It’s amazing how a few low cost resources and a little imagination can go a long way. Every year we have hundreds of conversations with practitioners and other educational experts on how they engage children, follow their fascinations and make learning fun. With a little help from Frank and Ollie (both three), we thought we’d share some of these ideas with you.

We had a few resources with us – some materials, a couple of skipping ropes, giant pegs, some role play rocks and a den frame. We used a den frame, but you could use anything from a clothes horse to a table and chairs.

It was really important to us that the boys did this themselves – Jamie (TTS’s resident den expert) showed Frank how to join the den together and then they were off on their own. Frank and his dinosaur decided that a real explorer’s den needs some rocks around it, working out how to stack them so they didn’t fall over.

Now to decorate the den! Ollie picked out some material while Frank pegged it up. Ollie had some very firm ideas about what he wanted where – sparkly inside the den, camouflaged on the outside. Perfect for spotting dinosaurs.

Ollie decided there needed to be a place to play with our dinosaurs around our Dino Hide – using the rocks he and Frank had stacked earlier, he found a piece of bright red material (or you could use tissue paper), making a volcano!

Next time… we’ll invite some dinosaurs for lunch as Ollie and Frank feed a stegosaurus!