The purposes of this study are to examine for a function of imitation in 5-years old children's Play. The second was to study process of change in the intention of imitation in children's play. The paticipants were 5-years old children and the classroom teacher. The investigators observed children's and their teacher's activity in the natural setting. The results of observation showed that the change of imitation related with positive emotion. We apply for analysis the idea of Horizontal recontexualization and Vertical recontexualization (Van Oers, 1998). Analyzing episode, the positive emotion changed the intention of imitation and then turned imitation into creation. Moreover, it was also suggested that individual imitation was transformed into social empathy through imitation.