Barnyard Small World Play

The boys are getting more interested in small world play, and I'm excited to think of all of the possible scenarios we can set up. Although we've experimented with small world play a little before (including setting up a beach small world and a Lorax small world) it's not something we do often. For this small world set-up I had Little Brother in mind. He's such an animal lover, I knew he'd be interested in a farm scene.

We've also been eating a lot of clementines lately, in fact the boys just can't get enough of them, but that also means we have several clementine crates itching to be used for a project. Which inspired us to try using the boxes as containers for small world play.

The materials we used included: 
Clementine box
Shredded paper (we used paper Easter grass)
Tea box or other small box
Red and green construction paper
Egg carton
Toilet paper tubes
Small Farm Animals (we used the Safari Toob Animals for this small world play)
Toy tractor

Before setting it up, I made a few of the barnyard items from the materials mentioned above:
1) I wrapped a recycled cardboard tea box in red construction paper and cut out a door. (I also used red marker to add a few lines.)
2) I cut slits into the ends of the paper tube rolls so both slits are parallel on the same end. Using the green construction paper I cut out tree tops and slid them into the slits on the paper tubes.
3) I cut a few of the egg cartons off the larger carton so that they looked like small bowls/buckets.

I set up the box ahead of time and then set it out for Little Brother just as I was about to make dinner. He was instantly interested.

He moved the animals around in the barnyard, had several take turns on the tractor, and a few others go onto the roof of the barn. The animals also began to talk to one another. 

Little Brother even gave the animals some of his leftover afternoon snack! This set up only lasted a few days, mostly as it is almost entirely made of paper.

We'll definitely be exploring more small world play as the winter goes on. Using a clementine box proved to be a great container, just the right size for small world play. 

What other ways might we use a clementine box? Be sure to check us out over the next few months to see our ideas for using the crates! 

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