pre-nursery playgroup looking for activity suggestions

[bertabuddy]

I probably could have worded that subject line better, but here's the situation:

We are a group of women creating a safe and welcoming space for refugees and people seeking asylum. Our goal is to encourage access to, and active engagement in cultural creativity (we make art and creative activities accessible to the women in our group). We're a women-only group, and children are welcome in the sessions. We've recently had more preschool children brought to the group (it runs during school hours), so we've expanded our support to cater to this.

My role is to entertain the children enough so their mums can engage in the adult session without distraction. Due to the age, and possible trauma, that the children come in with they tend to be very clingy to mums and really need encouragement to come and play. This is all fine and the mums are happy with the support we provide, however, I'm struggling with finding activities to suit ages 0 - 3. The internet is filled with activities to do with children in this age group, but it's all focused on one-to-one time to help the child engage. We have 4 adults and about 10 children, all under 3, so these activities are often unrealistic.

We have a toy kitchen and play items, a soft 'baby' area, building blocks, and cars/trains, but the kids are bored of it being the same toys every week. Would love to hear any suggestions of how to mix it up and keep it exciting but also accessible to pre-nursery ages?

I appreciate any advice you guys can give, thanks in advance!

At my toddler group we have messy play activities each week....home made playdo, filling and scooping....oats, rice, cereals...check allergies. Cornflour gloop, drawing and painting ...cars, dinosaurs etc through paint or gloop ....sand ....you can use a pop up pool to contain the mess with a plastic table cloth inside for easy cleaning.

i think also musical instruments and a story or rhyme time is good at keeping kids entertained for 10-15min

If you really need to keep them away from disturbing mums then maybe a separate room? Otherwise I think it’s natural for kids to look for their moms.

I'm not sure it's realistic for the mums not to be distracted at all. Little kids will always want their mothers' attention and even more so if they're traumatised I'd imagine.

Having said that, the one thing would keep my daughter occupied and distracted for the longest time is baby dolls (with clothes, bottles, baths, toy buggies etc etc etc).

How about a big roll of craft paper laid on the floor and a box of bingo dabbers they can help themselves to? Always seems to go down well with my DD.

pasta necklace/jewellery making for finer motor skills - threading penne on to a string, then they can paint it? Painting using different materials (like bubble wrap, cotton buds, tissue paper) for mark making.

cress egg-heads?

12 mos plus are usually a bit in love with “bits” aren’t they? Tlrandom stuff they can sort and collect, like milk bottle tops or curtain hooks. That’s what our nursery often ask for.

Children are curious about the funniest things 😂 if you have old mobile phones or remote controls too they will play with those.

you can also hide shapes (small toys like their farm animals or dinosaurs in eggs made from ice or bath bomb mix and then get them to “hatch” them - then it’s a good discovery for them as you name each animal they’ve found?

Thank you all for your suggestions! They're great :) I'll take them back to the group.

Just for reassurance that we're not forcing these children away from mums - we're not an official playgroup, so can't take them into a separate room for safeguarding reasons. We're also not expecting them to just abandon mums to play, it's more about looking for activities that will hold their interest for more than a couple of minutes at a time, and activities that don't need support from mum.

Love the suggestions, I really appreciate you all taking the time to reply. Thank you!

Random thoughts of what I remember from different groups

Felt board things (fuzzy felt?)
Reading area
Drawing paper either plain or printed black and white pictures to colour, dot to dot, crayons
Simple board games
Dolls house, simple ones with plain block furniture
Blocks/stickle bricks
Car mat and cars
Play dough, craft

Some may have been mentioned but I just put all my thoughts here

Thank you!

Novelty is great, but also simple things can be best! So having different things is great to cycle around and keep it interesting but you don't need to spend lots, a few donated or junk items can go a long way.

Kids love cardboard boxes. Get a few large cardboard boxes kids can fit into, boom - it's a car, a den, a spaceship. They can decorate them with pens or stick on scraps of paper, foil, straws, paper plates for wheels.

Old pots and pans and plastic cups and plates, wooden spoons etc - a basic cooking area.

If you have some old sheets or blankets and some string and clothes pegs, that's most of the way to having some good den making.

I have a box of random boxes, heating one, screw lids, see through tops they love them. Coloured circle stickers and printouts of dot art pictures that they can practice fine motor skills with. Wax candle drawing and water colour pain for picture reveals. Loads of preschool activities on Google

Treasure baskets for babies can work well and for the older children you could have baskets of train sets/stickle bricks/ dolls/ picture books for them to choose from

I agree that rotating things every week can keep it more interesting for the children.

I know it's not necessarily what you're asking for, but with 10 children under 3, you need at least 2 adults to support them to engage.