Spring is a wonderful time of year to enjoy, explore and learn about the natural world, from new growth, buds and blossom of plants to animals nesting and raising young. Here are 30 fun and easy sp…
Children will love these cute ice cream activities for preschoolers! Learning counting, letters, fine motor skills and so much more...
f you are looking for a simple science activity to do with the kids, then look no further! This magic milk science experiment is perfect for you! It amazes the kids every time and it is super easy to do too! Just grab a few household supplies and have a blast with magic milk!
A fun way to get your little ones more comfortable with writing, this Sensory Writing Tray is perfect if you want to familiarise young children with letters and numbers. Kids love this sensory experience so much that they will be begging to do some handwriting practice!
There's little better than getting kids out in nature and letting them explore. Chances are, they'll soon have a pocket full of treasures they collected; things that caught their attention and delighted them in some way. Today, we’re combining recycled cardboard with collected treasures from nature to make fun nature crowns for kids! Here’s how to make them! How to Make a DIY Nature Crown for Kids Step 1. Gather Supplies. Supplies Needed: Flexible Cardboard Masking Tape Hot Glue and Glue Gun Nature Items: pine cones, acorns, leaves, bark, twigs, pine needles etc. Step 2. Measure head size, cut cardboard
Okay these are wheely great!
Create patterns, swirls or zig-zags with colourful buttons, great for fine motor learning centre activity. Easy to set up and children enjoy hands-on activities
Activities that develop early math skills are our favourites! We love working on our number recognition, counting skills, subitising and 1:1 correspondence. This “Build a City” activity…
All things bright and beautiful ... and crafty too!
2D shape activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Shape mats (legos, geoboards, etc), play dough mats, posters, sorting mats, worksheets, & MORE.
These cardboard box activities and crafts are perfect for all ages! You'll never throw out another cardboard box again!
There are so many tools your kids can use for creative art projects. Here’s twenty five tools that will create some fantastic works of art!
Spaghetti Bead Towers are a fun fine motor activity for preschoolers! This acitivty only requires a few supplies that you probably already have on hand!
Super easy to set up counting activity using pom poms and water.
In my home, I have a closet of kids art and activity supplies, and when I am looking for ideas, I sometimes just go and look inside and see what inspires me. Today, I noticed some easel paper and bubble wrap. We have had lots of fun with bubble wrap in the past, creating Bubble Wrap Prints and Painting with Rolling Pins and Bubble Wrap. I decided to pair up bubble wrap and paint again, but this time I wanted it to be more of a gross motor experience. And so, Bubble Wrap Stomp Painting was born. You will need: Tempera paintEasel
FREE printable Symmetry drawing activity for preschool and kindergarten kids. A fun art and math activity in one! Kids will complete the symmetrical pictures by drawing the other half.
For a fun variation on regular play dough try making sand play dough! This play dough is perfect for summer and can be whipped up in just 5 minutes!
I just love this color changing flowers science experiment! It is really easy to do and the kids love watching the flowers change color. We think it is the perfect science activity for spring! I even created printable recording sheets that kids in preschool and early elementary can use to show their observations.
Anya, the founder of Montessori From The Heart, is an educational coach, a blogger, an author, a digital creator, and an influencer.
Set up a fun phonics activity for preschoolers and school aged children with this sorting objects into baskets game! Easy, low-preparation and adaptable
Head out on a treasure hunt with the kids today and make Nature Faces with your findings. Terrific self-portrait art project for toddlers and preschoolers!
Happy Spring! It is finally getting warmer here in California and we are loving it. We have been spending most of our days playing outside as much as we can....
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.
This activity is an all time favourite in my class and so I thought I would share it this week. Firstly, I buy the cheapest spaghetti I can ...
Make a hands-on seasons activity for kids using rocks or stones, wooden circles, and some stickers! Children can sort the picture stones onto the appropriate wooden circle depicting either spring, summer, winter or fall. Such a great way to encourage discussion about the differences between the four seasons! Follow our Creative Learning Pinterest board! …
Planting lifelong foundations in early childhood
Hands on activity for toddlers to match coloured objects with the same coloured jar. Includes: * 11 laminated coloured paper jars with velcro * 66 coloured paper objects with velcro You can use Blu-Tack to put printed jars on the wall, or use on a table or the floor.
I've been wanting to post this project for a year. This rainbow collage invitation was presented to my art camp kids one year ago today, which just happened to be the same day as the Pulse night
Looking for cheap ways to teach maths? In our latest blog we share 5 simple ways to introduce maths on a budget!
This Frozen Sand Sensory Bin doubles as a small world ocean. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers will love this summer sensory activity.
Are you looking for an outdoor activity that entertains kids while also strengthening hands to improve fine motor skills? This colourful fizzing ice cubes experiment is perfect for kids of all ages! This summer we love to spend a lot of time outside. I’m always on the hunt for activities my kiddos will enjoy while … Continue reading "Coloured Ice Cube Surprise: A Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiment"
The 10 best 'stuck at home' craft ideas with the kids. Next to some math and science I also put things like music and art on our schedule. Ideas here...
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. Drawing with light and shadow is such a simple, fun activity for kids of all ages and works well at home, outdoors or in the classroom! We created a little set up using some leaves from the back garden which you can read about in this blog. Kids will love creating and recreating shadows on paper with this activity! But there are many ways you can do shadow drawing. All you need is the sun, some paper (or another surface you’re happy to have drawn on!), an object to draw, and something to draw with. So, next time there's a sunny day, grab some chalk or pencils and paper and let the kiddies experiment with shadow art. What is Shadow Art? It's all about using the dark shapes (shadows) created by light shining on objects. Imagine holding up a toy or an object in sunlight, and then drawing around its shadow on the ground. That's basically what shadow drawing is! When kids play with shadows, they can learn how light travels and see how objects block the light to make different shadow shapes. Here's a little insight into how it all works: Light goes in one direction until it meets something; If something stands in the way of light, the light hitting the object is obstructed, while the remaining light continues; The obstructed section forms a shadow on a different surface. Shadow Drawing for Kids Shadow drawing for kids doesn't have to be complicated! You don’t need lots of different materials to get creative. All you need is a source of light and some objects to create shadows to trace around. This offers a great chance for you to make learning captivating for your little one, whilst also sparking their curiosity. You could experiment with different shapes and sizes of objects as well as different locations on the page. You could ask them some simple questions: What happens if you move your object around? Does the shadow of your object appear bigger, the same size, or smaller than the actual object? Does the shadow of your object stay the same at different times of the day? How does the shadow of your object change as the sun moves? What is the Best Time of Day to Make Shadow Art? Shadow art is a fantastic way for little ones to understand how the sun moves during the day. They might see that the shadow of their object moves as the angle of the sun does. If they draw shadows at different times, they'll notice that shadows change, growing long in the morning and evening, and shorter at noon. It can be done at any point in the day when shadows are present. By seeing these changes, they get a hands-on lesson about light and how the Earth moves. Shadow Drawing with Leaves I set this activity up by pegging leaves on some string hung between two chairs. Underneath I rolled out a big piece of paper and we traced around the shadows created by the leaves. As well as being a great conversation starter to talk about shadows, this was also a great fine motor challenge and good for concentration and observational skills. Mine enjoyed colouring them afterwards and adding details to their leaves. Here is how you do it step by step: Step 1: Tie leaves to a long piece of string; Step 2: Tie the string at both ends to something strong enough to keep them suspended in the air (we used 2 chairs); Step 3: Place a piece of paper underneath so that the angle of the sun casts the shadows of the leaves on top of the paper; Step 4: Once the shadow on the paper appears, using a pencil, get them to trace their shadow shapes. Afterwards you can colour in the shapes, or get creative in other ways.
ALL NATURAL LEAF THREADING ACTIVITY - engage with nature, get creative and develop fine motor skills. Fun!
