Skip to content

Play and Exploration

Where curiosity, creativity and learning come to life.

Play is how children explore, imagine and make sense of their world. Through play, children follow their curiosity, test ideas and build understanding in meaningful ways

Play and exploration are at the heart of children's learning and development. When children are given time, space and opportunity to play, they think creatively, solve problems and express themselves freely.

Open-ended experiences allow children to explore ideas, make choices and build a deeper understanding of the world around them.

Play & Exploration

Read the overviews below

Click on an area icon to learn more

Open-ended play and loose parts

Supporting children's creativity, imagination and exploration through materials with endless possibilities.

Explore how open-ended materials, loose parts and child-led play encourage creativity, invention, problem-finding, experimentation and new ways of thinking.

Imaginative and creative play

Supporting children to express ideas, tell stories and make sense of their world through imagination and play.

Explore how pretend play, storytelling, small worlds and symbolic play help children develop creativity, understanding, communication and meaning-making.

Following children's interests

Supporting children's learning and engagement by recognising, valuing and building on the things that matter to them.

Explore how children's interests can become powerful pathways for exploration, discovery, learning and deeper understanding.

Ideas, possibilities and solutions

Supporting children to think creatively, adapt ideas and find ways forward when faced with challenges and opportunities.

Explore how play helps children develop persistence, flexibility, confidence and the ability to try different approaches as they bring ideas to life.

Exploring, experimenting and discovering

Supporting children's natural curiosity through opportunities to investigate, test ideas and make discoveries.

Explore how exploration, experimentation and investigation help children develop theories, understand how things work and discover more about the world around them.

Extending play

Supporting children to deepen, revisit and expand their play experiences over time.

Explore how adults, environments and experiences can sustain engagement, extend ideas and help play grow in meaningful and exciting ways.

Play is children's way of exploring, learning, creating and making sense of their world.