The Teddy Bear Queue

A pretend ticket booth where the child and a row of soft toys practise joining the back of a line, keeping their place, and waiting for their turn.

  1. Set up something worth queuing for: a “ticket booth,” ice-cream stand or bus stop (a chair and a box are enough). The adult is the first ticket-seller.
  2. Mark the queue on the floor with 4–5 tape crosses or paper footprints, one step apart. Line up three or four soft toys, and have the child join at the back.
  3. Serve one customer at a time, slowly. As each is served, the child moves the toys and themselves forward one spot.
  4. Name the three queue rules as you play: “Back of the line. One space each. Wait for your turn.”
  5. Add a little drama: a cheeky toy pushes in at the front. Ask, “What should we tell Rabbit?” Help the child find calm words: “The back of the line is here, Rabbit.”
  6. Swap roles — the child serves, the adult queues (and sometimes “forgets” a rule for the child to notice).

Variation: practise real-life twists — letting someone with a crying baby go first, holding a place for a toy who “dropped a mitten,” or what to do while waiting (count the people ahead, play “I spy,” hum a song quietly).

Requirements

  • Space: A hallway or about 3 meters of clear floor
  • Surface: Any floor that tape or paper footprints can sit on
  • Materials: 3–4 soft toys, masking tape or paper footprints, a chair or box as the booth, paper scraps as tickets
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings or friends can join the queue
  • Supervision: Light — the adult plays a role

Rationale & Objective

“Waits in line” is a core school-readiness norm, and it is harder than it looks: the child must inhibit the urge to go first, keep track of their place, respect others’ space, and trust that their turn will come. The UK EYFS Self-Regulation goal expects children to be able to “wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses,” and the CDC lists following rules and taking turns in games as a 5-year milestone. Pretend play is an ideal rehearsal ground — Vygotsky observed that children willingly follow rules inside an imaginary situation that they resist elsewhere. Studies by Tomasello and colleagues (Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012) show that preschoolers already understand rules as applying to everyone and will protest when a puppet breaks one, which is exactly what the “pushing-in” scene draws on. The exercise builds toward calm waiting at the slide, the school lunch line and the shop checkout.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: heads straight for the front; drifts off the spot or leaves the line after a few seconds; pushes or crowds the toy ahead
  • Developing: joins at the back when reminded; stays on a floor marker for a short queue of 2–3 customers; complains loudly or grabs when a toy pushes in
  • Proficient: goes to the back unprompted; keeps a step of space; waits through 4–5 customers; tells a queue-jumper where the back of the line is in a calm voice
  • Advanced: queues well in real places without floor markers; finds own ways to pass the waiting time; notices when it would be kind to let someone go ahead

Safety Notes

  • Tape paper footprints down firmly so they do not slide on smooth floors
  • Keep waits short at first (under a minute) — waiting ability at this age is measured in minutes, and a too-long queue only teaches failure
  • When acting out pushing-in, keep it gentle and done by the toy, never by shoving the child
  • In real queues near roads, car parks or escalators, the child still needs to stay within arm’s reach regardless of how well they queue
  • If waiting of any kind regularly leads to intense distress or aggression well beyond what you see in other children the same age, talk it over with the preschool teacher or pediatrician

Hints

  • Playfulness: make the reward at the front real and tiny — a sticker “ticket,” a spoon of pretend ice cream, a stamp on the hand
  • Sustain interest: change what the queue is for each time (rocket launch, face-painting, the toy bus) and let the child design the booth and the tickets
  • Common mistake: practising only in the supermarket when everyone is tired. Rehearse at home first, where a mistake is funny rather than stressful
  • Limited space: line the toys up along the sofa or use a row of chairs as a waiting room, moving up one seat at a time
  • Cross-domain: use ordinal words — first, second, third, last (numeracy); number the tickets and call them out (numeral recognition); count how many are ahead and how many behind
  • Progression: queue of toys with floor markers → no markers → longer waits → real queue at the playground slide or bakery → child explains the queue rules to a younger child

Sources

  • CDC Developmental Milestones — 5 years, social/emotional (“Follows rules or takes turns when playing games with other children”)
  • UK EYFS Statutory Framework — ELG Self-Regulation (wait for what they want and control immediate impulses)
  • Head Start ELOF — Approaches to Learning, emotional and behavioral self-regulation (follows classroom rules and routines)
  • Schmidt, M.F.H. & Tomasello, M. (2012), “Young Children Enforce Social Norms,” Current Directions in Psychological Science
  • Vygotsky, L.S. (1978), Mind in Society — rules within imaginary play situations
  • Montessori Grace & Courtesy — waiting for a turn and respecting another person’s place