Hello! I am a mum to 3 boys! Sharing our play ideas and activities and inspiration for toddlers and children. From tuff tray play to sensory play, small world play, cardboard crafts and outdoor play.
Learning through Play with Jigsaw Puzzles
We are a family of jigsaw lovers. I always ask for a jigsaw for Christmas (along with Lego!) and always buy my boys Jigsaws for birthdays and Christmas. Most recently we have come across some beautiful wooden jigsaws, handmade by a family in Derbyshire – Just Jigsaws. I was lucky enough to visit their workshop…
Play dough Travel Activites
We love play dough and it is great packed up in a little container with other items to take on trips and holidays for entertaining the kids. We take ours on long journeys in the car, on the plane and in the caravan. You will need: I will quite often just grab whatever comes to…
Sand and Water Ideas for Babies and Toddlers
Exciting ways to explore and play with Sand and water. Whether it is being used in the mud kitchen, sand pit, water tray, measuring for potion making, toddlers and babies love sand and water activities. Filling and tipping, transporting, digging, mixing, pouring and splashing. Play can be as simple as a tray filled with sand…
Autumn Play Idea Gallery for Children
I don’t know about you, but we love Autumn in our house. Watching the leaves change colour, Autumn natural treasures to collect such as acorns, pinecones and conkers. Making leaf kebabs, autumn mud kitchens and Pumpkin activities. Leaf painting, crafts and baking. Before we dive into our activities below, I’d love to share with you…
How to Create Sensory Rainbow Chickpeas
How to make Sensory Rainbow Chickpeas – quick and simple instructions.
100 Tuff Tray Play Ideas
100 Tuff Tray Play Ideas! The popular Tuff Tray is such a versatile resource to have for children at home or in your setting. With or without a stand it can be used for many small world set ups, messy play, investigation, explorations, adventures and crafts. Tray Play filled with provocations and invitations to play…
13 recycled craft ideas for children
Turn your old cardboard boxes, egg boxes and toilet roll tubes into creative treasures that provide hours of fun and play. Upcycled and recycled crafts are cheap and often simple to make with a little imagination. Here are our 13 recycled craft ideas for children to make and play with.
24 easy lockdown craft and activity ideas for children
Whilst spending so much time at home with our children it can be difficult to provide varied, stimulating and engaging projects for them to do. Here is our top 24 lockdown craft ideas and activities for children to do at home.
Nature Trail Collections and Natural Sensory Play in a Tinker Tray
In the warm Spring sunshine we love to go on nature trails to collect an array of beautiful things! We really try hard to listen to the birds, the leaves rustling in the trees, birds singing and the crackling of twigs under our feet. We love collecting and displaying items in our tinker tray, where…
Fairy Small World Play in the Tuff Tray
Fairies are a popular theme. We love tuff tray play ideas. Our tuff tray gets used for a variety of activities and themes. This time is was small world play with fairies and our recycled cardboard treehouse.
Making Dinosaur Skeleton Bones
A great topic for boys and girls! My boys love Dinosaurs so I bought some shaped biscuit cutters which included the bone structures of them! We decided not to make biscuits – but used Air Dry Clay instead!
Egg Box Finger Mouse
These recycled egg box finger mice are super cute and easy to make. You can then play with your Finger Mouse, creating small world play scenes and whole families of mice!
Tuff Tray Play – Planting Seeds
The Tuff Tray is an ideal place to gather all the items you need for planting seeds. Then make messy mud pies once the planting activity is finished!
Exploring Circles and Basic Fractions
Our topic this morning was circles. How many circles can you find and identify? Followed by Pizza making with basic fractions and finally we set up a small world based around a circle.
Egg Box Chinese Dragon
A lovely simple craft for Chinese New Year. Create this lovely Egg Box Chinese Dragon to display in your setting year after year.
Air Dry Clay Christmas Decorations
These are so easy to do and my boys really enjoyed this one. They make ideal handmade Christmas gifts for teachers and family members. Ours will be wrapped in tissue paper to give out at school and for Christmas Day.
Let it Snow Scrabble Christmas Decorations
These scrabble letter Christmas decorations are really simple to make and look great on the tree – they also make great little Christmas gifts.
How to make a Fairy Princess Wand
I borrowed my little niece for this activity, as I have 3 boys and none were interested in this craft project! I have a love for all things fairy, princess, sparkly and pink….so these tick all the boxes!
Christmas Reindeer Chocolate Crispies
These deliciously cute Reindeer Chocolate crispies are a favourite of ours at Christmas time. We usually make a batch to take with us when visiting family or for family parties.
Peg Doll Pom Pom Fairy
Pom Poms are really simple to make and by adding a traditional wooden peg and a few extra details, you can make these gorgeous Peg Doll Pom Pom Fairies to hang from your Christmas tree!
Small World Christmas Scene in a Jar
Recycle old glass jars to create miniature snowy scenes. Make them twinkle with mini fairy lights or battery operated tea lights.
Christmas Cork Characters
We love our recycled cork characters and these Christmas Corks are a lovely craft for the run up to Christmas. The Nativity Scene takes pride of place on our Fireplace and it is especially lovely as it was made by hand by us as a family.
Recycled Cardboard Christmas Town Display Scene
This lovely recycled cardboard Christmas Town scene looks great in a window or as part of a display. We re-used a large cardboard box for this large scene but you could use smaller boxes and piece them together.
Stop Motion Animation Winter Scene
We love creating small world scenes, but why not add an extra level of learning by incorporating ICT into the mix? Create your own basic stop motion animation. You can do this with Lego set ups or any small world scene that you create in any theme.
Cotton Reel Bobbin Christmas Elves
These recycled cotton reel bobbin Christmas elves are really cute and you can get really creative making all kinds of Characters.
Papier Mache Dragon Egg
Papier Mache is a great medium to work with, we use it quite a lot and have made Caves, Volcanoes, and Dragon and Dinosaur eggs. This time, we have made a Dragon Egg, although it can be easily re-purposed to a Dinosaur Egg.
Recycled Toilet Roll Tube Ninja Turtles
Toilet roll tubes are ideal for simple crafts. From characters to Christmas decorations and crackers to car garages and castles – recycling these everyday household items is a great way to start crafting. Here, we made Ninja Turtles!
Papier Mache Volcano
This Papier Mache Volcano was made for a creative homework as part of a school class themed project.
Wand Making Craft
The Harry Potter craze has had a huge impact in our house. My eldest loves all things Harry Potter, and I have to admit as do I! These handmade Magic Wands are easy to make and so effective.
Great Fire of London – Story in a Shoe Box
Creating a small world in a shoe box is a lovely, manageable craft project for children. This simple but effective story in a shoe box – depicting The Great Fire of London was done for my 8yr olds Creative Homework Project for school.
Recycled Toilet Roll Tube Light Up Castle
A simple budget-friendly recycled toilet roll tube castle – using readily available items such as toilet roll tubes and paint. Find out how we made ours here:
Egg Box Flower craft
Egg box flowers are so simple, and yet so beautiful. Once made, the flowers can be used in a variety of ways. Find out below how we made ours and what you can do with them.
Magical Dream Jars
These magical dream jars were inspired by the Roald Dahl Dream Jars. They are really simple to make and children can choose and fill their own jars with whatever takes their fancy. Dragons, Unicorns, Mermaids, Fairies, Pirates.
Inspiring Suitcases filled with exciting treasures to explore
A suitcase makes a powerful provocation for any child. What could be in my Magic Suitcase today? Fill it with props for a story, small world creation or items that match the theme or topic that you are learning.
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