Kids love to do what they do best – play! Play engages, excites and entertains children for hours.

Don’t underestimate the power of play! Play gives children the opportunity to explore and discover new experiences and make sense of the world around them. Young children are continuously learning through play and developing new skills – whether they are zooming cars down a ramp, digging for dinosaur fossils in sand or building the tallest tower!

As a childcare provider, it is important to cover a range of different types of play resources in your setting in order to enhance the children’s development and learning in all areas – but this can be very tricky if you’re a childminder who is limited to space! Therefore, we spoke to a number of dedicated childminders about what play resources and equipment they consider to be essential in any sized childminding setting.

As a result, we created the ultimate list of essential play resources – chosen by childminders for childminders! So make sure you’re not missing any of the following childminding play essentials in your childcare setting.

Play Essentials Checklist for Childminders

Physical Activity:

• Physical Development Equipment – Ride Ons, Climbing Frame

Creative Play:

• Music – Instruments, Dance Ribbons
• Expressive Arts – Paints, Crafts, Drawing
• Modelling – Dough, Clay

Imaginative Play:

• Role Play – Doll Play, Play Kitchen, Shopping, Doctors
• Dressing Up – Costumes, Accessories
• Small World Play – Vehicles, Figures, Fairytale, Farmlife

Messy Play:

• Water Play – Water Table, Water Accessories, Water Channel, Bubbles
• Sand Play – Sand Table, Sand Accessories
• Mud – Mud Kitchen, Accessories

Construction:

• Building – Blocks, Straws

Natural Play:

• Loose Parts – Natural Resources
• Gardening – Potting, Planter, Accessories

Now that you’ve got all the essentials for play covered in your setting, it’s time to let the children’s imaginations unravel!

If you want to enhance the play resources and equipment in your setting further, head to our dedicated Childminders Selection section on our website to explore the complete range.

Let us know what items you think are essential for a childminders setting on our Facebook and Twitter!

This article was created in conjunction with the EYR Childminder Panel. Special thanks to Chloe Webster and Bridgit Brown from Pebbles Childcare and Sarah Neville from Knutsford Childminding.