Tiny Worlds, Big Learning: Ideas for Autumn Small World Sensory Play

Creating small worlds for play is a wonderful way to promote sensory exploration and language development. Kids naturally want to recreate the world around them and facilitating that work through play can help them build vocabulary, enhance their storytelling skills and foster creative problem-solving abilities.

Here are some ideas you can incorporate into a sensory table set up to encourage small world play this autumn:

1. Inspire small world play by starting with a simple, empty scene

Encourage children to build small worlds by setting up a simple scene that they can add to and take over with their own ideas. Use different colored materials to suggest different parts of the natural world. A brown silk can suggest dirt and green filler might be a grassy area. You can add something blue for water and maybe some rusty oranges to suggest fall foliage. 

2. Offer materials with different textures

Mixing textures in sensory play is a great way to encourage children to explore how different materials act alongside each other. Does the plush pumpkin make noise when dropped? What about the wooden acorn? What happens when each one rolls through a sensory tube? This kind of play allows children to explore the beginnings of the scientific method by asking questions and making guesses. 

3. Incorporate open ended building materials to facilitate dramatic play

Appropriately-sized, open-ended building materials facilitate children in creating small worlds from their own imaginations and to meet the needs of the worlds they create. We don’t need to build for the children, simply offering materials for construction play within the space supports their exploration, problem solving and play. Little Bricks and Tabletop Notch Blocks are perfect for this. 

4. Include real, natural materials when possible

By including some real pinecones, slices of a tree branch, and dry acorn caps I’m inviting my kids to experiment and explore the sensory aspects of materials they see in their natural environment each day but in a new context. The fall brings so many beautiful treasures that you can collect and incorporate into play. 

5. Offer seasonal pretend play accessories

For seasonal treasures that don’t translate well to indoor sensory play in their natural state consider miniatures or pretend versions. Resin, acrylic, or fabric leaves and pumpkins and wooden acorns and stones are great sensory play options. Tiny versions of real life objects are perfect for facilitating small world play since they allow children to recreate real-life situations.

Seasonal sensory play is a wonderful way for children to explore and understand the changes that come with different seasons, holidays, and special occasions. Gather your sensory play tools and use these tips to inspire your children’s play and deepen their connection with the world around them.