Institute of Imagination Meath Gardens · 5 August 2026
Power of Play

Meath Gardens

Best Start Family Hub, 1 Smart Street, E2 0SN. Tower Hamlets run the session; we build a cardboard sensory wall indoors and leave it with them.

9:15
on site
10:00–12:00
session
drop-in, no entry after 11:30
30
children
under 11, each with a sibling under 5
3
of us
Liber · Muireann · Jean
20–22°
weather, 9 to 12
dry gusts 26 mph
On the day
FacilitatorsLiber · Muireann · Jean
VenueBest Start Family Hub, 1 Smart Street, London E2 0SN · 020 7364 0349
ContactNicola
What to bringDBS certificate · iOi t-shirt
PhotosParents are present, so permission can be asked for. No-photo stickers for children whose parents decline.

The day

  1. 9:15 Arrive, the hub opensUnload from the Smart Street service road. Gusts to 26 mph: keep a hand on the big cardboard.
  2. 9:15 – 10:00 Put up the structureFind the socket first; the build sits around it. Collect their saved cardboard from the shed.
  3. 10:00 – 12:00 RunningDrop-in. Their own Sensory Play session runs alongside from 11:00.
  4. 12:00 Pack downEverything comes back except the wall.

The activity: Sensory Wall

We put up the structure before they arrive: tunnel entry, hiding nooks, a trail. Children add to it. Same wall for every age, and no second activity for the youngest.

The structure

Openings cut into standing cardboard. Ours to build, before they arrive.

Joining with thread

Poke a hole with a punch, a minitool, a pencil or a needle, then sew. Glue sticks too. Scissors and saws stay with us.

Like a crazy loom

Thread across every opening. If it looks sparse, add more.

The mini activities

Offer a child one, not all eight. An example of each is on the board built into the wall.

Light Touch Fine motor Sound Space to be in

Nooks

Tunnel entry, child size · little houses, knee high · mail boxes, hand size

Windows

Open · with flaps · with curtains

Holes

Light through them · coloured cellophane · textured plastic · pipe cleaners · thread

Kaleidoscope

Cardboard · mylar inside · loose parts in a transparent plastic bag over the end

Looms

Laced across an opening · every colour · every fibre

Textures

Fabric · mylar · bubble wrap · foam · crepe · tissue

Moving parts

Ball run · abacus · throw the ball · wheels · flaps · faces

Safety

HazardWho it reachesWhat we do
Blades and cut cardboard edges Whoever holds a tool Scissors, cardboard saws, the Makedo minitool and the roto-rings are ours, not the children's. Hand one over only if the parent says so. Children join with plastic needles, thread and glue sticks.
Small parts, swallowed Under-5s, and every child here has a sibling under 5 Beads, buttons, cotton balls, elastic bands, table tennis balls and foam shapes live on the materials table, which is for children of 4 and over, with an adult at it. Never loose on the floor, never inside the tunnel.
Conductive dough, eaten Under-5s at the sound activity It conducts because it is heavily salted, and it looks like something to eat. An adult stays at it whenever it is out.
Wire ends on pipe cleaners Everyone They go out as they come, not folded and not trimmed. Tell the parent the ends are wire and let them decide.
Thread and curtains near the tunnel Children crawling through Short, taut, or above head height. Nothing hanging long enough to loop.
Mains lead to the Makey Makey Everyone, including under-5s at floor level Board, leads and computer behind the wall. Extension taped down along its length, not across a doorway or the tunnel entry.
The structure coming down Children inside it We build it and stand it up before the doors open.
Ask the parent, not the child, about the tools and the materials table.

In the first aid kit

plasterssterile gauze dressingssaline wipesmicropore tapedisposable glovesblunt tweezers
Tower Hamlets' safeguarding and consent process govern. Anything to report goes to their staff, in the room throughout.

Packing list

Open the packing list

72 things in ten groups. Tick them off; it remembers.

At the end

  1. The wall stays, and only the wall.
  2. Show someone how to add to it: the needle, the thread, where the holes go. Thirty seconds.
  3. Dates for the September training while Nicola is in front of you.
  4. Write the notes before you get home. What worked, what ran out, how many tables there were.

Feedback

Who are you?

This document

Wrong, missing, or in the way on the day.

The event

What happened, what worked, what ran out.

Download saves meath-gardens-feedback-date-yourname.md. Email it to Liber.

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