Renewed emphasis in Western political and economic debate on improving outcomes and reducing play opportunities are resulting in a "cognitivisation" of early childhood education, which is at odds with parallel attention to outcomes for creativity and imagination. Defining this "cognitivisation" as a narrowing of acceptable performance descriptions for young children, we report on an investigation of the play activities of 24 children (age range was 4.0-5.2 years; mean age of 4.5 years) over a 4-week period, in order to determine what opportunities were afforded for conceptual development. Against this narrowing of perspectives about cognitive outcomes, we theorise play in order to show the dynamic relations between "cognition and imagination". Our research shows collective instances of shared and sustained imaginary situations which actively work against traditional conceptions of play as natural and individual. We found two significant pedagogical practices that were instrumental for realizing a new conception of play that positioned the teacher as central rather than invisible: the use of an "interested observer of children's play" and the active construction of "collective imaginary situations" by the teacher. We argue that a more active role for the educator in children's play provides theoretical depth to broaden rather than narrow pedagogical strategies for meeting outcomes in both cognition and imagination.