_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. The tuff tray is a staple resource that is often abandoned or underused in early years settings. However, when used effectively, a tuff tray can enhance a child's learning through its versatile usage, such as messy play or as enhancements to support themes and ideas that are being explored. A simple tuff tray provocation can offer many learning opportunities to help a child progress and develop, as its sensory play approach promotes open-ended investigations and problem solving. 50 Fantastic Ideas for Tuff Trays is packed full of exciting activities that are not only simple and easy to prepare and manage, but that also use materials and tools found in most settings and at very low cost. With ideas for tuff trays that support books, promote mathematics and are ideal for celebrations and festivals, this book creates inviting opportunities for learning objectives to be met in an exciting and creative way.

_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. _______________ The tuff tray is a staple resource in Early Years settings that supports many different styles of learning and play, and offers lots of opportunities to introduce early mathematics. 50 Fantastic Ideas for Tuff Tray Mathematics is filled with fun, creative and inspiring ideas for exploring mathematical concepts using tuff trays, including size, shape, capacity, quantity, distance, volume and numbers. From exploring time with ice cubes to cutting shapes out of tortilla wraps, Sally Wright presents opportunities for mathematical learning objectives to be met in an exciting and creative way.

This new series takes the very best ideas from the popular Featherstone Baby Books and turns them into a book jam packed with things you can do with babies, toddlers and pre-school children. Each actvity gives step-by-step instructions, tips and plenty of further ideas for children ready for more.

A wealth of great ideas for parents or carers of pre-schoolers.

A wealth of great ideas for parents or carers of toddlers.

_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. In order to be able to think creatively, children have to be encouraged to use their imaginations and play autonomously. When setting up open-ended learning opportunities that stimulate children to investigate possibilities practitioners need easily accessible, cost effective resources. The rationale behind using cardboard boxes is the simple fact that they are cheap and open-ended, meaning they can be easily sourced and simply transformed by both adults and children. A cardboard box is a resource that when left alone, does nothing in particular but comes to life in the hands of children, requiring them to use their imagination or to build on their past experiences. Boxes as open-ended materials greatly enhance the play experience, as they require children to bring their thoughts into the play experience in a deeper way.

When given soil, clay or mud to play with, most children are instinctively motivated to explore and experiment. Mud, soil and clay are naturally open-ended, stimulating children to investigate possibilities, look for reasons and think of ideas. They are cheap and easy to source or access, simple to transform to suit any age group or activity, can be mixed with other materials, given a rich sensory experience via visual texture, deep colour, rich smell and tactile feel. As with the other 50 fantastic ideas books, this book will feature 50 inventive ideas for busy early years practitioners, advising them in a straightforward way about how to find, present and use easily accessible materials in a range of exciting and unusual ways.

_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. Small world play offers a wide range of learning opportunities for young children. Acting out narratives and ideas through the manipulation of small or miniature equipment, tools, toys and objects helps children to respond to their environment. Play becomes representative of real-life situations and is a medium through which children can explore their own feelings about these events and experiences in a safe and productive way. The frequent inclusion of sensory elements in this play also deepens experiences. Small world play is rich in possibilities for specific, thematic, learning, such as gathering information about spaces, positions, colours and cultures. Small world play is entertaining, challenging, motivating and allows children to use their imaginations and decide on their own play choices. Many practitioners find it challenging to continually renew the play environment, but this book suggests ideas for how to ensure a meaningful play content that replicates environments or scenarios that children can connect to, using a large variety of resources from natural materials to specific props. Presented in the accessible, practical and flexible 50 Fantastic Ideas format, Judit Horvath's book is a compendium of ideas that will ensure you get the most out of small world play in your setting, without over-stimulating and distracting the children involved.

A wealth of great ideas for parents or carers of four and five year olds.

Messy play is at the heart of the early years curriculum, supporting creativity and imagination, and giving children opportunities to experiment with tactile materials. This book will offer 50 ideas working with natural resources, simple household items and recycled resources for low cost inspiration. Practitioners and teachers in the early years are always looking for new ideas for messy and 'hands-on' play, and this book will give children many opportunities for exploration and investigation through sensory play.