We have been reading and enjoying the new Ladybird version of Little Red Riding Hood for the last few weeks. Little N loves the story and has it out several times a day. She enjoys telling family and friends all about the story too. She has such a love for books!
To bring the story alive I created a Little Red Riding Hood themed Sensory Small World for her to explore.
Small worlds are perfect for children to imagine and act out stories through their play.
Creating the set up
I had a tray which was ideal for this, purchased from Home Bargains in the UK for around £2.99.
I used grass samples for the base, I filled gaps around the edges with conkers we have been collecting on our walks and lay a few sticks across the conkers, adding lots of colourful artificial leaves in between too. The stems on the leaves slotted either side of the conkers worked really well.
I made some Salt Dough (recipe can be found here) and created trees, mushrooms and apples. I made different indents on the trees to create different textures and patterns.
Once they were cooked, cooled, painted and dry - I added them to the set up.
I used gravel from my back garden which I washed thoroughly to create the wavy path. I had a smooth, blue fabric sample which I folded to create a pond for a sticky, squidgy, stretchy frog that I sat on a bed of clear glass nuggets.
On the grass I lay pieces of bark, pine cones and twigs. I also added some small spiders, a little white cat and a collection of Lego flowers by Grandmas house.
The Little Red Riding Hood House was PERFECT for this set up and came complete with 4 lovely finger puppets.
Our Experience
Little N began by reaching down and feeling the grass. She touched the pebbled path and rolled some of the pebbled around in her fingertips before dropping them back onto the tray. She picked up the mushrooms and questioned what they were.
She picked up the house and was excited to discover that the top of the house opened up. She began to scoop up the nuggets and started to fill the house. Once they were all collected she went on to add conkers too.
She loved that the pine cones were added to the set up as she remembered collecting them on one of our Nature walks. She felt all the ridges with her hands.
She then decided to empty the contents of the house and sort them out into piles.
The Little Red Riding Hood Small world went down a treat.
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Due to small parts it is paramount that children are fully supervised by a responsible adult throughout the activity.
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What a great idea! I love small world play myself and I adore how you've recreated a fairytale classic in such a creative way. Well done and thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Ann, I really did enjoy putting this together and Little N has played so lovely with it too. It has brought the story alive for her. I'm glad to hear you like our idea. Thank you!
DeleteI love this: a beautiful small world to introduce a story! My daughter would be so happy to dig in!
ReplyDelete