Nursery Resources

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Block construction area Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 40 min

Blocks on the floor, not on a table: construction that involves a tower that falls needs the space to fall in. Box the blocks up rather than shelving them, because the emptying and refilling is part of the play and children manage it themselves from about three. Wide, flat blocks are easier to build with than cubes, and a board on the floor to build on saves a lot of frustration. Photos of towers left standing on the wall, changed weekly, quietly set the bar for what a build can be.

Classroom setup
Mathematics
Physical development
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Blocks
Small group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: CC0 — Reseletti — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Block_tower_on_narrow_base.jpg

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Digging and building with buckets and spades Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 30 min

One spade and one bucket per child, and nothing else. The limit is deliberate: with a full set of tools the play turns into tidying up. Long-handled spades keep sand out of sleeves, and buckets that are not too deep for a three-year-old are filled in half the time. Sandcastles work better if the sand is damp — pack it first in a bucket and the shape holds. Children who dig for a long time are usually making a road, a hole, or a city, all of which are worth staying quiet and watching.

Classroom setup
Physical development
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Sand
Small group
Outdoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Buckets and Spades in the Sand" by Jonathan Rolande is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Dough table Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 35 min

Dough on a table, in trays, with rolling pins of several sizes and anything from the loose-parts box that makes an imprint — shells, buttons, a Lego brick, the end of a pen. It is the strongest sensory activity in the room for children who find pens and paper hard. Fresh dough every session; old dough goes stiff and the whole table stops. Flour on the cloth rather than in the dough, and a towel for hands that want to wipe.

Classroom setup
Expressive arts and design
Physical development
Understanding the world
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Dough
Small group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Play-Dough Ziggurat" by edenpictures is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Small world: the farm Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 35 min

A barn, a field, a pond and a set of animals is enough to start. The animals do not have to be realistic — a sheep with a bus inside is fine, and usually better, because the rules of this farm are the child's own. Build the base with them rather than for them, so the world is partly theirs from the first minute. Add one element a week: a gate, a fence, a tractor. Stories about the farm come out of the play afterwards, and those are the ones worth writing down.

Themed activity
Understanding the world
Communication and language
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Both

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Farm small world play" by emmacraig1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Indoor water play with tubs Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 30 min

Water play does not need a garden. Two tubs on a low table, towels underneath, and the construction vehicles, sponges and funnels from the sand tray move across. Children fill, pour, float and sink, and the maths happens without anyone naming it. A third empty tub for the overflow stops the floor becoming the water's next destination. Expect the session to end the moment they notice what happens when the jug tips over, which is the moment the room is most interesting.

Classroom setup
Physical development
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Water
Small group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Bath toys" by Kim Siever is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

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Hunt for a letter in the room Activity

4-5 years · 20 min

A letter of the week, and the whole room becomes the search. Find a T somewhere in the room: on a poster, on a wooden block, in a picture book title. Children move, touch it, and say it, which is three things at once that a worksheet is not. Then find it together in a word on the door, on a name card, on the snack list. The search ends with the letter in their hand and in their mouth, which is the state you want them in for reading.

Themed activity
Literacy
Mathematics
4-5 yrs
Blocks
Small group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: CC BY 4.0 — Bobjgalindo — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_pile_of_alphabet_wooden_blocks.jpg

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Outdoor mark making Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 25 min

Chunky chalk on a path is the cheapest expressive activity in the setting, and it removes the constraint that makes indoor drawing hard: a page is small and a mistake cannot be walked away from. Put down four sticks as a starting line and let the ground become the page — a hundred children can draw at once. Big chalk sticks, two per child, so a child who loses theirs still has one. Rain resets the surface for free.

Classroom setup
Expressive arts and design
Physical development
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Outdoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Tiza" by Daquella manera is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.

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Play dough cooking: the recipe game Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 25 min

One child is the cook, one is the customer, and the dough is what the shop sells. There are no ingredients, only shapes — a long roll is a loaf, a flat circle is a cake, and the customer names what they want before it is made. That order, ask then make, is the whole game and it is worth running again with the roles swapped. Small rolling pins rather than the big ones so a flat circle is achievable at three.

In class game
Expressive arts and design
Communication and language
Personal social and emotional
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Dough
Small group
Both

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Play Dough-Nut" by Crystl is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Pull-along path: where does the toy go? Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 15 min

A wheeled toy and a floor marked out in masking tape: a road, a corner, a bridge, and somewhere for it to stop. The child pulls the toy along the line while an adult names the destination — under the table, up the ramp, behind the chair. It is a walking, pointing and listening activity wearing a toy's clothes, and the toy takes the attention that would otherwise be on the child. Two children pull at once from opposite ends of the same road, which turns out to be a surprisingly good turn-taking lesson.

In class game
Physical development
Understanding the world
Personal social and emotional
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Both

Under 20 min· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "WOODEN TOY" by Ömer Ünlü is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Puppet and story corner Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 20 min

A puppet is the cheapest way to get a whole group talking, because the talking belongs to the puppet rather than to the child holding it. Three or four puppets is plenty: one for you, and enough for a group to pass around without a fight. Sit with your back to the window so everyone can see the face. A story book beside the box lets a child re-tell a story they have just watched, which is the step that makes it literacy rather than theatre.

Classroom setup
Communication and language
Literacy
Personal social and emotional
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Puppets
Books
Whole group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Card photograph: "Tibetan Hand Puppets" by barry.pousman is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Role-play kitchen Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 40 min

A kitchen works best when it is a real kitchen doing a pretend job: actual cups, actual plates, actual water at the actual sink. Two or three settings, not six — a full tea party for forty children ends with nobody able to find anything. Props that come home from a child's kitchen at home are worth more than anything bought, and the writing on a milk carton is better than a printed one. Expect a queue for the sink within a week, and let it form: the queue is where the talking happens.

Classroom setup
Personal social and emotional
Communication and language
Understanding the world
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: "22 - Play Kitchen" by Kiddies Korner is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Sand and water area Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 45 min

A sand area with water alongside it, so the same hole can be dry on one minute and a pond on the next. The frame matters: it keeps the sand contained and gives the water somewhere to run. Children who are new to it usually fill a bucket, empty it, and fill it again; the pour is the play, and everything else follows. Put the water in wide shallow tubs rather than a single tap so more than one child can pour at once, and expect the whole area to be wetter than you planned by the end of the session. Set it up once and leave it out for weeks — it is the area children ask for by name.

Classroom setup
Physical development
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Sand
Water
Small group
Outdoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

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Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: CC BY 4.0 — Foto: Jonn Leffmann — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandl%C3%A5da_-_Sandbox_-_Sandpit_-_Ystad_-_2025.jpg

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Sand and water tray Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 30 min

The whole sand-and-water idea on a tray small enough to stand at. Scoop the sand in, dampen it, and put a jug and a few cups within reach — children flood channels, dam them, and then find out whether the dam holds. A tray can live on the outdoor table in summer or against a wall inside, so the activity survives bad weather. Put it on a stand rather than the floor: children work better looking down into it than across it.

Classroom setup
Physical development
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Sand
Water
Small group
Both

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: "Adding water to the sand-castle moat" by dumbledad is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Small world pond: how many can you find? Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 15 min

A small world set on the table and one question: how many animals can you find at the water? Children search in pairs, then count together, and the answer is genuinely different every time because someone has moved a sheep. Counting here is counting something real rather than reciting to a teacher. Three pairs at the tray, and the rest of the group with a picture of the same set to look at while they wait their turn.

In class game
Mathematics
Understanding the world
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Both

Under 20 min· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: "Farm small world play" by emmacraig1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Small world: transport Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 30 min

One vehicle per tray, a road made of a strip of grey card, and a garage built from whatever blocks are to hand. Children add passengers, passengers add sounds, and the sounds are the part they remember. Name the vehicles as they are added — this is the vocabulary, arriving through play rather than in a flashcard. A tractor and a fire engine in the same tray produces argument and negotiation, which is the most valuable thing a small world does.

Themed activity
Understanding the world
Literacy
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Blocks
Small group
Both

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: "Wooden toy train" by prague.czech.photo is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Tuff tray with one resource box Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 35 min

One tray, one box, one theme at a time. The tray gives a hard edge to work inside, which is what makes it different from playing on the floor, and the box is what makes it repeatable: the same small world can be rebuilt exactly as it was yesterday, and children use that continuity to plan. Change the box's contents with the interest rather than the timetable. Put the tray where a child can stand at it, not where they can kneel.

Classroom setup
Expressive arts and design
Understanding the world
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Both

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: "wooden toy box" by sadiehart is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Wooden brick pattern race Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 20 min

Four children, one tray of bricks and wooden wheels, and a pattern to copy: red, yellow, red, yellow, then red, yellow, what comes next? Nobody has to read it, and nobody has to be right about anything except the next brick. Children who race ahead and build a long road learn the same thing more slowly than children who copy one turn at a time. Stop while they still want another one — this game is ten minutes of attention at full strength, not twenty.

In class game
Mathematics
Physical development
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Blocks
Small group
Both

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: CC BY 3.0 — Hannes Grobe ( talk ) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Building-bricks_hg.jpg

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Wooden resource shelf at child height Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 40 min

Everything on one low open shelf, in trays, so a child can see the whole set of choices and put one back without an adult. Wooden materials last, do not crack when dropped, and look the same in three years, which matters more than novelty. Change three or four pieces a week rather than all of it: a small addition gives small hands something to rediscover, and nothing on the shelf needs a label because it is all in reach. Keep trays big enough that everything has its own place.

Classroom setup
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
Blocks
Small group
Indoor

20 min or more· Nursery Resources

Partly checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

Card photograph: "Wooden Toys" by thetimchannel is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

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Bud's Number Garden - EYFS - Maths game - BBC Bitesize Activity

3-4 · 4-5 years · 15 min

Bud's Number Garden - EYFS - Maths game - BBC Bitesize. Help your child practise recognising numbers, counting, sequencing and much more with this educational game!

Mathematics
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
One to one
Both

Under 20 min

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3-4 · 4-5 years · 10 min

Learn to Count up to 10 with Underwater Counting Maths Game. A fun learning to count maths game for early years children by Topmarks. Find the treasure by counting the underwater creatures. Two difficulty levels - counting up to 5 or up to 10.

Mathematics
3-4 yrs
4-5 yrs
No materials needed
Small group
Indoor

Under 20 min

Auto-tagged, not yet checked

Source not yet confirmed by a human

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Block construction area Activity

Digging and building with buckets and spades Activity

Dough table Activity

Small world: the farm Activity

Indoor water play with tubs Activity

Hunt for a letter in the room Activity

Outdoor mark making Activity

Play dough cooking: the recipe game Activity

Pull-along path: where does the toy go? Activity

Puppet and story corner Activity

Role-play kitchen Activity

Sand and water area Activity

Sand and water tray Activity

Small world pond: how many can you find? Activity

Small world: transport Activity

Tuff tray with one resource box Activity

Wooden brick pattern race Activity

Wooden resource shelf at child height Activity

Bud's Number Garden - EYFS - Maths game - BBC Bitesize Activity

Count the Yeti 1 to 10 Activity

Curious George - Bug Catcher | PBS KIDS Activity

Curious George - Bunny Ride | PBS KIDS Activity

Curious George - Flower Garden | PBS KIDS Activity

Curious George - Hide and Seek | PBS KIDS Activity

The Gingerbread Man Game - Counting, Matching and Ordering game Activity

Helicopter Rescue - Mental Maths for 4 to 8 Year Olds Activity

Ladybird Spots - Counting, Matching and Ordering game Activity

Learning to Count up to 15 with Teddy Numbers Interactive Maths Game Activity

Today's Number - Up to 20 Activity

Learn to Count up to 10 with Underwater Counting Maths Game Activity

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