Early Years Blog
A hub for everything early years, EYFS and nursery education.
In our blog you’ll find inspiration for activities, news, events and advice from early years experts.
Outdoor role play: benefits and ideas
Outdoor role play, and role play in early years settings in general are crucial for igniting a child’s imagination and developing life skills. Children love role play, and it often gives them skills which help them in everyday life. Taking play outdoors Taking...
Enrich your outdoor messy play
Children love messy play activities. These easy recipes for slime and mud play will result in hours of fun outdoors. Taking learning outdoors shouldn’t just be a case of half an hour of outdoor play or story time in the sunshine. The outdoor classroom is a world full...
Maths Mastery in early years
We all know that maths mastery is a vital part of the early years curriculum and should hold an everyday presence in our settings. This can be a daunting thought for many practitioners, who worry about how to incorporate mathematical learning into a play-based...
Social distancing and infection control in your nursery
Staying safe and controlling infection is every nursery’s top priority right now. We’ve been working hard to ensure you have the facilities to meet the DfE requirements and standards. With many Nurseries staying open throughout the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK, and the...
Covering the EYFS framework with a Glow Writer
Our experts reviewed the Glow Writer - a glow art drawing board also used for mark making - and discovered that it covers all areas of learning in the EYFS (early years foundation stage) and proves to be very popular with the little ones! The Glow Writer is a product...
8 ways to play: Mirrored Play Tray Mat
With a diameter of 800mm, our Mirrored Play Tray Mat is designed to fit perfectly into our Play Tray. The tray or the mat, however, can be used on their own and are ideal for discovery and messy play. We sent Maddy at @mayasmoonplay one of our mirrored play tray mats...
Effective early years Numicon activities
Sheila O’Reilly shares with us her favourite Numicon activities for preschool and beyond, as well as explaining why they can be effective. My name is Sheila and I’m a primary school teacher with twenty years’ experience. I also run the account @rascals_and_rainbows on...
Messy maths mud kitchen play ideas
Early years children love messy play, making it a great way to introduce EYFS maths activities, with mud kitchens being a popular idea for getting started!
7 outdoor summer activities for kids
We’ve put together some of our favourite summer outdoor activities for kids, where each idea will require different skills and areas of learning.
Outdoor learning with Kids Allowed: forest school activities
Kids Allowed Nurseries explain the benefits of outdoor learning for EYFS children, along with forest school activities and nature play ideas.
Messy play: Malleable materials for early years
In early years, messy play with malleable materials provides so much opportunity for babies and toddlers to emerge themselves in sensory activities
The art of den building by NDNA
NDNA recognise that den building as part of nature play in the early years is great for learning and development, despite becoming less and less common.