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Popular Play Spaces and Activities for Early Learning

by The Empowered Educator Leave a Comment

If you are feeling a little unmotivated to setup play spaces and activities for early learning or just need a few new ideas for your program, I have all the inspiration you need with this list. 

You'll find 10 of my most popular play spaces and activities for early learning listed further below and ready for you to scroll through collecting ideas as you go.

If you are a Member hub subscriber you also currently have access to over 300 playful learning activity guides sorted into age groups covering 0 -12 years, already linked to learning areas and ready to add directly onto your program here. 

If this timesaver sounds like an option you would also find helpful but you're not currently a member, you can find out how to start downloading your guides today HERE.

play spaces and activities for early learning

Reusing Tyres in Outdoor Play 

reusing tyres in outdoor play for early years learning

Repurposing and reusing tyres in outdoor play spaces is not only fantastic for limited educator and parent budgets but also helps play a small role in protecting our environment – tyres take a long time to break down in landfill so why not try and reuse them and create something useful instead if we can.

Playful Ideas With Tyres Here

Community Inspiration - Outdoor Play Environments

Community Inspiration – Outdoor Play Environments

 In my Empowered Educator Community on Facebook we have many hard working members who regularly share their outdoor play areas and projects with us.

On The Empowered Educator website we love to highlight the fantastic work educators do and feature a collection of some of the wonderful ideas that have inspired us in the community –  I hope by sharing they also inspire you to perhaps try something different in your early childhood environment or backyard.

Explore Educator's Environments Here

Repurpose Spools and Reels for Play

play spaces and activities for early learning - ideas to repurpose spools and reels for play

 I love finding inspiration and new ideas to repurpose wooden spools and cable reels into new equipment for play.


They are a material that with a little creativity and thought can be turned into something that invites play, imagination, social interaction and more for just a few dollars! 

See All Ideas Here

12 Easy DIY Sensory Table Projects 

Easy DIY Sensory Table eylf

A sensory table tends to be a well used piece of equipment in most early childhood services and with good reason! They provide so many opportunities for children to explore and engage with their senses and although they are traditionally filled with either water or sand they can also be used with many other materials that encourage sensory exploration and processing.

Find Project Ideas Here

Extending Block Play for Early Learning 

Extending Block Play for Early Learning

Blocks are one of my favourite budget friendly resources for parents and educators because you can keep extending block play in so many different ways with just a few simple loose parts!

Extend Block Play & Learning

Playful Storytelling - Using a Story Bag, Basket or Prop Box 

playful storytelling in eylf

Have you ever tried using a story bag , basket or prop box to help you share a story with young children?


If you sometimes get frustrated trying to keep a child’s attention while reading stories why not try making this time a little more playful and interactive for those short attention spans and put together a few story bags that you can use over and over. 

Fun Ideas To Make Storytelling Playful 

Easy Slime Recipes

easy and safe slime recipes

I’ve collected 5 of my absolute favourite DIY slime recipes in this post for you to try – these are the ones I have used over many years with my own children and also while working with babies and toddlers in both early learning centre and Family Day Care environments.

They only require a few basic ingredients and the children can usually join in the process of making the slime as well. 

All Slime Recipes Here

Using Open Ended Materials In Outdoor Play

open ended materials for outside play

Providing open ended play materials allows children the opportunity to be curious, creative and direct their own play. 

There are no rules or expectations for how a play item must be used, no specific steps to follow, no right or wrong way, no ultimate goal to reach or achieve.

Ideas To Start A Collection

Playful Learning Spaces for Babies & Toddlers

early learning spaces for babies and toddlers

Creating engaging , welcoming and playful learning spaces for babies and toddlers is just as important as setting up environments for older children.

However, I know that sometimes this is easier said than done and educators can struggle to find the right balance between offering an environment that is developmentally appropriate and yet still allows for both security and basic care needs to be met alongside the freedom of exploration as they challenge and extend upon new skills.

This post gives you simple tips, strategies and ideas to help you set up spaces for 0-2 years.

Visual Inspiration For Baby & Toddler Environments

Setting up Invitations to Play 

setting up invitations to play

Setting up invitations to play (which of course leads to learning) can be a simple way to ‘prompt’ children to play in different ways with different materials.

It can offer children the opportunity to direct their own play, follow their interests, learn more about the world around them, express themselves creatively and use their imagination to extend upon the initial invitation.

See Educator Invitations To Play Here 

You'll find more early learning environments & activities shared by Early Childhood Educators worldwide in out FREE group.  Join us HERE.

If you enjoyed this post why not save it to PINTEREST. 

The Empowered Educator's Most Popular Play Spaces and Activities for early learning in 2020. Inspiration for educators, homeschool, daycare, ece

A Little About Me

Jodie Clarke is an early childhood professional supporting educators who want and need to stay passionate about the work they do! She has 30 years hands-on experience in the early childhood and human services sectors across many different roles.


Jodie is mum to 3 in Australia and has already helped thousands of educators with their work through her popular blog posts, activity ideas, online training and e-books.

Filed Under: educator tips, frugal fun, Home daycare, outside play

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Jodie
Hi, I'm Jode, Mum to twins and a teen, and an early childhood educator.
I love to share ideas & resources for play based learning
Find out more about me here...

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