Discover a world of imagination with this set of 36 coin shaped pieces, each meticulously dyed in soothing shades of blue. These versatile pieces are perfect for creating intricate mandalas, stunning artworks, or even serene water scenes in small world play. But the fun doesn't stop there! They can be used for counting practice, assisting in the development of mathematical thinking. In the realm of open-ended play, these coins can morph into anything your child dreams up, fuelling endless hours of imaginative storytelling and creative exploration.
Meerkat Small World. Follow your child's leading while their language skills & imagination blossom in a relaxed, natural way
Love it or hate it you can’t deny that chia seed looks pretty amazing in rainbow colours! . This is a messy one and chia seed sticks to clothes like crazy, so it would be worth saving this one for...
Make a town inside a large cardboard box for a fantastic small world play time that uses the whole body! Such a great way for toddlers and preschoolers to play together indoors or outdoors. My husband told me I can only keep this giant cardboard box until the weekend, then it’s got to go. What’s...Read More »
Developing imaginary play with Bigjigs Road and Rail sets. A great way to encourage children in small world pretend play, and to extend you wooden railway
18 unique and easy to create small world play ideas.
Learn how to use sensory activities to promote language development, teach new concepts, and more!
Learn how to use small worlds for play-based learning. Help your child develop language and imagination skills with small world play.
Create a model of the wonderful story book character, The Gruffalo, using play dough, added materials and imagination! Then use it to retell the story together! You will know by now that we absolutely ADORE play dough. We have tried many different recipes, flavours and textures and have invented a few of our own! We...Read More »
“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh. “There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.” ~A.A. Milne, Winnie-th…
Download this ready-made Small Worlds Unit to lead a week of activities that boost imagination, language and storytelling skills.
12 Nins with interchangeable hats and bodies 65mm height different final heights including the hats Recommended: age 3+ Made from sustainable wood (beech or birch) Made in Europe Article manufactured under the safety standard EN71 Any orders placed for these items to an international address will be cancelled and a cancelation fee will be applied.
This year we redeveloped our construction area with various goals in mind. Firstly, we wanted to remove some of the resources which we felt...
Connetix tiles are a fantastic resource and open-ended toy that will grow with your child! The possibilities are endless. Check out how we love to play!
Flickr is nothing without you, our community. We want to make sure this community continues to thrive, grow, and inspire, so we've made some big changes.
I took this at Cuyamaca College at their Child Development Center on campus. They have developed the center into a Reggio Emilio center. I loved it!
Different ways to play with small world figures. Learn how to use these classic toys to make art, learn STEM, and make games for your kids.
I recently discovered these perfectly sized play trays from Kmart and they are a great size for little hands. We have had so much fun creating inviting, engaging play trays of all sorts. I hope you…
Play Mat for Small World Play - Prehistoric Playmat Our small world playscapes are wonderful as a full set or build your own. Small world play is a wonderful tool to support your child's development. It encourages children to be creative and to use their imaginations like no other play. It boosts their confidence and pride when they show off their creations as they build endless possibilities within their small world. This set includes: Painted Light Brown Base Mat: 11.5" x 15.5" Painted Green Mat: 10.5" x 10.5" Painted Medium Brown Mat: 10.5" x 7" Painted Gray Mat: 5.5" x 5" Painted Blue Mat: 7.5" x 4.5" Whether you already have small world items or you are starting a new set, this play mat will be a wonderful bases for many themes of imagination play, including but not limited to Prehistoric, Jungle, Beach, Forest, Desert, etc. All pieces are handcrafted from solid wood and painted with water-based paint that makes the paint semi-transparent to keep wood texture visible and then sealed with linseed oil. Our products are eco-friendly and safe, but we still recommend that they are not mouthed and children under 3 are supervised during play. **This is a handcrafted item. Wood grain and painting will vary making each set a one of a kind. Our desire to that our products become a well loved toy that your family cherishes. ***Other Play Mats are available individually or in groups.
Make a fairy garden small world play scene in an old drawer, for hours of imaginative play and storytelling fun! Great for preschoolers through to older kids (ok and adults too of course!) A little while back we made some small world play scenes in an old desk drawer as it seemed the perfect size...Read More »
Small world play fuels the imagination. For both children, and parents. When I start to think about a world I want to create for Q I start by asking myself these questions, what inspires me, what brings me joy, and what can I share with Q? This post I dive deep into small world play,Continue reading "20 Amazing and Fun Small World Play Ideas"View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
Everything you need to consider when you want to set up a playroom toy rotation for a preschooler and a toddler in a living room playroom. With examples of invitations to play for each!
Small world play scape - cool pool - ocean play theme. Rice play and small world characters. Leanring through play in the early years.
Children are always fascinated by a change in size. Have you ever created a small world? A small world is a miniaturized replica of a habitat, a place in a child's imagination, a world described literature, etc. It is an opportunity to interact with characters that they may be familiar with or to learn about...Read More
I am such a fan of simple play that ignites the senses! One of my favourite ways to do this is through small world trays! They are SO incredibly easy to set up using things you probably already have in your cupboard so they needn’t be expensive either! Today I’d like to share some tips […]
Small world play fuels the imagination. For both children, and parents. When I start to think about a world I want to create for Q I start by asking myself these questions, what inspires me, what brings me joy, and what can I share with Q? This post I dive deep into small world play,Continue reading "20 Amazing and Fun Small World Play Ideas"View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about the benefits of play in early childhood. Dinosaurs are a favourite theme for play in our home! There is lots of fun and learning to be had. We've pieced together some of our favourite sensory and small world activities that are perfect for the toddler and preschool age group. Benefits of Small World Play Children naturally love small worlds play and can learn almost anything through their play with small world resources. Not only does it nurture their imagination, it also enables them to explore new materials, act out scenarios from real life, build language, practice social skills and gain an understanding of the world around them. Whether you're setting up a dinosaur land, seashore or farm there are so many great options to bring small world play to life and ignite children's senses at the same time. The use of natural resources in small world play promotes the use of all fine senses, provides chances for classification and sorting, and promotes the use of descriptive language - all crucial language and numeracy skills for young children. Natural resources can help children become more interested in, and knowledgeable about, the natural world they live in. Giving children a stimulating, constantly-changing environment to explore helps to foster their curiosity, encourage creative thinking, and give them chances to ask questions. You can find out more about the benefits of small world play in my Resources for Play series which will help you to prioritise a few key resources that can be used in multiple set-ups and activities. I've also put together a range of options for resources and supplies to go specifically with the PlayTRAY based on different interests and themes. Dinosaur Chia Seed Slime We had so much fun making this dinosaur swamp with some leftover chia seed! First I mixed a 1/4 cup of chia seed and 1 1/2 cups of water and refrigerated overnight. To make a chia slime all you need to do is add cornflour/cornstarch. I added just 1/2 a cup as I still wanted it to flow a bit to fill the bottom of the PlayTRAY. If you wanted it a bit more slime-like and to come off the hands easily just keep adding cornflour until the right consistency is achieved. I set this up with stones and greenery from the garden and then just added some dinosaurs! Chia seed can get messy so this is a good one for outside and definitely worth wearing old clothes! We buy chia seed in bulk on Amazon as it's much cheaper than the supermarket and as you only need a little bit each time, a packet lasts for ages! I've found black chia seed tends to be cheaper than white. Dinosaur Small World We used kinetic sand for the base of this particular tray, but play dough would work too or even chickpeas - one of our fave sensory bases! Top resources to add: Wood slices - these are often sold for craft projects but work so well for small world play Large pebbles/rocks Artificial vegetation - we tend to buy plants for fish tanks or terrariums from a pet shop Glass stones - these are useful as water. Only use these with older children as they can be a choking hazard. Substitute with a piece of blue fabric for younger ones Artificial moss rocks - we love these for small world play! Link in my Amazon storefront if you want them And dinosaur figures of course! The opportunity to experience small world play is so important for littles ones and the PlayTRAY is the perfect place to set it up! Buy Dinosaur Resources (Amazon US) Buy Dinosaur Resources (Amazon UK) Taste-Safe Foam Dinosaur Swamp Chickpea water, also known as Aquafaba, whizzes up into the most amazing foam, making it a brilliant early sensory play experience and an excellent taste-safe alternative to bubble foam. It lends itself to lots of different themes or you can just give them some tools and bowls to explore it with! To make this taste-safe foam simply drain the water from two tine of chickpeas, add a teaspoon of cream of tartar, a drop of food colouring if you like and whizz into a foam! The cream of tartar helps to keep it foamy for longer but if you don't have any it's not absolutely essential. You can keep chickpea water in the fridge until you're ready to do this activity but it does really need to be whizzed up just before you play, as it starts to turn back to a liquid after awhile. You can always revive it though with another whizz if need be! Dinosaur Terrarium / Small World We wanted to make a couple of terrariums for our house so I thought it would be fun for the girls to make their own dinosaur-themed ones too. You could easily switch up the theme for fairies for a jungle perhaps. To make this we started with a layer of sand at the base. We then added a layer of pebbles, followed by moss and soil on top. The girls chose some succulents to plant and then decorated their own with stones and glass pebbles, before adding the dinosaurs. These are now sitting proudly on their windowsill! Fizzy Dinosaur Swamp The vinegar / bicarb reaction is a favourite in our house right now! The girls have loved exploring with their own concoctions but it's also a fun one for a little tray set up too! I set up this dinosaur scene with a layer of bicarbonate of soda in the bottom of our PlayTRAY and then gave them some vinegar coloured with a bit of food colouring. They had great fun using the vinegar to turn it into a swamp for the dinosaurs and then telling little stories with the dinosaur figures. The girls did look a little green at the end but it's nothing a bath can't sort out. Dinosaur Fossils There's a couple of ways you can make these salt dough fossils. The simple way is to take some toy dinosaurs and print their bodies or footprints into the salt dough. This works really well for little ones. I knew Miss 6 would want to be a bit more creative so I gave her some craft resources to create her own skeletal structures by making marks and printing. She loved doing this! To make salt dough mix 4 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of salt and 1.5 cups of warm water together in a bowl. Knead together to make a soft dough. If it's too dry, add a little more water. Use plain flour and put them in the oven on a low heat until they are dried out thoroughly. If you don't have plain flour to hand you can use self raising flour and leave them out in the sun for a few days to dry. I buried ours in a tray of sand and they've loved using the brushes to reveal the fossils. It's inspired lots of other play and has been a great one just to leave outdoors for them to return to. Dinosaur Potato Printing Not a small world activity but this is a great quick dinosaur themed activity nonetheless and such an easy way to create potato stamps for printing! Halve a potato and press a cookie cutter into it. Turn the potato on its side and then cut through the potato to remove the parts around the cutter. Finally, remove the cookie cutter and you'll be left with a perfect shape for stamping! Frozen Dinosaur Eggs When the weather gets hot we always turn to ice play! These ice dinosaur eggs are the perfect way to cool down. They're nothing new but it's such a good one! Mine love to role play little stories whilst they are breaking them free and the best thing about this is it takes a decent amount of time to complete. To make frozen dinosaur eggs you'll need some small dinosaur figures and balloons. This is what you need to do: Blow up your balloon and stretch it out as much as possible, then let the air out again. Stretch the opening of the balloons and place a dinosaur inside each one. Put the balloon over a tap, fill it up with water and tie. Place the balloons in the freezer, being careful they're not squashed against each other, otherwise they'll lose their egg shape. Once they are frozen you can peel off the balloons and they're ready for play! Provide warm water in squeezy bottle or spray bottles, and tools to crack the eggs open. I decided to pop our eggs in a swampy PlayTRAY set up. I put a little bit of water in the bottom with green food colouring and a few spoonfuls of cornflour and made a nest using leaves and twigs. They loved using this afterwards as part of their little stories! Get your FREE ebook For more simple DIY recipes & ideas for sensory play at home download your Beginner's Guide to Sensory Play by subscribing to Inspire My Play today. Get Yours Now
Kmart is THE place to shop these days. They’ve got all the things you’ve ever wanted, and all the things you need but didn’t know you needed. Earlier this year, I shared how I hacked their train table. Today I’d like to share our latest hack. Our Kmart kitchen hack! Now we already had a […]
Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about about the benefits of play in early childhood. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Please read my disclosure policy for more details. I often get asked for recommendations about what to buy to use with the PlayTRAY. The world of sensory and small world play can feel overwhelming! Where do I start? What are the must-have items? Do I really need to buy it all? There are definitely some basic items that are useful to have (scoops and bowls for example) but beyond that my advice is always start with your child's interests! What fascinates them? What will excite them and draw them into play? And yes, some of these items you might already have at home, or something that will work as an adequate substitute. So don't feel you need to buy everything, not all at once at least! By popular request I've put together a range of options for resources and supplies to go with the PlayTRAY based on different interests and themes. If you are giving the PlayTRAY as a gift, these ideas are a great way of filling the PlayTRAY to make something truly special to open! Many of these setups are a hybrid of bought resources and natural items. Where possible I've included links to resources to make it easier for you to source things to go with the PlayTRAY but please be aware that Amazon don't always direct you to the exact product I've selected, so do just check prices against other listings if they seem unusually high! As always do be aware of the age-appropriateness of the resources you choose. For example I wouldn't use the glass stones featured in some of these set ups until you are sure that your child won't put them in their mouth. To find out more about our award winning PlayTRAY visit our product page or click the links below. Sensory Play Starter Kit When it comes to sensory play there are definitely some tools that are invaluable! The set of resources pictured here will allow you to set up a range of activities. Bowls and scoops are a must for filling and pouring with dry materials like rainbow rice, oats and sand. These activities are the foundation of sensory play and I can guarantee you will get a huge amount of use out of them! The handy tools set by Learning Resources is another great investment for use with the PlayTRAY. Each tool is designed to work on developing children's fine motor skills and hand strength. We find these great to use with water play and for use with pom-poms and waterbeads. Another tool that is very useful is a set of liquid droppers. You can find them all via our Amazon store button below. Buy Sensory Play Tools & Equipment (Amazon US) Buy Sensory Play Tools & Equipment (Amazon UK) To complement these tools I've chosen a couple of popular sensory play materials- rainbow rice and play dough. You can find out how to colour rice here and how to make our super-simple no cook play dough recipe here. Another great starter option would be to buy a pack of waterbeads! Construction Tray Construction play is so much fun and a brilliant way to gift the PlayTRAY to any vehicle enthusiast! An option for a quick and easy base is to buy some play sand or kinetic sand. If you have a bit more time why not try making our sand play dough or use pantry items such as black beans, dried chickpeas and pasta, which are great for transporting with little vehicles. You can even use cereal, which is a great option for our youngest PlayTRAYers who are still mouthing! When it comes to vehicles there are two sets that I recommend. Le Van Toys make a gorgeous wooden set of vehicles that we love but we tend to save these for less messy set ups. If you are looking for versatility & value for money, CAT make a plastic set of vehicles that can be used for wet sensory play, like oobleck, and easily be cleaned afterwards. Both can be bought via the button link below. Buy Construction Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Construction Play Resources (Amazon UK) Dinosaur PlayTRAY We used kinetic sand for the base of this dinosaur tray but this one could also be set up with play dough or pantry items. If you're looking for greenery for small world play, a good place to start is a pet shop. Plastic plants for a fish tank or reptile terrariums work really well as vegetation! These wooden slices and green boulders are something we use for a lot of different play scenarios. In fact, all of these items you will find useful to reuse! Buy Dinosaur Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Dinosaur Play Resources (Amazon UK) Ocean Tray This is one of our favourite themes! Water play is a great place to start with the PlayTRAY and these resources will enable them to build their own watery worlds! Although we collect a lot of shells at the beach ourselves I do recommend the pack of shells from Amazon to give you a great selection of different types. We do love our Schleich animals but I also find this pack of assorted sea creatures invaluable! Because these are comparatively cheap I don't mind using them in all sorts of messy play scenarios like setting them in jelly or popping them in the freezer for some ice play! Buy Ocean Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Ocean Play Resources (Amazon UK) Frozen themed PlayTRAY This one is such a hit in our house! We've also made this Frozen play dough kit as a gift for a few friends and it always seems to go down well. I painted Elsa and Anna peg dolls for this, but if you prefer you could buy little frozen characters (there are lots of options on Amazon). Check out our Frozen play dough kit blog post for full details on how to put this together. Buy Frozen Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Frozen Play Resources (Amazon UK) Birthday Cake Sensory Play This is the perfect way to gift the PlayTRAY for a birthday and is one of my kids' all time favourite sensory play set-ups. This uses cloud dough for the base, which is a mixture of flour and oil. It's powdery, yet mouldable so it works well with cookie cutters and to make pretend cakes- you can poke in the candles and they will stand up! I added a little bit of vanilla essence to this to give it a gorgeous cakey smell. Adding candles is a must for this and if you can find some number ones too then it is a great opportunity to work on counting and number recognition. You can find the instructions below to make cloud dough. If you'd like a slightly cleaner option than you could substitute the cloud dough for playdough, but still add the vanilla essence- it's a must! Buy Birthday Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Birthday Play Resources (Amazon UK) Space Tray These space figures from Safari are the perfect size for small world play! Use them with a base of black beans or make some moon cloud dough. Again, these can be substituted for black or grey play dough. I actually made these planets using air-dry clay but below I've suggested a set of planets that you can buy instead. Buy Space Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Space Play Resources (Amazon UK) Arty Crafty PlayTRAY Okay, so this isn't small world or sensory play as such but the PlayTRAY compartments are a brilliant size for holding craft items so I had to include it! This is also a really inexpensive way to fill the PlayTRAY. Take a trip to a supermarket or craft store to stock up on crafty items. Alternatively, you can find some of our favourite craft supplies linked below. Buy Art & Craft Resources (Amazon US) Buy Art & Craft Resources (Amazon UK) I hope that's given you plenty of inspiration for resources to use with PlayTRAY and how you can gift it in an exciting and original way! Do pin this article to refer to later and for more PlayTRAY ideas do follow us on Instagram at @inspiremyplay. You can also find a selection of our favourite play recipes and PlayTRAY set ups in our PlayTRAY ebook.
Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about about the benefits of play in early childhood. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Please read my disclosure policy for more details. Today I'm talking small world sensory bases! Basically that's the stuff you create your small world on! Whether you're setting up a farm, seashore or dinosaur land there are so many great options to bring small world play to life and ignite children's senses at the same time! I share some of our favourites here. There are numerous benefits to small world play. Nurturing imagination, exploring new materials, acting out scenarios from real life, building language and developing social skills are just some that come to mind! In my previous post in the Resources for Play series I talked about some of the key resources needed to set up small worlds. Today I wanted to give you some inspiration of the types of sensory bases that you can use alongside these to set up amazing small worlds! Some of the sensory bases I've included are edible or taste safe, which are perfect for little ones who are still mouthing. Others are brilliant quick fixes on those days when you haven't got a lot of time to set something up. And there are several options that offer amazing sensory experiences, but are on the messier side! Whatever you're looking for I hope it sparks some ideas and encourages you to incorporate more small world play into your day! Wherever relevant I've included recipes so you can try it out for yourself. You can find links to all of the supplies mentioned in this post via the buttons below. Buy Sensory Play Supplies (Amazon US) Buy Sensory Play Supplies (Amazon UK) 1. Water Nothing beats play involving water! It takes minutes to set up and is guaranteed to keep little one's entertained. We often add blue food colouring to our water to enhance the look. Plastic animals, sea creatures, shells and pebbles are great additions to these play set ups. Buy Small World Play Supplies (Amazon US) Buy Small World Play Supplies (Amazon UK) Freezing water is another option and great for setting up polar small worlds. Or make an ice rink like we did for these penguins! 2. Bubble Foam As an alternative to water why not make up some bubble foam? It's great fun and makes a wonderful base for some ocean play. To make bubble foam put 1 part tear free bubble bath (or washing up liquid) to 2 parts water into a bowl. We usually do 1/2 cup of bubble bath and 1 cup of water at a time. If you'd like to colour your bubble foam add a little food colouring at this stage. Mix it up using an electric hand mixer until you start to get stiff peaks and then scoop it out into a tray for play. We usually make 3 or 4 batches of different colours to fill a tray. Get your FREE ebook For more simple DIY recipes & ideas for sensory play at home download your Beginner's Guide to Sensory Play by subscribing to Inspire My Play today. Get Yours Now 3. Play Dough It's no secret that we absolutely love play dough set ups in our house. I can't think of a more versatile resource! It also makes a great base for children to make their own small worlds. Homemade play dough takes a matter of minutes to make and you can easily change the colour to suit your small world theme! You can find our play dough recipe on this post 4. Sand Sand is great to incorporate into small world set ups. I especially like using kinetic sand because you can mould it and shape it easily without needing to get it wet. Because kinetic sand clumps together it also tends to create less mess than real sand! 5. Soil, Mud & Grass Small world play doesn't need to be indoors! You have a whole host of ready made sensory bases in your garden! A flowerbed, plant pot, pile of stones, collection of bark or garden lawn are great places for small world play. You could also collect up a selection of these resources and set them up in a tray inside. For indoor play a length of artificial grass is an easy option to have at your finger tips! We have a roll of artificial grass under our sofa, which gets used with our train track, building blocks and all sorts of small world set ups. 6. Cloud Dough This is one of the messier bases on this list but is such a great, sensory experience! Cloud dough is powdery but can also be moulded into shapes. It keeps for up to 6 months when stored in an air tight container, which means you can get lots of use out of the same batch. To make basic cloud dough simply combine 4 cups of flour with 1/2 cup of oil. If you're intending to use the cloud dough with a child who is still mouthing, cook the flour on a baking tray first at a temperature of 160F/70C for 5 minutes, in order to ensure any bacteria is killed. You can make brown or 'soil' cloud dough by substituting one cup of flour for a cup of cocoa powder. This is one of our favourite ways to use cloud dough! For some really messy play you can turn soil cloud dough into mud by adding a few spoonfuls of water, like we did for this farm small world above. Cloud dough can also be coloured by adding powder paint or grated chalk to the mixture, but be aware that this won't be taste-safe. To make this space scene I grated some charcoal into the flour and oil mixture. I also added a bit of bio glitter to give it a sparkle! 7. Artificial Snow It's not often that we get a chance to play in real snow in the South of England so I love to use it as a base for small world set ups. The quickest and easiest method is to buy some instant snow. Instant snow comes as a powder and all you need to do is add a bit of water and it expands in size. It's great fun and a good one to have in the cupboard for small world and sensory play. If you have time for a bit of DIY you can also make your own artificial snow. To make ours we used 4 cups of shaving foam mixed with 4 cups of cornflour (cornstartch). This should make a powdery snow that's also mouldable- a bit like cloud dough. It's not an exact art so just keep adding a bit more shaving foam until you get the desired consistency. 8. Rice Coloured rice is such a fun base for sensory play but it can also be used very effectively in small world play. Green rice works especially well as grass or use brown rice to emulate soil. Learn how to colour rice on this post here. 9. Spaghetti I just love the colours in this spaghetti ocean! And spaghetti is a great way of adding an interesting sensory element to small world play. To colour spaghetti simply cook the spaghetti as usual and then add a few drops of food colouring. Use tongs to toss the spaghetti in the food colouring and then remove any excess by rinsing the spaghetti. To make this spaghetti ocean I divided the spaghetti up and coloured some green and some blue. 10. Cereals If you're looking to set up small worlds for a toddler, sensory bases made of cereal are a great place to start. Because these are edible you can be confident that little ones can play safely and it won't matter if they have a little nibble too! Crushed up shreaded wheat, cornflakes or porridge oats all work really well. We love this type of base for farmyard play, diggers or a dinosaur themed set up. Looking for resources to pair with your small world bases? Do check out our post on the best resources for small world play.
Small world play fuels the imagination. For both children, and parents. When I start to think about a world I want to create for Q I start by asking myself these questions, what inspires me, what brings me joy, and what can I share with Q? This post I dive deep into small world play,Continue reading "20 Amazing and Fun Small World Play Ideas"View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about about the benefits of play in early childhood. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Please read my disclosure policy for more details. Today I'm talking small world sensory bases! Basically that's the stuff you create your small world on! Whether you're setting up a farm, seashore or dinosaur land there are so many great options to bring small world play to life and ignite children's senses at the same time! I share some of our favourites here. There are numerous benefits to small world play. Nurturing imagination, exploring new materials, acting out scenarios from real life, building language and developing social skills are just some that come to mind! In my previous post in the Resources for Play series I talked about some of the key resources needed to set up small worlds. Today I wanted to give you some inspiration of the types of sensory bases that you can use alongside these to set up amazing small worlds! Some of the sensory bases I've included are edible or taste safe, which are perfect for little ones who are still mouthing. Others are brilliant quick fixes on those days when you haven't got a lot of time to set something up. And there are several options that offer amazing sensory experiences, but are on the messier side! Whatever you're looking for I hope it sparks some ideas and encourages you to incorporate more small world play into your day! Wherever relevant I've included recipes so you can try it out for yourself. You can find links to all of the supplies mentioned in this post via the buttons below. Buy Sensory Play Supplies (Amazon US) Buy Sensory Play Supplies (Amazon UK) 1. Water Nothing beats play involving water! It takes minutes to set up and is guaranteed to keep little one's entertained. We often add blue food colouring to our water to enhance the look. Plastic animals, sea creatures, shells and pebbles are great additions to these play set ups. Buy Small World Play Supplies (Amazon US) Buy Small World Play Supplies (Amazon UK) Freezing water is another option and great for setting up polar small worlds. Or make an ice rink like we did for these penguins! 2. Bubble Foam As an alternative to water why not make up some bubble foam? It's great fun and makes a wonderful base for some ocean play. To make bubble foam put 1 part tear free bubble bath (or washing up liquid) to 2 parts water into a bowl. We usually do 1/2 cup of bubble bath and 1 cup of water at a time. If you'd like to colour your bubble foam add a little food colouring at this stage. Mix it up using an electric hand mixer until you start to get stiff peaks and then scoop it out into a tray for play. We usually make 3 or 4 batches of different colours to fill a tray. Get your FREE ebook For more simple DIY recipes & ideas for sensory play at home download your Beginner's Guide to Sensory Play by subscribing to Inspire My Play today. Get Yours Now 3. Play Dough It's no secret that we absolutely love play dough set ups in our house. I can't think of a more versatile resource! It also makes a great base for children to make their own small worlds. Homemade play dough takes a matter of minutes to make and you can easily change the colour to suit your small world theme! You can find our play dough recipe on this post 4. Sand Sand is great to incorporate into small world set ups. I especially like using kinetic sand because you can mould it and shape it easily without needing to get it wet. Because kinetic sand clumps together it also tends to create less mess than real sand! 5. Soil, Mud & Grass Small world play doesn't need to be indoors! You have a whole host of ready made sensory bases in your garden! A flowerbed, plant pot, pile of stones, collection of bark or garden lawn are great places for small world play. You could also collect up a selection of these resources and set them up in a tray inside. For indoor play a length of artificial grass is an easy option to have at your finger tips! We have a roll of artificial grass under our sofa, which gets used with our train track, building blocks and all sorts of small world set ups. 6. Cloud Dough This is one of the messier bases on this list but is such a great, sensory experience! Cloud dough is powdery but can also be moulded into shapes. It keeps for up to 6 months when stored in an air tight container, which means you can get lots of use out of the same batch. To make basic cloud dough simply combine 4 cups of flour with 1/2 cup of oil. If you're intending to use the cloud dough with a child who is still mouthing, cook the flour on a baking tray first at a temperature of 160F/70C for 5 minutes, in order to ensure any bacteria is killed. You can make brown or 'soil' cloud dough by substituting one cup of flour for a cup of cocoa powder. This is one of our favourite ways to use cloud dough! For some really messy play you can turn soil cloud dough into mud by adding a few spoonfuls of water, like we did for this farm small world above. Cloud dough can also be coloured by adding powder paint or grated chalk to the mixture, but be aware that this won't be taste-safe. To make this space scene I grated some charcoal into the flour and oil mixture. I also added a bit of bio glitter to give it a sparkle! 7. Artificial Snow It's not often that we get a chance to play in real snow in the South of England so I love to use it as a base for small world set ups. The quickest and easiest method is to buy some instant snow. Instant snow comes as a powder and all you need to do is add a bit of water and it expands in size. It's great fun and a good one to have in the cupboard for small world and sensory play. If you have time for a bit of DIY you can also make your own artificial snow. To make ours we used 4 cups of shaving foam mixed with 4 cups of cornflour (cornstartch). This should make a powdery snow that's also mouldable- a bit like cloud dough. It's not an exact art so just keep adding a bit more shaving foam until you get the desired consistency. 8. Rice Coloured rice is such a fun base for sensory play but it can also be used very effectively in small world play. Green rice works especially well as grass or use brown rice to emulate soil. Learn how to colour rice on this post here. 9. Spaghetti I just love the colours in this spaghetti ocean! And spaghetti is a great way of adding an interesting sensory element to small world play. To colour spaghetti simply cook the spaghetti as usual and then add a few drops of food colouring. Use tongs to toss the spaghetti in the food colouring and then remove any excess by rinsing the spaghetti. To make this spaghetti ocean I divided the spaghetti up and coloured some green and some blue. 10. Cereals If you're looking to set up small worlds for a toddler, sensory bases made of cereal are a great place to start. Because these are edible you can be confident that little ones can play safely and it won't matter if they have a little nibble too! Crushed up shreaded wheat, cornflakes or porridge oats all work really well. We love this type of base for farmyard play, diggers or a dinosaur themed set up. Looking for resources to pair with your small world bases? Do check out our post on the best resources for small world play.
