Early learning

Sharing and telling stories helps children develop language, imagination, and social skills. It builds vocabulary, strengthens memory, and teaches important life lessons. Stories also foster empathy, creativity, and a love for reading, laying the foundation for lifelong learning. 

Make a sensory adventure by exploring the outdoors with eyes closed and ears wide open! This playful walk helps builds attention, extends vocabulary and motivates children to communicate. 

A walk in your local community can be a fun and engaging way of identifying a range of environmental print that children see and use in their daily lives.

Mark making starts long before children pick up a pencil – and sand is the perfect sensory surface to explore it. This simple and engaging activity invites curious children to make their mark, build those early writing muscles and express themselves creatively and playfully.

Mark making is the foundation of early writing, creativity and communication – and it should be happening everywhere, every day. As leaders, it’s our job to inspire our teams to create rich environments and champion mark making across the whole provision – indoors and out. Here are our top tips put mark making at the heart of play and learning. 

A shape hunt helps children develop mathematical concepts, language and motor skills through playful exploration. As they find and name shapes, they build confidence, problem-solving abilities and curiosity in a fun, hands-on way. 

Using available resources and guided questioning, this interactive summer sensory exploration activity encourages curiosity, descriptive language and a focus on sensory awareness. Have fun with the sights, sounds, textures and aromas of summer.

In this fun and engaging activity, children work together to rescue small toys frozen in blocks of ice. It's a fantastic way to experiment, explore cause and effect and stay cool in warm weather. The activity encourages teamwork, communication and problem-solving, supporting personal, social and emotional development.

Messy play should be considered an essential part of early childhood. When children’s curiosity is invited and encouraged and if they are given the freedom to explore and discover, then play can certainly get messy.

This is an easy, accessible activity that encourages creativity, sensory exploration and expands vocabulary. In this activity children create their own dough and get to explore its properties by mixing, rolling, stretching and shaping it into various forms.

Providing equality of opportunity for all children, may incorporate differentiating aspects of your curriculum or provision to provide meaningful learning opportunities for children with SEND. Review our top tips on differentiation against your own daily practice.

Develop children’s mathematical understanding by using everyday items to sort into matching pairs. Socks are a great way to look at patterns, similarities and differences, and provide problem solving opportunities for children.  

A well designed environment promotes social interaction, removes communication barriers and builds essential learning skills. Prioritising positive communication spaces ensures every child thrives, regardless of ability or background. Explore our top tips and reflect on your daily practice.

The focus for National Gardening Week (24 May – 1 June) is on new and beginner gardeners. Develop children’s curiosity and wonder for planting and gardening with our gardening activity.

Water is an open-ended resource, meaning the provision isn’t usually intended to have a specific outcome or instructions to follow.

Montessori schools are found around the world with a distinct approach to learning and development in young children. But who is the person behind the name?

Modern early years curriculums are built around the value of play, understanding it as an unprecedented language for early learning and development. Although the importance of play within learning theory in children’s social and emotional development is something that is widely recognised today,  it has only become an established philosophy since the mid-to-late 19th century!

Play with sand is a form of messy play that offers endless possibilities for children to engage all sorts of skills for a well-rounded and healthy development. As a provocation with open-ended possibilities, sand is a resource that is sustainable and reuseable, to be used indoors and outside for all ages. Sand play offers a wide range of benefits for children in their early years, supporting their development in multiple areas. 

Scientific literacy develops a wide range of skills that can be transferred across all areas of development, making this an approach well worth implementing with children of any age.

There are many benefits to physical activity and studies show that being active in body can enable us to concentrate more and problem-solve rationally by developing our executive function skills.