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Turn your Kmart train table into a beautiful small world table. Perfect for imaginative play and learning activities for the classroom or home!

Your favourite booksellers range from quirky shops in quiet corners of Britain to city centre emporiums in Florence and New York

As a brand new teacher, I always felt a little awkward having parents in my classroom. Maybe it was just because I am an introvert, but something about chatting to parents made me really, really anxious! Now that I’m a teacher-mum, I can really see why it’s so important to build positive relationships with the […]

Exploring world cultures with your child allows them to build an appreciation for the world itself, the people in it, and the differences between themselves

Get inspired to set up a woodland small world and let children play out their own favourite woodland themed storylines. Who can resist?

This morning, we have an epic fantasy novel by Elizabeth Engstrom in our book spotlight! Check out Benediction Denied, learn a little ab...

Get ready for plenty of fun with firsties!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Whew! It’s a hot day on the desert! Our desert small world includes animals, plant-life, tumbleweeds, and moldable sand cloud dough!

i will be exhibiting at my last and favorite show tomorrow night, december 14th at the california academy of sciences. come by if you’re around! if you can’t make it […]

18 unique and easy to create small world play ideas.

Hello - My shop is currently open for unsigned Dropship orders and selected large signed prints. My full collection of signed prints will be available again once I return to my studio after a short break. Thank you! Clare PHILLY CUPCAKES PHILADELPHIA Giclee Art Print This Philly print is a reproduction taken from my original painting. It shows the cafe and bakery shop called 'Philly Cupcakes' situated on Chestnut Street in the heart of Philadelphia USA. • Printed on Matt Ultra 240gsm white paper using archival quality inks • IMAGE SIZE 9.5" x 12.5" • PAPER SIZE 11" x 14" • 3/4" white paper border all around image • Smooth paper with a bright white surface • Small text printed in lower left corner of print reads - 'Philly Cupcakes Philadelphia www.clarecaulfield.co.uk' * This print is NOT SIGNED or TITLED * I have stocked my shop with a new range of giclee prints and canvases made and shipped directly by my giclee printers. Please note this dropshipped range of prints are not signed. I am an artist and printmaker producing artwork based on iconic cities. Working in a lively drawing style I create views of many inspiring locations including Paris, Venice, New York, London, Prague, Sydney, Reykjavik, San Francisco and Istanbul. Working in my studio in Yorkshire England, I produce mixed-media paintings, original handmade prints, limited edition prints and art cards inspired by my travels all over the world. I CAN ALSO MAKE CUSTOM SIZED PRINTS ON EITHER PAPER OR STRETCHED CANVAS, INCLUDING ENLARGEMENTS PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND PRICES This image is copyright of the artist Clare Caulfield ©2020 (Image reproduction rights do not transfer with the sale of the print)

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.

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Are you having a hard time walking, riding or driving past a digger without squeals and pleads to stop and watch? Then this stone quarry small world is the play invitation you will want to set up! It's a little construction vehicle fan's biggest dream. Enjoy!

A small selection of my Living on the Edge collection from over the years with their stories... Living on the Edge 145; the Weight of the World Penny was not given to exaggeration but lately her share of the pie was feeling more and more onerous. And it wasn’t a fabulous cherry pie that one

Read how we made our DIY tree house for small world play featuring DIY fairy furniture, fences, trees, bridges and ladders! Perfect for Waldorf, Reggio inspired play using chopping boards and cutting boards from Kmart and IKEA. This is a super easy play hack for children!

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. Engaging in small world play is so important for children. 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. In the first of our Resources for Play series I share 10 of my favourite small world toys and resources. I love setting up small worlds for my children and I'm constantly inspired by the most amazing set-ups that I see on Instagram. The list of toys and resources you could buy to re-create them are endless. However most people's storage spaces and bank accounts are not! So I hope that this list, and indeed the whole of my Resources for Play series, will help you prioritise a few key resources that can be used in multiple set-ups and activities. It's worth remembering too that children need very little in order to engage in small world play- a little imagination goes a long way! The ultimate goal is to equip our children to play independently, so many of my recommended resources are chosen with creative, self-directed play in mind. Buy Small World Toys (Amazon US) Buy Small World Toys (Amazon UK) 1. Animals Our collection of animals and dinosaurs get used most days. They are the perfect accompaniment to open-ended play and encourage all sorts of small world play scenarios. We use them a lot in small world set ups but they are also used equally in self-directed play. I always recommend Schleich animals as I find them the best quality and most realistic-looking. I've tried many other cheaper brands over the years but none of them have matched up to Schleich. We've built up our collection over time and I always keep an eye on Amazon for good deals! 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 As well as our larger Schleich animals I also find it useful to have a selection of smaller minibeasts and sea creatures for small world and sensory play. Safari and Wild Republic are two brands that make some great sets that I would recommend. Safari also have a range of miniature figures in their 'toobs' collection, which cover a whole array of interests and topics. We have a few of their sets- the space toob is one of our favourite. 2. Peg People It's difficult to find good quality people figures for small world play so I prefer to use peg people most of the time. You can buy plain wooden peg people really cheaply online and paint them yourself. On the whole I tend to keep my peg people simple so that to a child they can be anything (firefighter, nurse, astronaut etc...). I painted these in rainbow colours using acrylic paint and they've lasted really well. Buy Peg People (Amazon UK) Buy Peg People (Amazon US) If you're feeling up for more of a challenge you could try painting more details on like I did for these Frozen peg dolls. Again I painted these using acrylic paints and then acrylic paint pens for the detail. If DIY isn't for you there are a couple of wooden toy brands who do great sets of peg people, like these ones. 3. Artificial Grass There's something about artificial grass that just brings small world play to life! We have a large piece rolled up under our sofa and a smaller piece that I cut up to fit into one our circular trays. It's great to use with train-track, building blocks or for farmyard play. If you think you would find it difficult to store a roll of this some green play scarfs make a brilliant base for small worlds and fold up really small. You can also use blue ones for water. 4. Roads & Railway Track Road or rail tape is great to have to hand when setting up small worlds. It's relatively inexpensive and also great to take away if you're travelling. Another option is to invest in some Way To Play rubber roads. These are brilliant for larger set ups and for using with sand and other sensory play. We also find our railway track gets incorporated into a lot of small world play. 5. Vehicles It's always useful to have a stash of vehicles for small world play. Below I have included links to some of our favourite sets. 6. Glass pebbles I find myself using these glass pebbles in lots of small world set ups. They come in a range of colours but the blues & clear set I find most useful. We use ours as sea, rivers or in some icy/ snowy set ups. I also get a lot of use out of them as a loose part for number and pattern activities. These glass pebbles need to be used with supervision as they could be a choking hazard. 7. Trees & Greenery There are so many options for trees in small world play. We have several sisal trees that come with a wooden base. They look fairly realistic and we use them a lot. Other options include buying a set of DIY wooden trees that you can either paint yourself or leave natural. If you have a bigger budget there are also some gorgeous wooden tree sets by the brands Blacks Toys and Reduga Grez 8. Log Slices This is another simple resource that I find myself using again and again. I bought these log slices in two sizes- 5-6cm and 11-12cm. 9. Shells & Pebbles Shells and pebbles are so useful for beach, river and pond small worlds. Our pebbles get used for lots of other set-ups too. Most of them I've collected ourselves but we don't get particularly exotic sea-shells locally so I've supplemented our collection with an excellent pack from Amazon. 10. Building Blocks A good set of building blocks are just so useful for open-ended small world play. We made our own set of pyramid building blocks. You can read about it on this post. I also find our DIY wooden houses get a lot of love. You can find the tutorial here. Organising Our Small World Resources There are some small world resources that my kids have access to all the time, others that are rotated into our play space and a selection of resources that I usually hold back for small world play that I set-up. Animals, peg people, a few vehicles and building blocks are all kept out permanently. They are used most days, one way or another, and are key to so much of my girls' imaginative play. There are other small world toys that we rotate in and out of our play space such as the train track, tree house and doll's house, depending on their current interests. The log slices, shells, pebbles and other natural materials are usually kept stored in my small world resources box and brought out for specific set-ups. They occasionally get rotated onto the play shelves to use in their own small world play set-ups, but this hasn't been possible recently because many of them aren't appropriate for my almost-2 year old to play with without direct supervision. If you'd like to learn more about setting up a playroom or play space check out this article from Porch.com: Expert Advice to Design the Ultimate Kids Playroom at Home I hope you've found this post useful! If you have, please do pin it for later reference. To be the first to hear of the next post in our Resources for Play series you can subscribe to our blog updates on this page.

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 …

Children love to collect beautiful natural objects and are often proud to see them displayed in a special place in the home. Let them play with there but also hold the space as sacred and special. You will foster an inner connection with nature.

In the young illustrator from Lyon, we perceive a small touch of the Ghibli spirit. She manages to breathe new life into nature, giving it a soul and a dynamic that testify to its power. His art plays with the play of shadow and light, with colors on the border of the imagination. His compositions are full of simple shapes that come together like a mosaic, offering almost tangible images. KIBLIND is a quarterly magazine dedicated to visual culture and contemporary illustration created in 2004 in Lyon. Since 2017, KIBLIND Store has extended the artistic project of the magazine through the edition and production of posters, books and illustrated objects, relying on a selection of talented artists from the four corners of the world and using printed know-how, notably risography. Risography is a cold printing technique close to screen printing, which is particularly eco-responsible. It is based on a layer by layer treatment of colors and the use of spot colors, more intense, more vibrant inks, made from vegetable oil and without solvents. New works and collections throughout the year! Dimensions: Poster A3 format - 29.7 x 42 cm Composition: Munken Print White 150g paper Details: Risography printing at Atelier Kiblind in Lyon Manufactured: France (Lyon)

Sail the Happiest Cruise in the world to the tune of the world famous “it’s a small world” tune. Immerse in colourful sets and hundreds of Audio-Animatronics representing the worl…

Are you ready for the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch? What activities have you got planned? We have a few ideas below.

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