Confused by EYFS activities from nursery? See simple home play ideas for all 7 areas of learning from the Mooshie Moments app, and start playing today.
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EYFS activities sound like something that belongs in a nursery classroom, but most of them are already happening on your kitchen floor. If a key worker has mentioned “the seven areas” or you’ve spotted EYFS on a nursery newsletter, this is for you. The Early Years Foundation Stage is simply the framework English nurseries and reception classes use to describe how under-5s learn, and nearly all of it is just play with a label on it.
Below, each of the seven areas is explained in plain English with two activities from the Mooshie Moments app. Every activity uses things you already have, takes 10 to 20 minutes, and comes with the words to say while you play. Written for parents, but useful for childminders and nursery practitioners too.
EYFS is the curriculum used in England for children from birth to age 5. It splits learning into three “prime” areas that everything else builds on, and four “specific” areas that grow out of them.
Listening, understanding and talking.
Moving, balancing and using hands and fingers.
Feelings, relationships and self-confidence.
Enjoying stories, mark-making and early reading.
Numbers, counting, shape and pattern.
People, places, nature and how things work.
Art, music, imagination and making things.
Nurseries plan for all seven every week, often on a tuff tray. You don’t need to plan anything: a normal day at home usually touches most of them without you trying, and the ideas below show why.
This is about your child hearing rich language, having conversations and finding their own words, whether or not they’re talking yet.
Sit facing your baby and sing pat-a-cake, gently clapping their hands together as you go. Add the hand motions and repeat several times. Babies watch your face intently during singing, which is rich early language input.
You’ll need: just your hands
Make simple story dice by drawing a person, an animal, an object, a place, an action and a silly word on the six faces of a folded paper cube. Roll together and build a story out of whatever lands.
You’ll need: a small box or folded paper, markers, scissors
Gross motor (whole body) and fine motor (hands and fingers) both live here, so a good climbing frame session and a bit of dough rolling count equally.
Clear a safe space and stand nearby. Every time your toddler takes a step, jump and cheer as if they’ve won an Olympic medal. Give every attempt the same big reaction and help them up if they fall.
You’ll need: open space
Show your child hopping on one foot while counting to three, then hand over. Most 3 year olds wobble, and most 4 year olds manage two or three hops.
You’ll need: open space, carpet or grass
PSED covers self-confidence, managing feelings and getting along with others: arguably the area home life practises the most, all day, without anyone calling it learning.
At bedtime, sing through the people who love your child, one line at a time, to any gentle tune: “Papa loves Noah, Mummy loves Noah, Nana loves Noah.” Finish by turning the song onto who they are: “Noah is loved, Noah is brave.” End on a whisper and a kiss.
You’ll need: nothing, just a sleepy child
Sit teddy up with an empty bowl and let your toddler feed him, wipe his mouth and give him a cuddle. Feeding someone else is often a toddler’s very first piece of pretend play.
You’ll need: a soft toy, a bowl and spoon
Real literacy at this age is mostly about a love of stories and getting hands ready for writing, long before any actual letters appear.
The same story dice used for communication and language double as a literacy activity: building a narrative with a beginning, middle and end is early reading comprehension. Ask “what happens next?” to stretch the story further.
You’ll need: the story dice from earlier, or paper cubes
Roll dough flat together with a rolling pin, then press a cutter down firmly and lift it straight up to check the shape underneath. Repeat with a new cutter. The pinch, press and pull here builds the hand strength that holding a pencil will need later.
You’ll need: playdough, a rolling pin, cutters
Maths in the early years is spatial reasoning, counting and noticing patterns, not sums on paper. For more ideas along these lines, see our maths activities at home page.
Draw a winding map of your house with landmarks (sofa as tree, cupboard as treasure chest) and walk the route together, checking the map at each stop, until they find hidden treasure at the end. Matching a symbol on paper to a real object in the room is genuine spatial reasoning.
You’ll need: paper and markers, a small toy or snack, stickers
Lay a straight line of tape about three metres long on the floor and let your toddler walk along it, one foot in front of the other. Counting their steps out loud and noticing when they wobble off and step back on builds an early sense of sequence and position, both maths skills in disguise.
You’ll need: masking tape
This covers people, communities, nature and the wider world: anything your child notices outside their own body.
Poke a tiny hole in the base of an empty canister, cover the open end tightly with wax paper and tape, then point the hole at a bright window. A small, upside-down image appears on the paper, a real camera obscura made from your recycling. Ask “why do you think it flipped upside down?”
You’ll need: an oatmeal canister, a pin, wax paper, tape
Sit your baby on a blanket outside and brush a blade of grass across their palm, watching their face as the texture registers. Simple as it sounds, this kind of outdoor texture exposure is early nature learning and helps babies feel comfortable at parks and beaches later.
You’ll need: a blanket, a patch of grass
Art, music, dance and imaginative play sit here, so the least “educational-looking” play often belongs in this box.
Add a few drops of food colouring to water in a spray bottle, show them a test spray on paper laid on a tray, then hand it over: “you try, squeeze the trigger.” The trigger squeeze builds hand strength, and the splatter pattern is entirely theirs.
You’ll need: a spray bottle, water, food colouring, paper
Lay a masking tape road across the floor with a shoebox garage at one end, then hand over the cars and stop directing. What starts as a road quickly turns into an invented story of crashes, parking and traffic jams, all led by your child.
You’ll need: masking tape, toy cars, a shoebox
tape road town (Expressive Arts) plus jump and cheer (Physical).
everybody loves you at bedtime (PSED) plus grass texture (Understanding the World).
pat-a-cake (Communication) plus dough rolling (Literacy).
treasure map (Maths) plus flamingo hop (Physical).
pinhole camera (Understanding the World) plus story dice (Communication and Literacy).
You don’t have to plan it this precisely. A week of ordinary play, some outdoors, some with dough, some at bedtime, usually covers most of the seven areas on its own.
Plus one picked for your child every day, matched to their age and how today is going.
“I used to spend 30 minutes looking for an activity on Pinterest, get overwhelmed, and just turn on the TV. Mooshie takes 5 seconds.”
“Finally, an app that tells me to put my phone away. The activities are actually doable with stuff I have in my junk drawer.”
“As a pediatric OT, I love that these activities build core developmental skills without feeling like ‘homework’ for parents.”
Mooshie Moments has 5,918 activities for children aged 6 months to 4 years, all using things already at home, and picks one for your child’s age and stage each day. Its weekly plan tracks five activities across six areas (maths, science, language, movement, hands and feelings), which map loosely onto EYFS without being an identical copy of it.
The app is built for you, the adult in the room. Check the idea in 30 seconds, put the phone away and play. Your child’s details never leave your phone.
No. Nurseries and reception classes plan against EYFS to track progress across a class. At home, you’re simply playing, and ordinary play naturally covers several areas at once.
Communication and Language, Physical Development and PSED are the three prime areas. Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design are the four specific areas built on them.
Yes. Each activity is labelled with an age range from 6 months to 4 years, and most can be simplified or stretched further as needed.
Very little needs to change. If an area is flagged, lean slightly more towards activities that support it, but ordinary daily play already contributes to all seven.
Yes. Several of these are simple, resource-light ideas used in settings, and translate well into “home learning” suggestions for families.
Mooshie is a play app, not medical advice. If you’re worried about your child’s development, speak to your health visitor or GP.
Your first moment is ready as soon as you tell us their age.
