire engine. George loved this; it even had a bell and hose! There was a fire fighter costume and hat.
There was a vet area with different soft animals and fabric plasters to put on them and different wooden medical instruments to use such as stethoscopes. There was a vet costume they could wear also. George really enjoyed making the cat better!
There was a construction worker area with soft building bricks and a woodworking bench. There were different wooden tools for them to use and a construction worker hi-vis jacket and hat.
There was a shop area with tills and trolleys and food to buy. I love the wooden tills and fake money. There was a fancy dress area with all sorts of dressing up clothes and a dresser with a mirror and hair accessories.
George really enjoyed the café role-play area where there was a really cute ice cream stand for mixing and matching ice creams and ice-lollies. There was also this amazing wooden coffee machine, it was so detailed, and it even had a Panini toaster.
Role-play and pretend play is a key milestone in a child’s development. This session allows children to build relationships, practicing language with peers, expand their vocabulary, connect language to ideas and actions, and develop confidence in expressing themselves.
The session is aimed at children from walking age to 6yrs. The session I went to was at Monk Sherborne village hall, which was absolutely beautiful; a recently renovated barn conversion, it was so clean and had all the kitchen equipment you could need. There is also a lovely outdoor space next to the hall, with a small play area. This would make a perfect picnic spot in the summer after the role-play session.
Harriet makes everyone feel so welcome and after the session she gathered everyone together to sing happy birthday to one little girl. It was so thoughtful. There are coffee and snacks available to purchase too.
