Book excerpt: Small World Play is a practical and informative book for practitioners and home-based professionals to use in their daily work with young children at all ability levels. It is designed to show how small world play contributes to the EYFS curriculum and to other important areas of children's lives. Explaining exactly what small world play is and why it is so important to all areas of children's development, it describes the different types of small world play, with toys, models, puzzles, construction kits and recycled materials, how to introduce children to small world play and how to encourage children to apply thinking skills more confidently. The themes included in the book cover: people and situations; animals and other living creatures; vehicles and machines; buildings, models and constructions; and recycled and found materials. Chapters are packed with ideas for resources, scenarios and narratives, to enable practitioners and children to share constructive and absorbing play, making this book a valuable guide to developing essential life skills, along with creativity and imagination.