One of the most magical things about children is their ability to imagine. To a child a bed may be a boat; a bike is a zooming rocket; a tablecloth can change a table into a castle; and a scruffy snuggly bear can become your bestie.

This ‘magical’ ability to transform the everyday through their imaginative play is not only fun and engaging, but also vital to the way children learn and make sense of what’s around them. Imaginative play invites problem-solving, language development and relationship building. It really helps youngsters practice the skills they’ll need to navigate through their ever-expanding world.

I love the way children can look at everyday objects and transform them into something new.

My own children always loved cooking, either real or make-believe. Both are great, but an added bonus of pretend cooking is that you can leave your little chef to it! My littlies would happily mix potions, shape mud cupcakes and plate-up playdough platters. They loved setting up cafes and shops, making up menus and taking orders.

We recently set up a very simple little pizza-making table at our playgroup, offering some bright paper scraps and basic shapes. One little chef was engaged for the entire session, busily choosing and chatting away, taking orders and exchanging pretend cash. The beauty of imaginary play is that it can so often dance off in any direction the child wishes to take it.

If you are looking to spark some creative play at home, paper pizzas can be a fun option to try. The basic components are easy to make from things you’ll probably already have:

• Bases - cut a few cardboard circles from a cereal box, an old manilla folder or a paper plate

• Sauce - cut a smaller wonky circle of coloured paper, or an old kinder painting

• Cheese - cut strips from any coloured paper you may have - post-it notes are often bright yellow and work perfectly

• Other toppings - look around for options. Try offering paper scraps, leaves, balls of scrunched up tissue paper or pieces torn from a catalogue

• Tools - you might offer a few plates if you wish, although fingers will do for utensils and picking up, sprinkling and placing are great fine-motor activities for little fingers

• You could decide to use a gluestick to fasten the ingredients onto bases as they’re assembled, or simply leave them loose to re-use another time.

• Oven - set aside a cupboard, a shelf or a cardboard box for the ‘baking’

Pretend cooking play, such as making paper pizzas, introduces a vast array of words to describe shapes, colours and foods. It addresses the tricky concepts of temperature and time, and lets children follow a process and practice their manners. But, most importantly, it requires great big dollops of the most vital ingredients of all… imagination and fun.

Enjoy!