Did you know that Learning traditional nursery rhymes by heart supports children’s speech and language skills? I thought that I would share some of our activities with Nursery Rhymes in our Play. One of our favourite resources is the Alphabet Rhyme Time Book. With a rhyme for every letter of the alphabet, and, a double page spread …
Author Archives: Charlotte Parry
Our Top 20 Favourite Educational Resources for the Early Years
This is a whistle stop tour of our top 20 favourite educational resources for the early years. It is actually a blog version of the reel I created – pinned on my insta page so if you get chance to head over there you can watch the video too. So, here goes… Magical Mirrored trays …
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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 …
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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: Play dough (bought or own made – see below) …
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 …
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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 …
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:
9 Halloween Craft Projects for Kids
My boys love Halloween and it is a great opportunity to keep them busy with craft projects.
Here are our favourite 9 craft projects for kids.
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 help children to play and learn at the same time.
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 we can sort and arrange our treasures!
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.
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.
Lottie Makes 