What you will need
- Bottles of medicine – you could use the bottles you created in during the medicine making adult led activity.
- Pills – you could use the pills you created in during the pill making adult led activity or use our pills print outs.
- Other medicines such as boxes from creams and ointments- we used an empty tube of paint and sealed the lid on with plenty of tape.
- Prescriptions – we have a prescriptions PDF you can print out or an editable word document you could use.
- Bags or pots for the medication- we have a pharmacy bag instruction sheet that you could use.
- Play money
- Pharmacist poster
Duration
- 10 – 15 minutes
Become a pharmacist and fill out the prescriptions at a pharmacy.
Important safety notes:
Safety Note: Never use real medication in your role play area- ensure all old containers and packages are thoroughly cleaned and sealed with tape before use.
Before starting this activity, please make sure that the children in your setting understand:
- If they find medicines in the form of liquids, tablets, inhalers, creams, drops, patches or syringes, they should not touch or taste them. They should immediately tell or show an adult.
- They should only take medicines that are given to them by their parent, carer or the practitioner at their EYFS setting.
- They should never take medicines that a doctor has prescribed for somebody else.
Early Learning Goal links
- Mathematics: Number ELG
- Mathematics: Numerical Patterns ELG
- Understanding the World ELG: Past and Present
- Understanding the World ELG: People, Culture and Communities
- Understanding the World ELG: The Natural World
Characteristics of effective learning
Our EYFS units provide enabling environments with teaching and support from adults. Reflecting on the characteristics of effective teaching and learning, children will have opportunity to learn and develop by:
• playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Taken from Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
© Crown copyright 2023 licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0.
STEM vocabulary to introduce
Mixture, medicine, liquid, container, tablet, capsule, lozenge, prescription, medication, diagnosis, more than, less than, the same as, equals, altogether, money, coin, penny, pence, pound, price, cost, spend, spent, pay, days of the week, Monday, Tuesday …day, week, hour, hours, often, times, add, more, and, make, sum, total, how many/much?
Before you start
You could visit your local pharmacy and talk to the pharmacist there.
Show the children the pharmacist poster and tell the children that they are going to be pharmacists for this activity.
Ask the children if they know what a pharmacist does.
Pharmacists dispense medicines. This means they prepare and give medicines to people who have a prescription (or their adult if they are a child). Pharmacists can work in a pharmacy, hospital or GP practice. They can also give advice about prescriptions, how to use and store medicines, and the dangers of medicines. Some pharmacists also make and test new medicines.
Pharmacists are:
Creative when they make new medicines and when they prepare and make special medicines for patients.
Curious about what is wrong with their patients when they are unwell and about which medicines will be best to make them better.
Observant they need to read prescriptions carefully and make sure they give the correct amount of each medicine to their patients.
Tell the children that they are going to need to be curious about what is wrong with their patients and observant to see what is on the prescription and to make sure they give the patient the correct medication.
Set up your pharmacy role play area. You could set it up on a table if you are running this activity during one session or you could set it up as a role play area (twinkl has print outs here) if you wanted to extend the play for a few sessions.
We made bags to use in our pharmacy. If you want to design and make your own pharmacy bags we have an instructions sheet, but you could just use envelopes or similar.
Get your prescriptions ready. You will need to have the medications available in your pharmacy that you have used on your prescriptions. You may want to make these with the children in your setting and include some of the medication you know that the children use such as feeding tubes and syringes, inhalers (you can buy the spacers – the blue part in the photograph- from a pharmacy without the medication) or adrenaline auto-injectors (you could used an clean, empty vitamin C tablet container with your own label).
We have made a prescriptions PDF and an editable prescriptions word document that you could use. When we made our prescriptions, we used stock photographs of the pills we had already made from clay but you could print out and cut up photographs of pills to use.
We chose to price all of the prescriptions at £10 as that is closest to the actual prescription charge, but you may want to edit the cost to reflect the level of development of the children in your setting.
What to do – step 1
You could model what to do by asking a child to be the patient and the adult to be the pharmacist. Ask the child to choose a prescription to bring to the pharmacist. You could ask what is wrong with them and encourage them to look at the picture and show you what the problem is.
Ask the child what the doctor has prescribed and get them to show you the pills, liquid medicine or ointment on the prescription. You could read how much of the medication you need out loud and get the patient to help you to count out the correct number of pills or find the correct colour liquid medicine. Put this into a bag or pot.
If appropriate for the level of development of the children in your setting, show the children the part of the prescription that tells you how much medication you need to take and how often you need to take it. Tell the children that making sure patients know when and how much medication to take is a very important part of the job.
Step 2 – staying safe around medication
Tell the children that making sure patients know when and how much medication to take is a very important part of the job.
If appropriate for the level of development of the children in your setting, show the children the part of the prescription that tells you how much medication you need to take and how often you need to take it.
Tell the patient where they should store their medication safely.
Tell the patient that they should only take medicines that are given to them by their parent, carer or the practitioner at their EYFS setting.
Tell the patient that should never take medicines that a doctor has prescribed for somebody else or give their medication to anybody else.
Remind the children that if they find medicines in the form of liquids, tablets, inhalers, creams, drops, patches or syringes, they should not touch or taste them. They should immediately tell or show an adult.
Step 3 – time to pay
Children, and some adults, don’t pay for prescriptions and you could discuss this with the children in your setting, but for role play purposes everybody can pay!
We used a ten frame to count out pound coins to make £10 but you could use pennies, ten pence pieces or other amounts to suit your maths focus. While the children are counting out the money, you could ask:
- How many one pound coins do you need to make £10?
- How many have you counted out so far?
- How many more do you need to make 10?
- You have filled the top line of the ten frame, how many coins did you use?
- How many more will you need to make 10?
- If you have filled half of the frame, what is half of £10?
- If you have 5 one pound coins, how much do you have?
- What is double £5?
Step 3 – swap roles
This time the adult becomes the patient and the child becomes the pharmacist. As an adult, you can model how to act out your illness, injury or irritation. This time the child needs to fill out the prescription, observing the photographs and information on the sheet, then counting out the correct number of pills or selecting the correct liquid medicine or ointment. You could get them to count out pills onto a tens frame to check they have the correct number. As a patient, you could ask:
- How much of my medication do I need to take?
- How often do I need to take it?
- Where should I keep my medication?
- Where is the best place to keep it safe from children?
- How many days do I need to take my medication for?
- What should I do with any left over medication?
- Can anybody else take my medication?
When it is time to pay, you could ask the children to help you count out your coins to make sure you pay the correct amount.
Other things to try: non-prescription medication
Once the children know how a pharmacist makes up a prescription, you can introduce the idea of going to the pharmacy for medical advice without seeing a doctor. Pharmacists can prescribe medication for earache, impetigo, infected insect bites, sinusitis and sore throats along with other conditions in adults. Pharmacists can offer advice and over-the-counter medication to help with a range of common conditions and minor injuries.
We have made this printable PDF and editable word document with examples of ailments you can treat with medication from the pharmacist.
While acting as the pharmacist, you could ask:
- What is wrong with you?
- Where does it hurt/itch?
- How long has it been like this?
- When did it start?
- Has it got worse recently?
- What have you already tried?
The pharmacist would then need to select the correct medication or count out the pills. As with the prescription medicines, the pharmacist will tell the patient how much medication they need to take and how often they need to take it, as well as where to store it safely. The pharmacist will then need to charge the patient for the medication.
Other things to try: subitising using the prescriptions
Instead or as well as using numbers on your prescriptions, you could use subitising sets of pills or coins. You could use our subitising pills print out.
Other things to try: counting beyond ten
You could have more than one prescription for each child. You could ask them to count in 10s to find the total or you could use tens frames to count out the coins to pay.
Other things to try: days of the week
Many patients who take a lot of medication use pill organising boxes. You could set up a box with the days of the week for the children in your setting to sort the pills into. You could include instructions for this on your prescriptions, for example:
Take one capsule every day.
Take 4 tablets every day.
Take one lozenge on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Other things to try: off the shelf products
You may want to include other items in your pharmacy such as plasters, bandages or sun cream or over-the-counter medication. You could charge a variety of amounts for this. You could go on a trip to your local pharmacy to see what is there and talk the the pharmacist and other staff about their jobs.
Remember to refer to the children as pharmacists and praise them for using the attributes. You could say things like:
“You have been curious like a pharmacist because you found out what is wrong with your patients.”
“You have been observant like a pharmacist and made up the prescriptions correctly”
The science of pharmacies
We have put together some useful information about the science of medication to accompany this activity. Don’t worry, this is for your information only and to help you answer any questions children may have. We don’t expect you to explain this to the children in your setting!
What is a medicine?
Medicines are products that contain active ingredients. An active ingredient is a chemical compound that can be used to cure, halt or prevent disease; ease symptoms; or help in the diagnosis of illness. Active ingredients may be based on molecules extracted from plants, made by a chemical reaction in a laboratory, or be the byproduct of organisms such as fungi.
Medicines may be in the form of liquids, tablets, capsules, inhalers, creams, drops and patches.
Medicines act in a variety of ways.
Antibiotics can cure an illness by killing or halting the spread of invading bacteria.
Some medicines can control problems such as high blood pressure.
Medicines like insulin can replace missing substances or corrects low levels of natural body chemicals.
Analgesics are medicines which block the pathways that transmit pain signals from the injured or irritated body part to the brain, relieving pain.
Vaccines can protect the body against some infectious diseases. They teach your body to make the correct antibodies to fight against the disease if you catch it.
What are the different types of liquid medication?
Liquid medicines are mostly used for children, but may also be taken by adults who have difficulty swallowing tablets or capsules. There are four types of liquid medicines.
An Elixir is a sweet alcohol-based solutions in which active ingredients are dissolved.
A solution is a liquid containing dissolved active ingredients.
A suspension is a liquid holding undissolved particles of the active ingredient that must be shaken before taking.
A syrup has liquid active ingredients dissolved in sugar water to disguise the taste.
What are the different types of pills?
A tablet is a hard and compressed medication in a round, oval, or square shape. The active ingredient is combined other substances to make the tablet sturdy enough to be packaged and transported. Some tablets have a coating to protect against stomach acids and delay the release of the drug into the blood stream. These tablets should not be crushed or chewed. Some tablets are soluble and are designed to be dissolved in water. The active ingredient in the tablets are eventually absorbed into your bloodstream and travel around your body.
In a capsule the active ingredient is contained inside a plastic shell that dissolves slowly in the stomach. Some capsules need to be swallowed whole but others can be split open and the contents mixed with food or liquid. Capsules with a hard shell have two halves which fit inside each other to form a closed casing. They can be filled with dry or liquid ingredients, and can contain more than one active ingredient. Some capsules have a soft-gel coating, and may be semi-transparent. They contain medication suspended in gelatin (or similar substance) that is easily digested so the active ingredients are released and absorbed quickly.
Lozenges are solid pills which are designed to dissolve slowly in the mouth. They are often flavoured and sweetened so they taste nice. They release their active ingredients slowly. Lozenges may contain anaesthetics, antiseptics or something to soothe the throat (a demulcent). They are generally used to treat mouth or throat illnesses.
Pastilles are designed to dissolve slowly in the mouth like lozenges but are usually softer.
Suppositories are used to deliver drugs to the body when other routes cannot be used. Their active ingredient is mixed with another substance, pressed into a bullet, round, oval or cone shape, then coated with a substance such as gelatin. Suppositories are usually inserted into the rectum, and once in the body dissolves to release medication to treat the local area or travel to other parts of the body via the bloodstream.
What other types of medication are there?
Topical medicines are applied directly to the skin. The active ingredient the medicine is mixed with another substance to make the medicine easy to spread. Examples of topical medicines are:
- Creams which are mixtures of fat and water (with an emulsifying agent to keep them together).
- Lotions which are runnier water-based mixtures.
- Foams have tiny air bubbles in the liquid.
- Ointments are mixtures of fats, oils or wax. They stay on the skin longer and form a barrier which helps soothing and healing.
- Gels are made of water with drugs dissolved in it, bound together with a thickener like starch. Gels don’t contain fat.
Drops are used when the active ingredient in the medicine works best if it reaches the affected area directly. They tend to be used in the ears, eyes and nose.
Implants and patches are used release a medicine for a specific amount of time. The active ingredients are absorbed through the skin. The medication is absorbed evenly and doesn’t irritate the stomach or bowel.
Sprays can be used to apply medication to the skin or mucous membranes There are sprays for treating wounds, for disinfection or for reducing swelling in the nasal mucous membranes.
Other types of medication:
Inhalers: the active ingredient in the medicine is released under pressure directly into the lungs.
Injections: Injections use a sharp needle to put the medicine directly where it needs to be. They can be given in different places such as veins, under the surface of the skin, into muscles or into the fluid around the spinal cord.
