My Play Plan Ticket

Just before pretend play, your child makes a one-minute “play plan ticket” — a quick drawing that shows who they will be, what they will do first, and what they need — then plays it out and tells you afterwards how it went.

  1. Offer the ticket — a half sheet of paper or an index card — when your child is about to start make-believe play: “Tickets, please! What’s your plan?”
  2. Three short questions: “Who are you going to be?” (a vet, a bus driver, a mum). “What will you do first?” “What do you need for that?”
  3. Draw it. Your child draws themselves in the role — a stick figure with a stethoscope is enough. Write underneath, in their words: “I am going to be the vet and fix the dog’s leg.” Children who want to can add their own marks or letters.
  4. Collect the props the plan mentions, substituting freely — a ribbon for a bandage, a box for the vet’s table.
  5. Play. Join in as a minor character if invited (the worried dog owner), following your child’s lead. Keep the ticket in sight.
  6. If the play wanders, that’s fine. Simply ask, in role: “Vet, what’s the new plan?” so the change is named.
  7. Afterwards, hold up the ticket: “Did you do your plan? What happened next? What will the vet do tomorrow?”

Variation: with two children, make a joint plan — each says their role and one thing they will do — which adds negotiation. Or plan a small block of free time instead of a role: “First the train track, then drawing.”

Requirements

  • Space: Any room or corner where pretend play usually happens
  • Surface: A table, clipboard, or the floor for drawing the ticket
  • Materials: Half sheets of paper or index cards, crayons or markers, and whatever props are at hand (soft toys, boxes, scarves, kitchen items)
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; ideal with 2–3 children planning roles together
  • Supervision: Light — an adult asks the planning questions, scribes the sentence, and returns for the short review

Rationale & Objective

The play plan is the signature planning practice of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: children say, draw, and eventually write what they intend to do in make-believe before they begin, on the Vygotskian view that committing to a role and a scenario in advance helps children act on intention rather than impulse (Bodrova & Leong, 2007). Preschoolers in Tools classrooms outperformed peers on executive function tasks in an early evaluation (Diamond et al., 2007; Barnett et al., 2008); later large trials have been more mixed, so the plan is best seen as one promising, low-cost habit, not a guaranteed booster. It closely parallels HighScope’s planning and recall times, where stating an intention and later reflecting on it are linked to more purposeful, sustained play (Epstein, 2003), and the Head Start framework lists planning play scenarios — roles, materials, and what will be enacted — as a preschool indicator. For a 5-year-old the ticket also covers a core benchmark of this skill: describing two or three steps of a plan before starting.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: names a toy or place rather than a plan (“cars”); drawing is unrelated or refused; play shifts every few minutes with no link to what was said
  • Developing: states a role and one action (“I’m the vet, I fix the dog”); draws a simple figure; play starts out on plan and drifts; recalls one thing they did
  • Proficient: states role, first action, and needed props; gathers the props; sustains the planned scenario for 10–15 minutes and announces changes; recalls events in order
  • Advanced: plans a short sequence (“first check the dog, then give medicine, then he goes home”), coordinates roles with a partner, adds own writing to the ticket, and plans a continuation for next time

Safety Notes

  • Check improvised props for the usual hazards — no cords or scarves around necks, no plastic bags, no small parts if younger siblings join in
  • Keep planning to about a minute. A long planning session eats the play it is meant to serve and makes children resist the routine
  • Never use the ticket to police play (“that’s not what you planned”). Free play should stay free; the ticket is a starting intention
  • Some children are reluctant to draw. Accept a spoken plan that you write down, and do not correct the drawing or the letters

Hints

  • Playfulness: act as a ticket inspector or theatre usher who needs to see a play plan before the show can start, then stamp or hole-punch it
  • Sustain interest: keep the tickets on a ring or in a box. Looking back (“Remember when you were a firefighter three days running?”) gives children a sense of their own ideas growing
  • Common mistake: suggesting the plan yourself. If your child is stuck, offer two options based on what they have enjoyed recently, then let them choose and elaborate
  • Limited space: the plan works for small-world play on a tray or tabletop (toy animals, figures, cars) just as well as for dress-up, and needs only a scrap of paper
  • Cross-domain: the dictated sentence shows that print carries meaning, and children begin adding their own letters (early writing); role play stretches vocabulary and perspective-taking (language and social-emotional)
  • Progression: spoken one-part plan → drawn plan with adult-written sentence → plan with first-then steps → child adds initial letters or own writing → joint plan with a partner → plan today that continues yesterday’s play

Sources

  • Bodrova, E. & Leong, D. J. (2007). Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education (2nd ed.). Pearson — play planning
  • Diamond, A., Barnett, W. S., Thomas, J. & Munro, S. (2007). “Preschool program improves cognitive control.” Science, 318(5855), 1387–1388
  • Barnett, W. S., Jung, K., Yarosz, D. J., et al. (2008). “Educational effects of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: A randomized trial.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23(3), 299–313
  • Epstein, A. S. (2003). “How planning and reflection develop young children’s thinking skills.” Young Children, 58(5), 28–36
  • Head Start ELOF — Approaches to Learning (“Plans play scenarios, such as dramatic play or construction, by establishing roles for play, using appropriate materials, and generating appropriate scenarios to be enacted”)
  • Diamond, A. (2013). “Executive Functions.” Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168