Toy Town Small World
What you need
- a big sheet of paper and a crayon for the roads
- building blocks
- a few small boxes
- toy cars and small toy animals or people
How to do it
- Draw a road or two on the big sheet of paper together and lay it on the floor.
- Build houses, a shop and a park along the roads from the blocks and boxes.
- Ask them who lives in the town, and let the toys start moving about.
- Follow their story: drive to the shop, visit a friend, mend a broken bridge.
Why it matters
Building a town gives the toys somewhere to live, and the story they make up for them is all their own.
What they're learning
- Making up stories
- Toys going places and meeting each other is a story told with hands.
- Planning a space
- Deciding where the houses, the shop and the park should go.
- Choosing pieces
- A flat block for a road, a pointy one for a roof.
What to look for
Notice them giving the toys voices and talking for more than one of them.
A tip
Leave the town out if you can. Small worlds often grow on the second go.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: start with one road and one house, and add more only when the story needs them
Harder: make a sign for each building together, and draw a map of the town to keep
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Quiet & calm activities · Toddler activities with paper · Toddler activities with a cardboard box