Creative Play for Little Hands

I have been searching for ideas for open-ended toys for the children at Kindy. We have a lot of equipment that needs replacing in the next 3 years and I want to make good - lasting choices about the kinds of things that we can choose to give the children.

My criteria are the following;

- must be durable and long lasting - 45 children a day, 52 weeks a year

- preferably open-ended or multi-purpose

- cover a range of developmental areas

- no small parts - most toys in the center are used by children from 6 months to 6 years

- easy to clean and meeting Australian standards where required

- low environmental impact where possible

- cost-effective or low cost

Gee! I don't ask for much do I!

This is what I have come up with so far:

• Playsilks
• Discovery Bags - will have to alter the pattern as the plastic beads would be a choking hazard
• Bilibo - I love this idea, but I think it is financially too expensive for the centre (we would ideally need 6-8 of these)
• Home-made Dollhouse furniture that we could make ourselves with the children
• Tyre Garden Bed (see below) we already have tyres for free from a local tyre store. We just need to organise soil and plants!
• 

Do you have any other ideas of things that we could make or provide for the children?