Builders tray - Ideas This is a useful planning prompt to help set up the learning environment targeted towards meeting the age band in Being imaginative.

Makes up rhythms. Dress the builders tray will fabric and place a variety of different musical instruments. Have picture cards with the musical instrument and its corresponding name. Also include sound words e.g. bang, crash, pop in the builders tray. Allow the children to explore the different musical instruments and their sounds months Makes up rhythms. Set up the builders tray to support a familiar nursery rhyme- include the book, puppets, word and picture cards and instruments. Encourage the children to sing along and play the instruments to the rhyme months

Build stories around toys. Set up the builders tray as a farmyard. Include real hay, soil and grass for the different areas of the farm. Add in small world animals, word cards and any story books/information books linking into farms. Allow the children to explore with the different characters months Build stories around toys. Set up the builders tray as a town/school/house. Line the tray with large paper and draw roads, houses etc. Leave out pens so that the children can add to the scenery. Now add small world people, pops, word and picture cards and any books linking into the topic. Allow the children to explore with the different characters months

Build stories around toys. Line the builders tray with large paper and draw some roads and traffic lights. Leave the pens out so children can add to the scenery. Place cars and small world people onto the builders tray and allow the children to explore with the different characters months Build stories around toys. Set up the builders tray as a habitat (e.g. rainforest, dessert, underwater) try to use as many real objects as you can e.g. sand, leaves, shells and twigs. Include small world animals, word and picture cards, photos and any books which may link into the theme. Allow the children to explore with the different characters months

Captures experiences and responses with a range of media. Sprinkle corn flour onto the builders tray and leave a cup or coloured water. Allow the children to mix the water and flour independently to create the sticky mixture. Can they experiment with mark making using their fingers or different mark making resources (straws, spatula, spoons and forks) months Captures experiences and responses with a range of media. Have a variety of coloured bowls with different coloured shapes cut out of paper e.g. circle, squares, triangles and rectangles and some glue. Have an example of different shape pictures e.g. house, face or animals. Allow the children to explore with the different shaped paper to see if they can create their own picture months