It is no secret that here at Edspire HQ

We love small world play and outdoor play

This spring and summer we have found the perfect way to combine the two

We are going on a bug hunt

I have started preparing Esther and William for our upcoming adventures

With some small world play

I took a large gardening tray

An in it I created a minibeast habitat

Using a mixture of craft materials and natural finds from the garden

I made a world perfect for insects and bugs

Esther and William were very excited to discover this tiny world

And even more excited to start discovering the tinies inside it

What teeny tinies can you spy in our mini minibeast land?

Using foil and felt, moss and bark

Enabled me to create a habitat with light and dark places

I was able to create holes for creatures to hide in

Raised platforms for leaping and jumping

Beans and pebbles were used to create the impression of forest floor

We spent a long time looking among the leaf litter

Searching the stones for minibeasts

To help us search we used a range of accessories and tools

That we will be putting to use over the next few months

To explore our garden and local area

We will be heading off to the woods too

To search for a certain purple prickled friend!

Our tools include binoculars, tweezers and collecting containers from Tiny Discoverers

Gruffalo magnifying glass from Beebies Baby Store

Gruffalo creature cabin from Beebies and the creature catcher

I have to say that while I love these things for small world play

I am not a huge fan of capturing creatures from the garden to examine them

I would rather watch them in their environment

But in this case the cabin and catcher and containers were perfect

For examining our plastic creatures

Esther and William were able to identify the minibeasts

We talked about the number of legs they have

We picked them out of their place with the tweezers

Examined them closely with the magnifying glasses

We talked about their colour and their features

Their size

We talked about how we could make them seem bigger

With both the binoculars and magnifying glass

We had a wonderful time

This was an initial exploratory activity

One that we are going to build on throughout the summer

I want to introduce simple classification of creatures

I want to think more about habitats and matching animals to their homes

I want to do minibeast themed music and art

We have lots and lots of ideas

Esther and William adore their binoculars and take them with us everywhere we go

They were great for spotting things on and around the lake on holiday

They have been great fun to take to harbours and on family walks

The tweezers are also proving practical and fun

We have used them lots for small world play

For manipulating small objects

And for improving our fine motor skills

Esther and William love The Gruffalo accessories from Beebies Babystore

We do not own these yet so think we will add them to Esther and William’s ever growing birthday wishlist

Our minibeast small world play has been set up for well over a month now

We have used it inside and outside

On our own and with friends

It has helped us to begin to develop and learn vocabulary

Related to minibeasts and classification

I am looking forward to the next part of our explorations

And I hope that you will join us for some insect and spider fun

We are going to start our very own Minibeast Mondays

We hope that you will come along too

We know that our garden is full of bees and ladybirds, woodlice and ants

So we have lots of exploring and learning to do

And that is just in our own backyard

Before we venture to the woods and the fields beyond

We are loving being Tiny Discoverers

And we love the added Gruffalo fun from Beebies

What are your favourite minibeast things to do?

We were sent two Tiny Discoverer Woodland Adventure packs to review over the summer