An Invitation to Play – Compost Tray, Found Objects from Nature and Toys
If you saw our post on Pre-Writing Skills yesterday you may have seen Doodles using a tray full of compost/Peat Moss to practice his writing in. I knew that he would be dying to get his hands on this tray when we had finished our writing activities so I had gathered lots of bits and pieces so that he could have lots of fun. I laid everything out on the table and encouraged him to create a small world with all of the materials. Oodles was anxious to be involved too so I had a smaller tray ready for her too. You may know by now that Doodles is construction obsessed, he loves to create scenes and buildings with a variety of materials so I had a pretty good feeling about giving him this invitation to play.
Materials used:
- Tray
- Compost
- pine cones
- pebbles
- twigs
- leaves
- cars and diggers
- wooden railway/road tracks from Ikea
- plastic animals
- dinosaurs
- lots of loose pieces – bottle tops, wine corks, broken pieces of toys etc.
What we did: 
I’ll let the photos show you. By presenting the materials attractively gives the child an invitation to be creative and play freely. The materials themselves act as inspiration so if you had a particular theme in mind that you would like your child to explore, then present them with some materials/objects relating to that theme (shells and sand for seaside theme etc). This is also a great way to encourage talk and discussion, encourage your child to explain the process as they go along and the reasons for the decisions they make.
Doodles decided that he would like to build a bridge over a swampy field. He used his toy diggers to clear the route for the road!
He then added some of the wooden track pieces to his tray.
He added lots of pebbles and plastic insects and snakes!!!!! Apparently the builders uncovered giant bugs while constructing the road!!!!!
He played with his small world for quite some time, adding and removing bits and pieces. At one stage his T-Rex trampled across the tray and destroyed the bridge and he had to be rebuilt.
O f course little Miss Oodles wasn’t going to miss out on the fun. She had a blast with the dinosaurs and overturning the cars, I think she mat have been creating some sort of disaster movie – there was a lot of destruction and roaring involved!!!
Raaaaaaawrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!.
I love open ended, creative activities and this is such a simple way to encourage this type of play. We regularly use our sand tray for similar activities! *Quick tip! – I keep a small container on my kitchen counter which we just throw all sorts of loose pieces into to be used for these types of activities, including wine corks, bottle tops, plastic bits ‘n bobs, broken pieces of toys, etc.
Have fun!
Ciara x
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Our Little House in the Country 
This is such a delightful invitation to play. (I can tell when someone has an ECE background when they use that phrase). I just love how fun and inviting this is.
Thanks for sharing these playful adventures.
xoxo
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Thank you Jennifer. I am having so much fun with my children putting into action all the theories and philosophies I studied in college- I have spent much of my teaching career working with 8-12yo so it is refreshing and exciting to be immersed in the wonder and awe and discovery and exploration of early years once again! X
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Lovely idea Ciara 🙂 I am not in the slightest bit house proud but would be terrified of letting my 2 do this as there would be soil everywhere!! They are very messy players!x
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I can be a bit obsessive about my house but I manage to let it go when it comes to messy play, I do try and keep most of it for outside though – but it has been raining alot again!!!!! 🙂
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This looks like so much fun! I planned to set up a sensory bin with some earth, rocks, etc for a truck/cars theme. This post is definitely making me even more excited to set it up! 🙂
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Great, hope you have as much fun with it as we did, we’re taking it out again this afternoon!
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I’m going to try this later. I have half a bag of nice compost sitting in the garden. Great ideas. Thanks Ciara!
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Have fun Olivia, we are taking ours out again this afternoon as it’s raining again!!!! Was just beginning to get used to the good weather 😦 Let me know how you get on 🙂
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Same here. We went for haircuts instead! I will definitely try it and send a picture. This will be great over the summer hols. I’m worried they will become bored. Their montessori teacher is fantastic and keeps them stimulated with so many activities similar to these. I have big boots to fill this summer. :o)
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I’m bracing myself for the summer, I’m praying to every deity out there for good weather so we can out and about and down on the beach- my two are going through a phase of killing each other constantly and that’s with D gone to preschool every morning!!! Aghhhhhhh 🙂
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Oh I know that feeling. My guys can be fine one moment and then taking lumps out of eachother the next. They are starting to take care of eachother too which is lovely. :o)
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This is a wonderful idea! I’m curious, though: Why compost? Yours is obviously very far along in the decomposition phase, but would you worry about people using compost that is not yet safe for handling? As a gardening mom, I’d like to know your reasons behind compost over other substrates.
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Hi there, thanks for your questions. This is shop bought compost, our own compost wouldn’t be suitable to use. We use this for its texture mostly. We also use sand, rice, linseed, flour, salt etc for these activities. I think the compost appeals most as it looks so like dirt!!!! Thanks for visiting
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Love love love this! Great tip too about keeping a box on your counter to store bits and pieces, I’ve started throwing various lids and things in a box in the cupboard for use in sensory play. #supermommyclub
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Thank you, I am constantly collecting bits and pieces, boxes, tubes, buttons, corks you name it, only problem is I hate hate hate clutter, in addition to our little container in the kitchen I now have two big plastic crates in the garage to pop the junk into!
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Love, love, LOVE this! How much fun is playing in the dirt?! And now inside the house too! Great idea! Thank you for sharing on Makeovers & Motherhood’s Welcome Party Wednesday! I am featuring you again this week! 🙂
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Oh wow, what a lovely surprise, thank you so so much! Really great fun playing with dirt indoors! Thanks again 😀
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