Sand is so wonderful for all sorts of play and what better than the basis for imaginative play?

In the past we used it many times in our kindergarten with cars, Australian animals, dinosaurs, jungle animals and so on.

We had it outside in a clam shell (actually trying to dry it off in the sun for a sifting activity) and the children thought it would be a good spot to set up a bush scene for their trucks and boats.

How simple – some rocks, pinecones, sticks …

parsley wrenched from the herb garden and other plant bits and pieces.

The joy of the clam shell is that everything in it is within easy reach for all participants!

We’ve mentioned before how we believe there can never be too many imaginative play areas going on at once around our kinder.

Providing natural and sensory materials including fabrics, logs and rocks, seed pods, pebbles, sand and plants is really all you need to create an irresistible play space.

Be it horses, or any other kind of animals …

all you need is to provide the props with a little bit of ‘irresistible’ thrown in and the children will do the rest.

Dinosaur set ups are one of those imaginative play spaces you could have going all year round … both inside and out!

We find there is always somebody wanting to play with dinosaurs so luckily we have bucket loads of them …

big …

medium …

small …

even skeletal!

indoors …

outdoors …

everywhere dinosaurs!

We like to add plenty of natural material like textured fabrics, tanbark and sand, logs, twigs, rocks, stones and pebbles along with our irresistible lifelike tree fern and grass plants for some lovely colour…

You can even add salt to create a dinosaur haven!

We were having a bit of chat with the children about the birdlife we find in our kinder garden. As you all can imagine, we don’t get a lot – who would visit a place which is full of rampaging four and five year olds?

Although our resident family of magpies never fail to visit us daily!

One of our familes recently donated a feeder for the wild birds and slowly over time we are getting less of the crows and Indian minors, and more rosellas …

and corellas which is very exciting!

As we were refilling the birdfeeder one day …

the children commented on the ‘grass’ growing under the feeder and were interested to learn it was the bird seed growing!

We talked about the variety of seeds in the mix …

and how lovely it felt!

We popped some seed into tubs and added different sized pouring containers so the children could have some sensory fun.

After enjoying the lovely experience of it for a while we though it might be fun to plant it and see what grew.

We were lucky enough to have a lot of clear baby food jars which we thought would enable the children to witness the root sytem taking hold.

So with a bit of cotton wool …

a scoop of seeds …

and a good squirt of water the children planted out their own miniature gardens.

All they’ll need now is a dose of sun which they will have to get at home as it is term break here and we didn’t think they would survive two weeks without some tender loving care.  Fingers crossed the children will rock up with some nice interesting growth in their jars when we return to kinder!

You can buy some wonderful props quite inexpensively if you look around.

These gorgeous lizards are available from toy shops and look very lifelike.

We like to use them both indoors and outdoors …

as they are extremely solid.

We love to create natural play spaces for them …

with lots of earthy and sensory materials.

They really are irresistible …

and a good size …

with delightful features …

encouraging lots of imaginative play.

Resulting in wonderful play based learning!

If you have been following our activites, you will be aware that we love our bush box which Donna’s husband, Colin, made for us.

We have adapted it for many uses and placed it in various spots around the room.

It’s wonderful for imaginary play.

And it’s proven to be indispensable in our room!

At this early stage of the year, we have made it into a fishing pond.

The ground is green card and material, the water is blue card with plants, rocks and logs popped in for more interest.

Lovely for just one or two players …

or even more!