Felt Life Cycle Tray Playmat (Earth)

Step into the rhythms of nature with the Felt Life Cycle Tray Playmat (Earth), a soft wool-felt circular mat designed to help children explore the stages of life in a tactile and inviting way. This earth-toned playmat features four distinct zones connected by arrows, guiding little learners through the journey of growth and change-whether they are placing felt models of creatures, plants, bugs or other life-cycle items. It's perfect for tray play alongside loose parts, nature-table provocations or small-world centres that encourage hands-on discovery and conversation about how things grow, change and reconnect. The felt mat offers a visual roadmap of sequence and transformation that makes abstract ideas more tangible and sparks discussion, exploration and imaginative play.

Educational benefits

• Encourages recognition of cyclical events in nature and the connection between different life stages.
• Supports vocabulary building as children describe each zone, discuss what comes next and articulate change over time.
• Enhances fine-motor coordination through placement of figures, movement along arrows and arranging of pieces on the mat.
• Promotes narrative thinking and experimentation as children create their own stories about what lives in each stage and how it moves through the cycle.

Classroom & play activity ideas

• Use the playmat with felt or small toy life-cycle figures such as seed → plant → flower → fruit, and ask learners to place them in order and explain each transition.
• Combine with natural loose parts (stones, sticks, leaves) on the tray and invite children to "walk"  a creature through the cycle, placing it in each zone as it moves through life.
• During a group discussion, place one zone at a time and ask learners to predict what will come next and why, then place the arrow connected piece and talk about the result.
• After using the mat, invite children to draw their own version of a life cycle on paper, label each stage, then compare their drawings with the playmat layout to reinforce learning and memory.

Product Details

• Diameter: 30 cm (L) x 30 cm (W) x 2 cm (H)
• Total weight: 190 g
• Age suitability: 3 years and above
• Safety information: Warning - choking hazard. Contains small parts; not suitable for children under 3 years.

Fun fact: Many life cycles in nature repeat in seasons-some insects complete their full cycle in only a few weeks, then begin again!