Small World · Continuous Provision & Play
Build a world.
See where play takes it.
Bring together people, animals, vehicles and open-ended materials for children to make places, revisit experiences and develop their own stories.
Explore small world provision resources for nurseries, preschools, Reception classes and childminding settings, with optional enhancements to follow changing interests.
Homes, Shelters & SpacesSee this resource on the page ↓
Find a Small World resource
Search this page’s core provision, enhancements and practitioner resources.
Search is unavailable in this view. You can still browse core provision, enhancements or practitioner guidance.
Select a cover to enlarge it. View resource details opens a public preview; View All Access resource opens a download gallery. Free Access includes the resources marked free. All Access includes both printable provision and the Curriculum & Pedagogy Suite. Compare memberships.
01 · Everyday provision
Small worlds to return to, change and grow
Keep a familiar selection of figures, vehicles, blocks, fabrics and suitable loose parts available. These reusable printables can support a new idea or help children communicate what they are doing. Choose what fits the play; there is no sequence to complete.
People — Everyday Lives & Relationships
Movable people and everyday props for making and revisiting small worlds. Children choose who the characters are, how they relate and what happens.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Build, Change & Imagine
Illustrated invitations for making and changing places with figures, blocks, fabrics and movable materials. Children choose what to build and what it means.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Homes, Shelters & Spaces
Illustrated invitations for making homes, shelters, entrances and boundaries with blocks, fabric and familiar figures.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Story Invitations — What Happens Next
Open-ended starting points for children’s own stories. A visitor might arrive, a route might change or a character might find something; children decide what happens.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Communication & Play Together Boards
Picture boards for asking, refusing, commenting and sharing ideas during small world play, alongside each child’s usual ways of communicating.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Maps, Signs, Messages & Notices
Invitations and reusable papers for sharing places, journeys and messages within children’s own small world play.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
First Small Worlds — Toddlers
Illustrated cards for adults supporting familiar actions and early pretend play. Follow the child’s interest without expecting a developed story.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑The play comes first. A small world can begin with moving a car, carrying an animal or making a space inside some blocks. Children do not need to produce a finished scene, copy a picture or tell a complete story.
Useful alongside your everyday resources
Bring spatial language, loose parts and mathematical thinking into the world children are already building.
Positional Language Prompt Cards
Talk about where a figure is, where it might go and how its position changes during play.
View free resource Back to search ↑
Shape & Spatial Investigation Cards
Explore fitting, combining and representing spaces alongside the blocks and materials children use to build their worlds.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Loose Parts Provocations
Choose relevant invitations for arranging materials, making settings and noticing mathematical possibilities in pretend play.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑More ways to make maps and journeys
Maps, Plans & Routes
Open-ended ways to represent a place, plan a construction or show a journey through marks, drawings and objects.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Sand Treasure Map
Blank-centred maps for hiding and finding treasure. Try adapting one to represent a small world in your sand tray.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑02 · Find a starting point
Choose provision for your children
These are starting points to adapt, rather than fixed age expectations. The links below take you to covers on this page before you open a resource.
Toddlers · 18–36 months
Begin with familiar objects, repeated actions and a small, manageable choice. Adults can join gently without asking children to invent a story.
First Small WorldsToddler provision guidance
Preschool · 3–4 years
Make places, move characters and share ideas in different ways. Offer a useful prompt when it connects with children’s play.
Homes, Shelters & SpacesPositional language
Maps, signs & messages
Reception · 4–5 years
Keep time for revisiting stories, changing constructions and communicating a plan or message with a purpose.
Maps, signs & messagesShape & spatial investigation
Reception provision guidance
Childminders and mixed-age groups: select resources around individual interests and needs; explore the childminding guidance. KS1: selected materials can also support purposeful storytelling, construction and map-making; adapt the level of challenge to your children.
03 · Fresh possibilities
Provision enhancements
Add a character, setting or prop when it connects with children’s interests. Keep familiar resources in place so children can combine, revisit and change their ideas. Useful theme pieces can stay in core provision for as long as the play continues.
Autumn Woodland Small World
Six complementary packs for making woodland places, following trails and developing stories. Choose a few useful pieces or combine them with the animals and materials you already have.
Animal Figures
Movable woodland animals to combine with blocks, fabric and children’s own settings.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Environment Pieces
Trees, logs and other woodland pieces for making places that change with the play.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Finds & Signs
Woodland props, habitat signs and blanks for children’s own marks and place names.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Habitat Invitations
Optional starting points for investigating and building homes for woodland animals.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Story Invitations
Illustrated starting points and reusable prompts that leave the characters and next steps open.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Position & Tracks
Explore where animals hide, move and travel with position invitations and movable trails.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Autumn Writing for Purpose - Maps
Blank woodland maps and route sheets give children room to invent places, landmarks and connections. Optional map-key and direction spaces help them make a representation another person can use.
View resource details Back to search ↑A reason to make marks. If children want to map a woodland journey, leave a message or name a place, offer a paper that helps them communicate their idea.
More worlds to explore
Open a collection to see the covers. Puppet pieces can join toy figures, blocks and fabrics for retelling, changing or inventing stories. Prepare and use them in ways that suit your children.
Animals & dinosaur worlds · 3 resources
Farm Animal Lollipop Puppets
Farm animal and young animal puppets for creating farmyards with blocks, fences and familiar toys.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Farm Animal Puppets — Colouring
Colour-your-own farm animal puppets, including adult animals and their young.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Dinosaur Lollipop Puppets
Cartoon dinosaur puppets with two background images for making and changing prehistoric worlds.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑Traditional tales · 4 resources
Goldilocks & the Three Bears Puppets
Goldilocks characters and a Three Bears Cottage picture for retelling and inventing stories.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Little Red Riding Hood Puppets
Traditional-tale characters with three background images to retell or change the story.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Jack & the Beanstalk Puppets
Key characters and objects from Jack and the Beanstalk for small-world storytelling.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
The Three Little Pigs Puppets
Characters and story pieces from The Three Little Pigs for retelling or creating a different ending.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑Nursery rhymes · 5 resources
Five Little Speckled Frogs Puppets
Frog puppets and an A4 pond setting for moving characters as the rhyme unfolds.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Hey Diddle Diddle Puppets
Rhyme characters and an A4 moon poster for moving, retelling and imagining.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Hickory Dickory Dock Puppets
Mouse puppets and a large clock poster for joining in with the rhyme.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Round & Round the Garden Puppets
Teddy bear puppets and a garden poster for revisiting the familiar rhyme through movement.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Incy Wincy Spider Puppets
Spider and sun/rain puppets with a waterspout poster for joining in with a familiar rhyme.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑Imagined worlds & picnics · 3 resources
Fairy Lollipop Puppets
Fairy characters and accompanying pieces for imagined gardens, woodland places and stories.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Mermaids & Mermen Puppets
Mermaid, merman and accompanying puppets for imagined underwater worlds.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Teddy Bears’ Picnic Puppets
Teddy bears and picnic pieces for making a small-world picnic and inventing what happens there.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑People, roads & journeys · 4 resources
People Who Help Us Puppets
Puppets depicting 15 community jobs, including firefighter, nurse, librarian, vet and postal worker.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Road Signs — Free Sample
Free sample A4 road signs for role play; reduce the print size if using alongside small-world roads and vehicles.
View free resource Back to search ↑
Road Signs — Full Pack
A4 road signs for role play; reduce the print size if using alongside small-world roads and vehicles.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Design a Sign
Triangle and circle sign templates for children’s designs, with space for a written or scribed label.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑Seasons & celebrations · 4 resources
Halloween Puppets & Backdrops
Halloween characters, objects and setting backdrops for small-world stories.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Halloween Lollipop Puppets
Six Halloween characters to cut out and attach to lolly sticks.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Halloween Lollipop Puppets — Colouring
A colouring version of six Halloween lolly-stick characters.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Nativity Lollipop Puppets
Nativity character puppets for retelling the Christmas story.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑Most links in these collections open All Access resource galleries; the Road Signs free sample is included with Free Access. Road signs are designed at A4 size; reduce the print size if using them with toy roads and vehicles.
04 · Develop your provision
Practitioner guidance & organisation
Look beyond individual printables to the space, resources and adult interaction that support the play. These public pages introduce guidance available through All Access membership.
Preschool Continuous Provision
Guidance for setting up and developing provision, including a dedicated Small World area.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Reception Continuous Provision
Guidance on core resources, adult interaction and enhancements, including Role Play / Small World.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Toddler Continuous Provision Maps
Connect the toddler environment with adult interaction, language and meaningful everyday learning.
View resource details Back to search ↑
Continuous Provision for Childminders
Develop flexible, purposeful provision in a home-based setting with children of different ages.
View resource details Back to search ↑Organise resources for choosing, building and pretending
Choose labels that fit the resources you actually offer. They can help make choices visible; they are not a way to give children fixed schema labels.
Symbolic & Pretending Labels
Make resources for characters, homes, journeys and story worlds easier to find and choose.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑
Enclosing Labels
Support organisation of materials for boundaries, shelters, homes and contained spaces.
View All Access resource Back to search ↑Small World provision: common questions
What belongs in core small world provision?
A manageable, familiar collection of people, animals, vehicles and open-ended materials gives children something to return to. Blocks, fabric, containers and suitable loose parts can become different places and props as the play changes. Choose resources that reflect children’s experiences and make room for their own meanings.
Do enhancements need to change every week?
No. Add something when it offers a useful possibility, then notice what children do with it. An animal, tree or prop first introduced through a theme may remain valuable throughout the year. Children need time to return to ideas as well as opportunities to explore something new.
How can adults support children who communicate in different ways?
Allow time for looking, moving, pointing, gesture, sounds and words. Join the child’s focus, model a small amount of useful language and accept different ways of participating. A child may watch, play alongside someone or repeat an action before choosing to share a story.
Do we need to print every card?
No. Select one relevant invitation, keep a practitioner card on screen or use an idea alongside resources you already have. Read words aloud when useful. The cards are optional supports for play, not tasks to finish.
Connect Small World with the rest of your provision
Resource and cover images © Little Owls Resources. ↑ Back to Top of Page