15 Creative Tyre Play Ideas for Early Years Outdoor Learning

Posted by EYR Team on 27th Oct 2025

Old tyres are a fantastically versatile and affordable resource to add to your outdoor play area. Naturally weatherproof and tough, they are a great option for nurseries, preschools and any other EYFS setting to encourage physical development, imaginative play and eco-friendly outdoor learning. In this blog, we share 15 engaging ways to use tyres in outdoor play - from mud kitchens to obstacle courses. These ideas are budget friendly, upcycled and adaptable for any early years environment.

Why Use Tyres in Outdoor Play?

Durable: built to be weather proof, tyres can withstand outdoor conditions all year round
Budget friendly & sustainable: a great way to reuse and recycle
Supports development: can be used for a range of activities to support fine and gross motor skills
Versatile & open ended: children can get creative with the uses for the tyres.

15 outdoor tyre play ideas

1. Build a Mud Kitchen

image shows 4 small tyres with metal bowls and utensils placed inside. Each bowl is filled with natural objects, pine cones, pebbles and flowers

Mud kitchens do not need to cost the earth! Help your little ones to explore a whole new world of muddy, messy play using upcycled tyres and accessories. Easily picked up and moved around, children will be free to set up their mud kitchens wherever they like. Similarly, the tyre mud kitchen can be amended with more tyres, tailoring the set-up to the number of children.

Add pots, pans and other utensils for a sensory rich, imaginative play space.

2. Create a Tyre Planter Garden

Car tyre filled with soil and a plant sprouting out of the top

Turn tyres into raised planters! A fantastic, low-cost option for creating a classroom garden. Children can grow herbs, flowers or vegetables - learning about nature, teaching responsibility and introducing sustainability.

Simply line tyres with fabric, add the soil and add your plants! Why not encourage your little ones to paint the outside of the tyres to add extra personalisation? To further customise your space, why not drill holes in your tyres and suspend them to create hanging planters?

3. Tyre Water Play Station

large car tyres with white guttering balanced on the side, some guttering leading into other tyres with metal bowls placed inside and toy boats on the guttering

Children can use tyres in a variety of different ways to facilitate water play. Why not add a bowl into the cavity and create a sink? Or, try stacking your tyres high and add bowls, pipes, chutes and guttering to create a waterways channel? Children can explore concepts such as gravity as they add boats and other items to their waterways.

4. DIY Tyre Obstacle Course

6 small tyres with wooden planks slotted into the holes of the tyres to create balance beams

Lay tyres on the ground or stack them to create a challenging outdoor obstacle course for children in the EYFS. Perfect to support balance, coordination and gross motor development.

If you have spare large tyres, these could be stacked together to create a tunnel to crawl through. Or why not lay them flat on the ground for children to hop in and out of?

Another option is to introduce planks and toppers to create raised balance beams and garden wooden stepping stones – a great way to test your little one’s core strength and balance. Children can use the tyres to create their own obstacle course of dreams, improve their physical development and test themselves with new challenges.

5. Build Tyre Seating

four blue tyres with cushions built into the centres

A practical and perhaps less obvious way to use your tyres is for outdoor seating! Simply pop a cushion into the tyre cavity and voila! You have a comfy little seat that children can use to set up a little reading corner or several comfy seats for outdoor learning and circle time. The added bonus to using tyres and floor seating cushions is that packing away is quick and easy and the little ones can help as the tyres are small and light!

6. Build a Bug Hotel

Large tyre with layers of natural materials, bamboo and pine cones are visible

Bug or minibeast hotels are a great way to spark children’s interest in being outdoors and exploring wildlife and nature however they can be costly! Creating your own minibeast hotel from upcycled and recycled materials is a low cost and sustainable solution that simultaneously teaches children more about animal habitats as they get hands on.

There is no right or wrong way to create your hotel – minibeast love dark small spaces so fill your tyres with straw, pieces of bark and leaves, paper, pine cones and anything else your little ones can find!

7. Make a Tyre Sandpit

Large tractor tyre filled in the centre with sand and various sand play accessories

Using larger tyres you can easily create a dedicated sandpit for your garden. Simply line your tyre with tarpaulin or woven material and fill it with sand! Add buckets, spades and other sand play accessories for hours of digging and construction play.

A car tyre makes the perfect individual sandpit or why not upcycle an old tractor tyre and create a giant sandpit for the children in your setting. The novelty will be much appreciated by the little ones!

8. Create a Small World Play Zone

large tyre filled with wood chips and sand and featuring small world dinosaur toys

Tyres can provide the perfect basis for all of your small world activities and can be used individually or combined to create a larger base for multiple children to play. Why not add soil into the cavity of the tyre, add small world farm animals and plant some carrots to create a farm set-up?

Or fill your tyres with sand, add some water and create a miniature construction scene complete with diggers and workmen – easy to assemble and quick to pack away, what will your little ones create?

9. Use as Role Play Accessories

children sat on wooden planks using small tyres as a steering wheel and other planks arranged around to create a car structure

Using tyres and combining them with other outdoor loose parts can offer children a wealth of role play opportunities – why not try adding crates, planks or even a simple cardboard box. Will it be a car, a train, a bus, a fire engine or even a motorbike and sidecar! Children can create their perfect vehicle using their imaginations and develop their gross motor skills as they assemble the parts.

10. Target Practice

child throwing a beanbag into a tyre from a distance

Encourage gross motor development, muscle development and hand-eye coordination skills by encouraging children to throw bean bags, pebbles or balls into the cavity of the tyres. For an extra challenge why not incorporate a maths element and ask children to throw 3 into one tyre and 5 into another to practice counting. Improve physical development further by adding obstacles or moving the tyres further away or stacking them up to increase the difficulty.

11. Large Scale Tyre Mark Making

a child rolling a tyre covered in paint along a strip of white material

Why not lay out some sheets of paper, newspaper or even a tuff tray paper pad in a tuff tray, dip your upcycled tyres in washable paint and get rolling with your little ones. Our small tyres will provide a smooth surface to paint patterns on and the larger tyres will automatically print patterns due to their tread. Get mark making and see how much your little ones will love this giant and crazy painting activity.

12. Build some Outdoor Storage

tyres on the ground holding an array of materials including guttering, milk bottles and bamboo pieces

Outdoor storage can often be costly and doesn’t provide versatility for the different sized spaces and settings. Using loose parts like tyres means that storage can be built accordingly, moved around wherever necessary and stacked away when no longer needed. They also have the added benefit of being weatherproof and sturdy. Why not stack your tyres and create a home for your bats and rackets, or keep them low to the ground to house your smaller loose parts like balls and toys. Or finally why not stack two columns and add planks between the tyres to create makeshift shelves?

13. Try a Tyre Swing

Tyre swing hanging from a tree

Build your little ones the ultimate outdoor swing by drilling holes in a large tyre and adding rope or chain and supporting it to a tree or beam. For more in-depth instructions about making your child-safe swing then visit eHow.

Your children will love the novelty of playing on such an unusual piece of playground equipment and can even play on it with their friends as the tyre can provide enough space for 2 children.

14. Create Dedicated Play Zones

Child sat on a plank with metal pots and pans in front of him, some propped up on small tyres - creating a drum kit set up

Tyres can be used to effectively section off areas of your outdoor space to create dedicated zones for learning or play. They could also be used to supplement learning zones, for example when added into a corner of your outdoor space with cushions and some books you have your very own reading corner! Alternatively, you could use the tyres to supplement your zone! For example, why not add pots and pans into the tyres and create a drum kit for a music zone!

15. Hopscotch

large tyres arranged in hopscotch formation

Elevate the classic outdoor game of hopscotch by adding tyres! Children will need to focus more on their their hand-eye coordination to ensure their feet land correctly in the gaps. Additionally, your little ones will need to exert more energy into their jumps thus building up their stamina, fitness and gross motor skills.

Safety Tips for Tyre Play

Always check tyres for sharp edges, wires or damage before use (we recommend wearing a pair of safety gloves for this inspection)
Avoid tyres that have been exposed to harmful chemicals or residues
Give your tyres a quick wash with a hose to remove any dirt or grime
Anchor or secure stacked tyres to prevent them tipping and falling.
Always place swings and climbing tyres on safe, soft surfaces.
Supervise children during active play
Try and avoid tyre play on very hot days. The black rubber surfaces can become very hot to the touch – try painting your tyres to limit this issue

If you enjoyed these tyre play ideas, you might also like:

We would love to see the creative ways in which you use your tyres. Tag us in your pictures and use the hashtag #explorewithEYR

Finally, dont forget to check out our outdoor loose parts collection and discover how to take outdoor learning and play to a whole new level!