Your Custom Text Here
Home ›
Play, purposeful teaching and learning that connects
Find printable resources, practical ideas and professional guidance for Reception teachers, teaching assistants and EYFS leaders. Explore continuous provision, phonics, early reading, writing and maths, alongside curriculum planning, assessment, inclusion and transition support.
Connect what you teach with opportunities for children to practise, explore and apply their learning. Choose the resources and guidance that help your children and your classroom.
Browse by age · Browse all seven EYFS areas of learning →
Go straight to RBA & EYFSP guidance → · Explore seasonal ideas & special dates →
Looking for something specific? Search all Little Owls resources → Try a resource, teaching focus or everyday need, such as “subitising”, “known phonics” or “visual timetable”.
Start with the Reception resource gateway for ages 4–5. For starting points from preschool or continuity into Year 1, explore the neighbouring age collections and choose what fits the children you teach.
Find resources to use alongside materials children can return to, combine and develop over time. Choose additions that support their interests and create opportunities to revisit and apply learning.
Consider the materials, the space and the adult interaction—not just what can be printed. Keep useful provision available, and introduce prompts where they add something to children’s play.
Explore counting, comparing, shape, pattern and position with real objects. Add a prompt or representation where it supports children’s investigations.
Make room for building, balancing, movement and discoveries outdoors. Follow children’s questions and offer materials they can use in different ways.
Design a bridge, create a setting for a story or build a home for toy animals. Support planning, problem solving, collaboration and children’s explanations.
Add props, signs and useful print to familiar pretend play. Make space for conversations, shared decisions and purposeful reading and writing.
Offer reasons to draw plans, make lists, create labels and leave messages. Support children to communicate their ideas and use what they have been taught.
Explore colour, texture, joining, modelling and shaping. Encourage children to choose materials, explain decisions and change their ideas as they work.
Investigate how materials move, combine and change. Offer suitable tools and objects, then support noticing, comparing and trying another idea.
Keep books, puppets, songs and sound-making materials part of everyday provision. Retell, invent, perform and explore together.
Choose materials for the children taking part. Consider mouthing, allergies, hygiene, access and supervision, alongside your setting’s risk assessments.
Looking beyond individual printables? Explore professional guidance on organising Reception provision and supporting learning through adult interaction.
Professional guidance: Reception Universal Continuous Provision Pack · Adult-Guided Learning in Provision
Connect systematic teaching with opportunities to practise and apply learning. Keep conversation, stories, vocabulary and enjoyment of books visible alongside word reading and writing.
Choose resources that match the letter–sound correspondences, words and routines taught through your school’s systematic synthetic phonics programme. Select reading practice that children can decode using their taught phonics.
Explore Phonics & Early Reading →
Professional guidance: Phonics in Reception: Teaching, Application & Inclusion
Our phonics resources and guidance complement your school’s programme; they do not replace its teaching sequence.
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Reception phonics guidance supports teaching, application in provision, responsive interaction and inclusion. Use it alongside your chosen systematic phonics programme, maintaining that programme’s sequence, routines and taught correspondences.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Create reasons to read and write messages, labels, lists and signs. Model the use of known phonics while keeping the content connected to what children want to communicate.
Known Phonics Provision Toolkit – Frames to Fill · Phonics Application in Provision – Prompt Cards
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Blank, editable phonics tools include GPC cards and mats, grapheme tiles, phoneme frames and word-reference spaces. Fill them with taught content and use the selected tools when purposeful reading or writing arises in provision.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Eight illustrated invitations connect taught phonics with useful labels, signs, messages, lists and plans in play. Adults read the prompt; children choose the content and may accept, adapt or decline the invitation.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Read adult prompts together where needed; not every printed instruction is intended for a child to decode independently.
Read aloud, revisit favourite texts and introduce stories, poems and information books. Follow children’s questions and make room for retelling, discussion and different ways to respond.
Model how an idea becomes a message, invitation, label or short account. Support oral composition, taught phonics and letter formation, then offer meaningful opportunities to use these in play.
Practical writing resources · Physical Development resources
Professional guidance: Reception Early Writing Purpose Pack
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
A Reception writing-purpose pack offers guidance and examples for short adult-led sessions. Model real reasons to write, support application of taught phonics and carry useful writing opportunities into play.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Bring together purposeful teaching, practical exploration and opportunities to revisit ideas across the day. Encourage children to show, explain and check their thinking—not simply produce an answer quickly.
Explore amounts, counting, subitising, comparison and how numbers can be made in different ways. Use real objects alongside representations, and help children connect what they see, say and do.
Subitising resources · Number Representation Cards: 0–10
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Cards show numbers from zero to ten in different representations. Select a few alongside real objects in play, compare how the same quantity can look and invite children to show a number in another way.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Build, rotate, arrange, compare and describe. Explore the mathematics in construction, movement, patterns and practical problems.
Shape & Spatial Investigation Cards · Measure & Compare Investigation Cards
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Investigation cards invite children to compare length, height, mass and capacity using real materials. Select a relevant question while children build, choose a useful piece or test how much a container can hold.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Shape and spatial investigation cards invite children to fit, turn, combine and represent shapes using blocks, tiles, loose parts and everyday objects. Compare what fits and how a changed arrangement affects the result.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Ask a useful question, offer time to think and welcome explanations through objects, actions, drawings or words. Explore more than one possible approach.
Maths Talk & Reasoning Cards →
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Use a helpful question while children build, compare and test their ideas. Welcome explanations through objects, actions, drawings or words.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Explore a teaching framework and supporting mini-session banks for choosing a focus, modelling an idea and revisiting it through provision. This is professional guidance, not a fixed week-by-week scheme.
Professional guidance: Reception Maths Teaching Framework →
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
A Reception maths framework connects number sense, reasoning and understanding with adult-led teaching and application in play. Use it to consider progression and provision without following a prescribed weekly scheme.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Bring together your curriculum, what you know about the children and the teaching and provision that will help them learn.
Explore practical planning support and deeper professional guidance. Choose the documents that help your decisions and team discussions, without feeling you need to use everything at once.
Find practical starting points for organising provision, purposeful teaching, learning opportunities and review.
Explore the thinking behind your practice, with guidance on curriculum, progression, interaction, assessment, families and transition.
Professional guidance, with selected free introductory documents.
A free place to start: How to Use the Reception Pathway →
Explore how learning connects and develops across the seven areas. Use the Reception Curriculum Phase Framework to consider changing emphasis across the year while responding to your class.
These are flexible curriculum phases, not phonics phases or fixed deadlines for individual children.
Professional guidance: Reception Curriculum Progression Maps · Reception Curriculum Phase Framework
Find guidance for different assessment purposes. Keep day-to-day decisions about teaching distinct from the Reception Baseline Assessment and the end-of-EYFS Profile.
Use interactions, teaching and play to notice what children understand, what they are practising and where support is needed. Record what helps you decide and communicate—not every moment.
Observation & assessment resources
Professional guidance: Reception Observation–Assessment–Planning Cycle Guidance
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Reception Observe–Assess–Plan guidance explains purposeful observation, professional assessment and responsive planning. Use it to connect knowledge of children over time with teaching decisions and proportionate records.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
The RBA contributes to school-level progress measures; it does not replace your ongoing knowledge of each child. Read our pedagogical guidance alongside the current official administration information.
Professional guidance: Reception Baseline Assessment: Positioning & Practice
Official Reception Baseline Assessment guidance – GOV.UK →
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Guidance considers the place of the Reception Baseline Assessment alongside observation, teaching and play. Use it to discuss assessment responsibilities while protecting curriculum breadth and professional knowledge of children.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Explore guidance for making and discussing end-of-EYFS judgements. The EYFS Profile is not an entry assessment, an ongoing tracking system or a curriculum. Written and photographic evidence are not required to support Profile judgements.
Professional guidance: EYFSP Interpretation & Assessment Toolkit
Current official EYFS Profile handbook – GOV.UK →
For EYFS leaders: Reception Leadership & Inspection Readiness Pack — Professional guidance for reflecting on and explaining your practice.
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Leadership guidance brings together Reception curriculum, assessment, inclusion and inspection explanations. Use it to discuss how teaching and play work together and describe impact through practice as well as data.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
The EYFSP toolkit discusses Early Learning Goals, best-fit judgements, evidence, moderation and inclusion. It helps Reception teams reflect on assessment consistency and professional interpretation without building excessive records.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Plan for different ways to participate from the outset. Work with families, your SENCO and other professionals to understand children’s strengths, communication and support needs.
Adapt materials, space, pace and adult support so children can take part. Use pictures alongside—not instead of—a child’s established communication system and any individual advice.
Picture communication resources · Outdoor Communication & Play-Together Boards
Explore dual-language resources →
Value children’s home languages and distinguish learning English from any additional support needs.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Picture boards for asking, refusing, commenting and inviting during outdoor play. Model relevant pictures alongside speech, gesture or the child’s usual communication, without requiring a particular way of responding.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Build familiar routines and supportive relationships. Help children communicate feelings, manage changes and participate in everyday experiences with the support they need.
Timetables & routines · Feelings & emotions
Professional guidance: Self-Regulation & Learning Behaviours in Reception
Share what children are learning, listen to families’ perspectives and explain the connection between teaching and play. Offer manageable home ideas linked to what children know and enjoy.
Parent communication resources · Parent Hub: ideas for home
Professional guidance: Reception Parent Partnership Pack
Support both ends of the Reception year. Share interests, routines, communication and successful strategies, with time for children, families and colleagues to get to know one another.
Practical transition resources
Professional guidance: Reception → Year 1 Transition Pack
Teaching a mixed Reception/Year 1 class or planning continuity? Explore KS1 Maths alongside the Reception guidance, selecting learning and resources for the children you teach.
Use themes as optional contexts for your curriculum and children’s interests. Keep familiar provision available, and add something where it creates a meaningful connection.
Explore ideas from nature, everyday experiences and the children’s interests.
Find starting points linked to stories, animals, places, familiar experiences and children’s questions.
Look ahead to festivals, celebrations and awareness dates, choosing those meaningful to your children, families and community.
Find flexible planning support for your children, routines and interests.
Explore planning →Choose a useful starting point for your classroom or practice.
Sign in or create a Free Access account when prompted. Select the pages you need.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Notice a small quantity, explain how it is arranged and turn the card to check. Choose amounts that suit the children and avoid making it a speed test.
A Free Access account may be needed for downloads.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Try an open-ended building or investigation prompt. Offer suitable materials and time to test, adapt and talk about an idea.
A Free Access account may be needed for downloads.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Talk about the characters and share ideas through discussion, drawing, writing or adult scribing. Keep the conversation at the heart of the activity.
A Free Access account may be needed for downloads.
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Read a free introduction to the professional collection, how its documents connect and where to begin.
A selected introduction to practical printables and deeper professional support, included with All Access.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Use editable frames for purposeful signs, labels, lists and messages. Add content that matches children’s taught phonics and the purpose of their play.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Introduce a question or sentence starter alongside real materials. Invite children to compare approaches and show how they know.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Enlarge cover ↗Child activity
Support asking, refusing, commenting and inviting during outdoor play. Choose pictures that suit the child and keep their usual communication system available.
All Access sign-in may be requested on the next page.
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Explore purpose-led teaching and modelling, with opportunities to use taught phonics and writing across provision.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Enlarge cover ↗Adult guidance
Reflect on when to join, model, prompt or step back. Connect adult interaction with children’s thinking and the learning you intend to support.
Public overview; downloads included with All Access.
Find creative resources and ideas for Reception play.
Browse expressive arts and design →Explore and download a selection of free resources, including our Special Dates Calendars. A Free Access account may be needed for some downloads.
Unlock every resource on the site, including our EYFS and KS1 printable provision and the EYFS Curriculum & Pedagogy Suite, with its Reception pathway.
Already a paying member? You have sitewide access. Your existing subscription price and billing schedule stay the same; there is no need to change plans.
Need help with access or arranging additional accounts for your team? Contact Little Owls support.
Preschool Hub: ages 3–4 · Childminder Hub: mixed-age care · Parent Hub: play and learning at home
