Esther and William love having an activity set up ready for them when they return from school

Autumn is a lovely season for small world play

So many seasonal things can be included

Conkers, apples, acorns, corn

So many wonderful woodland or farmyard animals

Harvest time is an inspirational time for sensory play

This month I made Esther and William individual autumn worlds of play

Esther has a forest floor in a box

While William has a farm in a tray

Both spaces are very small

But are proving to be just what we need for a small window of play after school

Esther’s box was inspired by one of our favourite autumn stories

Squirrel’s Autumn Search

I lined the box with felt

Red, brown, golden, green

I then poured rice on to it

I added piles of pasta

To be log pile houses

Animal dens

We added berries and conkers

Acorns and stones

Autumn leaves were strewn around

And then the animals were added

Squirrels and hedgehogs

Rabbits and hares

Badgers and birdies

Foxes and moles

Before adding the creatures and seasonal bits

We used the rice for some mark making

We made letters from our names

And the initial sounds of our autumn collections

S for squirrel

E for Esther

C for conker

A for Autumn

In William’s tray was a smaller version of his Harvest Farm

He loves ploughing the fields with his mini tractors

And loading their trailers

He loves gathering feed for his animals

How I love to watch him play

How I love to watch them both play

Together as they so often do

Or independently as in this instance

How I love to listen to the stories that they tell

The scenarios they concoct

The voices they give their characters

How I love to listen to them play

Esther and William love small world play

And so do I

It encourages talking and listening as children play together or at least alongside each other

It allows children to create stories around things they know or often stories they have read

It helps children to process ideas and new concepts

It allows children to communicate their thinking, their feelings, their fears

It enables adults to find out what new things children have been doing as they bring them into their play

This has been really useful for me since Esther and William started school

Small world play gives children a tiny space of their own

To fill with the things they enjoy

To fill with their imaginations

And how I love to watch them play

Here are some of my other small world play posts

Dinosaur Lands

Small World Stars

Flower Fairy Water Play

Construction Site

Heaven and Earth