Small World Play

Engaging in small world play is a critical play opportunity for young children's learning and development. 

Children can experiment in imaginary situations, explore their emotions and learn about how they feel about situations, people and creatures in the world around them. 

Small worlds can be designed specifically to promote and support children’s  interests. Some of the most popular themes of interest are fairies, dinosaurs, pirates, space, knights, princesses, castles and dragons, as well as the more traditional interests in cars, trains, transports, families and of course animals!

Some of children's most powerful learning is through their interest based learning, where children are more likely to be engaged in play for extended periods of time. Not only does it nurture their creative imagination, it also enables them to explore new materials, act out scenarios from real life, build language, practice social skills and gain an understanding of the world around them. 

Small World Play can be defined as imaginative play in miniature. These can be animal figurines, characters, small dolls, play roads and houses or felt trees. While we can create beautiful play-scapes for children, they are also incredibly resourceful in creating their own small worlds. Resourcing children's play with a variety of textures, materials, figures, characters and loose parts both found and purchased!