Small world play isn’t just about storytelling and imagination it’s also a rich foundation for early math learning. By combining small world play with hands-on materials, educators can create powerful opportunities for children to explore numeracy, measurement, sorting, and problem-solving in playful, meaningful ways. When math is embedded in play, children develop a natural curiosity about numbers and patterns, building the confidence and skills they need for lifelong mathematical thinking.
Small world play offers the perfect opportunity to embed early math into imaginative experiences. Whether it’s measuring the length of a pretend road, counting animal figurines in a jungle setup, or sorting treasures in a pirate scene, children are building math confidence while immersed in storytelling and exploration.
What is Small World Play?
Small world play is a form of imaginative play where children create miniature environments using figures, natural materials, and loose parts to act out stories, explore ideas, and connect with real-world concepts. These tiny worlds encourage open-ended exploration, allowing children to investigate big ideas in a manageable, child-led format.
When intentionally designed with numeracy in mind, small world play becomes an engaging way to integrate early math concepts—such as counting, addition and subtraction, patterning, sorting, and measurement—into a familiar, creative learning experience.
How Small World Play Builds Math Skills
Small world play naturally weaves math into playtime. Children:
- Count characters, vehicles, or treasures
- Compare sizes and lengths (big/small, short/tall)
- Measure roads, bridges, or distances with loose parts
- Group and classify by type, colour, or category
- Sequence story events or patterns
- Practise early addition or subtraction in role-play (e.g., buying 2 apples, giving 1 away)
Examples of Early Math Through Small World Play
Bring the magic of the outdoors inside with these simple but engaging nature-based small world setups:
Small World Counting Tray
This activity is a fun invitation to explore numeracy and different opportunities to represent numbers with different loose parts and natural items! Can you build, count and create? This is such a fun way to incorporate small world play and math invitations!
Did you know an environment rich in loose parts naturally encourages math skill development? Children love to explore and group items as they are interested and incorporating math into an open ended activity will naturally lead them to inquiry! Through loose parts in this tray children can explore counting, number recognition, sorting, patterning grouping, beginner math equations, and more!
In your tray pour in a sensory bin filler to act as the base of your small world site (oats, crushed cereal, sand, dirt, etc) and then add in your small world materials! Add in your ten frames, loose numbers and natural materials. Place some books to support and inspire their play like math themed books. Then invite children to begin exploring and playing!
Ways to extend the play:
-Create patterns
-Represent numbers smallest to largest
-How many ways can you make and represent a number?
-Read the book and point out the numbers as you see them!
-Represent different amounts of numbers and create an addition or subtraction sentence
Weight & Measurement Invitation
Bring STEM learning to life with this weight and measurement invitation! Children will love exploring the concepts of balance, weight, and comparison using themed loose parts! Little learners can experiment, observe, and make predictions about what’s heavier or lighter!
Why is this activity beneficial?
Early STEM Skills – Introduces the foundations of measurement and problem-solving in an engaging, hands-on way.
Nature Play – Encourages curiosity and appreciation for the natural world by using organic materials.
Math Learning – Strengthens number recognition and comparison skills as children explore weight differences.
Fine Motor Development – Using tweezers, scooping, and placing items in the scale builds hand-eye coordination and grip strength.
Extend the Learning:
-Have children record their predictions and outcomes—"Which is heavier?"
-Introduce non-standard units by asking, "How many of one item does it take to balance anoter?”
- Encourage observation skills by having children describe and sort items before weighing.
Measurement Invitations
Get ready to dig in and explore math in the most hands-on way! These easy Garden inspired measurement invitations brings early math to life through sensory play, outdoor learning, and nature-inspired fun.
Little learners can use rulers, measuring tape, and counting cubes to compare the lengths of their worms or beanstalks—learning about shortest, longest, and everything in between! Using fine motor tools like tweezers and magnifying glasses, children can carefully examine their worms and sort them by size.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Early Math Skills: Encourages hands-on exploration of measurement, comparison, and counting.
Nature Play: A fun way to bring natural elements into learning and spark curiosity about the world around us.
Fine Motor Development: Using tweezers and measuring tools helps strengthen little hands for writing and other skills.
Extend the Learning:
- Ask open-ended questions like “Can you find the longest?” or “How many cubes long is this one?”
- Introduce non-standard measurement by using linking cubes, blocks, or even fingers to measure.
- Incorporate storytelling by telling stories related to the play!
Spring is in the air, and our little feathered friends need some help finding food! This engaging sensory play invitation is perfect for young learners to explore nature-inspired play, early math, and fine motor skills in a hands-on way.
Children can use tweezers to pick up worms (pipe cleaners) and feed the birds in their nests, strengthening hand-eye coordination and finger muscles as they go. Each nest is numbered, inviting opportunities for early counting and number recognition as little ones match the correct amount of worms to each bird.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Early Math: Supports number recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence.
Nature Play:Encourages children to observe and care for wildlife.
Fine Motor Development: Using tweezers and small pieces strengthens pincer grasp and hand muscles.
Imaginative Play: Sparks storytelling and role-play as children take on the role of a bird feeder.
Extend the Learning:
- Count the worms in each nest and compare – which has the most? Which has the least?
- Introduce new vocabulary: "nest," "hatch," "feather," "migration," and "worm."
- Take the learning outdoors and observe real birds in your environment!
Let’s Count & Build a City
Can you use the math link cubes to build up the city? This activity is a fun and easy way to build a small world and practice counting!
In a tuff tray use chalk markers to draw a roadway to emulate a city! Draw squares and rectangles and add a number in the square. Place loose math link cubes in the tray and encourage children to count & build!
Ways to extend the play
-Instead of numbers do addition & subtraction number sentences -Create number patterns in the buildings
-Identify odd vs even towers
-Identify towers smallest to tallest!
-Count the bricks based on the colour of the tower
Nature Shapes Investigation
What do we find on our nature walks? This is such a fun way to bring nature explorations indoors!
In your tuff tray add items you may find on a nature walk like logs, sticks, leaves, rocks, bugs, plants and more! Add the let’s investigate nature stones for other items you may see. In your PlayTray add sand, and other nature finds as well as placing out magnifying glasses or shape viewers to aid their investigation!
Invite children to explore, have conversations with the children such as, different types of trees, bugs that you may find out on your walks, what the tree’s look like and how they are different and the same, (this could allow for scaffolding to do graphing etc! . Where do some of the animals live? Do animals live in the trucks of trees? Different types of rocks, comparing the rocks, sizes, colours weights, textures.
Add a book about nature and nature walks to help guide children’s observations about nature.
Count & Build the Neighbourhood Houses
Bring math learning to life with this hands-on small world play invitation that blends counting, construction, and imaginative storytelling! Using colourful Number Stax Stacking Foam Number Blocks, children can “build” houses for their neighbourhood by stacking the correct number of blocks to match each numeral.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Math Learning: Builds number recognition, counting skills, and an early understanding of quantity.
Construction Play: Encourages problem-solving, spatial awareness, and fine motor strength while stacking and balancing.
Small World Imagination: Invites children to create their own neighbourhoods, roads, and stories, fostering language and creativity.
Fine Motor Skills: Strengthens hand-eye coordination and control through precise stacking and block placement.
Extend the Learning:
- Ask, “Can you build a house with more blocks than your neighbour’s?” or “Which house is the tallest?”
- Add toy cars, people figures, and roads to create bustling neighbourhood scenes.
- Invite children to design “house signs” or “numbers” for each home using paper and markers.
This simple yet rich setup turns math practice into playful, purposeful learning that children will want to return to again and again!
Can you capture and count all the bugs in the garden and sort them in the mason jars?
Pour a layer of potting soil or dirt in your PlayTray and add natural materials (wood rounds, leaves, pinecones, stones, etc) to create a garden. Then hide your bug counters all through the tray for children to discover. Once you have created your bug small world garden place it in a tuff tray and add mason jar cut outs with the lids labelled with numbers, this will help to encourage counting!
Ways to extend the play:
-Count them based on type, colour, size, etc
-Create bug patterns
-How many bugs fit in the jar?
Can you drive the cars around the shape tracks to form the shape? This is such a fun and easy activity to work on shape recognition and formation
To create your shape tracks simply use chalk markers to draw your shapes and a smaller shape inside to form the track and add road marks! Then add your children's favourite cars & vehicles for them to drive around the tracks.
Get ready for a roaring good time with this Dinosaur Bones Dig invitation to play! Children will love becoming mini palaeontologists as they dig through soil, uncover bones, and match, measure, and sort their prehistoric finds.
Set up your tuff tray with a large bowl or sensory bin filled with potting soil and hidden bones. Add magnifying glasses, brushes, rulers, and dinosaur figures to spark curiosity and discovery. Invite children to excavate the bones, compare sizes, match them to templates, and imagine which dinosaur they came from!
Why is this activity beneficial?
STEM Learning: Encourages observation, classification, and measurement—key skills in early scientific inquiry.
Math in Play: Children practise size comparison, ordering, and early measuring with rulers and templates.
Fine Motor Development: Digging, brushing, and handling the bones strengthens little fingers and coordination.
Imaginative Play: Sparks storytelling and pretend play as children become explorers and scientists in the dino world.
Extend the Learning:
- Invite children to describe the bones they find—are they long, short, wide?
- Introduce comparative language: “Can you find the longest bone?” or “Which bone is wider?”
- Encourage sequencing: “Let’s put the bones in order from shortest to longest!”
Can you find all the worms and graph them by colour? This is a super fun spring themed math invitation.
In a sensory tray pour in a black sensory base or dirt and add your worms! To make the worms, cut pipe cleaners to a smaller size and bend them. Make sure they are all colours and length! Then add magnetic wands and invite them to dig for worms.
Ways to extend the play:
-Measure the worms based on length
-Compare worm lengths
-Count colour worms!
Discover and Colour Sort the Bugs
Can you capture all the bugs in the garden and sort them in the colour jars?
Pour a layer of potting soil or dirt in your playtray and add natural materials (wood rounds, leaves, pinecones, stones, etc) to create a garden. Then hide your bug counters all through the tray for children to discover! Once you have created your bug small world garden place it in a tuff tray and add mason jar cut outs with the lids labelled or coloured each colour of the rainbow this will help to encourage sorting.
Ways to extend the play:
-Count how many bugs of each colour
-Sort based on the type of bug
-How many bugs fit in the jar
-Create bug colour patterns
Supporting Math Talk During Play
As educators, we can enhance early math learning by modelling math language and asking open-ended questions:
- "How many animals are in your forest?"
- "Which pile has more? How do you know?"
- "Can you sort these rocks by size or shape?"
- "What happens if we add one more passenger to the bus?"
By integrating these questions into play, we help children reflect, reason, and communicate their mathematical thinking.
Tips for Educators: Making Math Visible in Small World Play
- Embed math vocabulary – Use words like more, less, equal, heavier, lighter, taller, shorter, pattern, sequence.
- Follow the child’s lead – Extend learning by adding number props or challenges based on children’s play.
- Rotate themes – Connect math to seasonal or curriculum topics such as “On the Farm,” “In the Garden,” or “Arctic Animals.”
- Integrate storybooks – Pair math-themed books with small world setups to link literacy and numeracy.
Small world play taps into children's natural curiosity and creativity—making it the ideal place to nurture early numeracy. By integrating counting, sorting, patterning, and measurement into imaginative play, educators can foster a love for math that feels natural, engaging, and deeply connected to children’s everyday experiences. These “math moments in miniature” prepare young learners with the skills, confidence, and curiosity to explore mathematics far beyond the early years.
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