Reading stories is an invaluable experience for young children, helping them to develop a wide range of important skills. As well as developing listening skills, children who have regular access to stories develop an awareness of story structure, character and setting. They also begin to understand the concept of letter sounds and words printed on the page and increase their vocabulary. Offering opportunities for active, involved, cross-curricular learning, story bags help bring stories to life and offer practical ideas that serve the differing interests and learning styles of young children.

Let Mary Medlicott help you with a key skill - telling stories without a book. Ideas and activities are carefully explored so you feel confident and enjoy the experience as much as the children will.

Storybuilding is a cooperative story making technique - with a group of children the practitioner builds an original story e.g. using a range of objects to prompt the people, places and storyline. It is an ideal activity to develop speaking, listening and understanding skills in a fun and imaginative way. It is all about formulating and communicating ideas and as a supportive group task strengthens personal social and emotional development (PSED). Having the confidence to lead what is essentially an improvised activity can be daunting for practitioners without a full understanding of the approach. The Little Book of Storybuilding aims to make this useful and exciting technique accessible to all practitioners working in early years settings by explaining clearly, in a step by step manner, what Storybuilding is and how to begin using it in a typical setting. The wide range of activities includes making stories through play, drama, music and art both inside and outside the classroom.

Help early learners develop their writing skills through these fun and stimulating activites. Remember writing is not just for indoors - expand your writing environment both inside and out! These activites are easy to source and cost-effective for every Early Years setting.

Children learn best by doing, making, singing and exploring. This Little Book is jam packed with activites of all kinds for exploring phonics, with a seperate collection for each letter of the alphabet.

This brand new Little Book focuses on using everyday objects that appeal to young children in the EYFS, with a clear emphasis on the use of non-standard measures as well as standard measures in meaningful contents. Explore opportunities such as estimating how many 'giant's strides' it is from the door to the climbing frame, or how many handprints tall each child is, as well as using trundle wheels, metre rules, sand timers, stop watches, balances and scales. The activities use simple to obtain and inexpensive materials, so are suitable for practitioners working on a tight budget (which many of them are)!

Children love to make dens. Adults encourage children to make dens because it supports imagination and many aspects of early learning. This new addition to the Little Books series contains 19 ideas for budget friendly themed dens. Included within each themed idea are suggestions for making and decorating your den, dressing-up and props, games and activities, links to the EYFS early learning goals and links to useful books, websites. There are over 80 titles in our 'Little Books' series - why not join our Little Book Club and discover the rest?

There are endless benefits to taking outdoor learning to a natural or woodland setting. The Little Book of Woodland Challenges can be used in collaboration with Forest School, or as a stand alone book of activities that can take place outdoors in woodland or forest settings. Each activity provides alternative ideas if your setting does not have a woodland space. This book provides a wide range of mathematical, scientific and creative based challenges suitable for all children, including those with SEN and EAL, and addresses all areas of learning in Development Matters and the EYFS.

This fully revised Little Book contains a variety of easy, fun activities which suit different ages, stages of development and levels of skill with scissors. For the youngest children, the act of snipping is endlessly fascinating, while older children want to explore the ability to shape and control. These activities are designed to take children from basic chopping to more complex and purposeful cutting and fashioning.

The journey towards writing begins with children making purposeful marks. Children love expressing themselves in this way, and this fully revised Little Book will help early years practitioners and teachers to encourage mark making with a range of media, using mark makers and other implements. By engaging in these activities, children will develop fine motor control, hand-eye co-ordination and the movements needed to manage the writing process. Here are hundreds of ideas for mark making, each one photographed in a real setting.