Let's create a magical fairy small world for some bookish play ... Welcome to this week's blog post - a fairy small world bookish play idea after reading the book Fairy Forest. I shared a little while ago that I am trying out using a book a week to set up some bookish themed play for my youngest daughter who is 3. We read the book together and then I set up a small world, sensory play tray art/craft or playdough play invitation to explore the ideas from the book further. It's

Let's get creative building with these beautiful loose parts! Loose parts play is a favourite type of play for us! We have been slowly adding to our collection of loose parts over many years now. The focus for the last few years has been adding recycled and other non-toy items to our play collection to encourage creative play. Loose parts play with old CD's and lucite blocks We recently added some old CD's to our loose parts play collection and they are brilliant for building

Let's create a magical underwater land for mermaids! Small world play is so wonderful for imagination, developing oral language skills and vocabulary + developing the ability to make up stories and characters. This blog post walks through step by step how I set up this mermaid themed small world table for my kids to play with. *This play idea is for children ages 3+ as it contains small parts. All play was supervised by an adult. Please ensure you actively supervise all play.

Here's a look at some of the play, learning and creative ideas that we have done over the last month. I thought I would try a new type of blog post this week - a look at a few of the different things we have done over the last month. We have enjoyed some water play, colour matching, bookish play, wet felting and small world play. I love to set up play invitations and get creative with my girls. I hope you find some inspiration today to help create some playful moments for the

One small world invitation ... still getting play after 1 month. As I write this blog post my girls are playing with the small world table, adding in animals to create a much larger small world. We are now over a month into this small world table. I set it up after I had bought the wooden dolls house out of my classroom. I made the most simple additions to the small world this morning and all 3 girls were straight into playing again ...

I recently changed up what was on our open-ended play shelves in our play space for the first time in a little while, so I decided to write a blog post about what we currently have out on our toy shelves. This play space is in the corner of our lounge room. We use a white house bookshelf that I bought from Mocka Australia quite a few years back now. This shelf has room on the floor in front of it that can be used for play and building creations. In the classroom I would use a

A quick look at our current play space set ups to invite play. Our small world table - all ready for imaginative play! A big welcome to you if this is your first time visiting the blog and welcome back to our Playful Learning community email subscribers! It was time for a quick refresh and tidy up of our kids play space at home. Our kids art space and small world table were looking very messy and not getting much attention. This is how I know when it is time to make a change

These are such simple & beautiful loose parts - perfect for play and learning! A tray of loose parts ready to create with our DIY coloured wood slices and gem wood slices in the middle. Loose parts for play don't need to be really fancy. These simple wood slices were so simple to make colourful and will be able to used for many different types of play! These could be used for stacking, building, for small world play, for decorating loose parts printables, for pretend cooking,

Looking for something simple to help enjoy the Easter season? Try one of these fun ideas at home! A fun sensory tray: Rainbow rice + coloured eggs Let's enjoy the special time before Easter with some simple play ideas! Keep reading to find some inspiration ... These Easter play ideas for kids are all things that we have done over the years at home in the lead up to Easter. We now have a little collection of Easter themed play items that we use each year including the followin

Getting creative + taking a mindful moment is really easy with these printable play mats! Loose parts are a fun way to use this magical themed printable! Loose Parts Play + Mindfulness made easy! Taking some time out of our busy days is important to help our kids take a break and enjoy a quiet moment or two. Loose part and art materials are perfect materials for encouraging children to create and enjoy mindfulness time, focussed on the present moment. This doesn't need to

Here's a look at our play space set up to inspire play for different aged siblings. A quick play space change up makes a big difference! Play space change ups don't always need to be massive to invite more play. Sometimes the simplest of changes work too! These photos are from a play space change up that involved a quick little shuffle and rearrange of some toys on our shelf. Remember simple changes can invite more play! We don't have room for all the toys to be out at once,

Let’s get playing outside with this simple, yet fun flower soup & tea! Flowers and water are the perfect combination for sensory play! Creating ✨magical✨ playtime for your little ones doesn’t need to be complicated! The most simple of play ideas can be wonderful too! My girls enjoyed this simple flower soup + water sensory play idea outside in the sunshine. *Important: All play was supervised. Always actively supervise water play. Never leave a child alone with water. Flower