Skip to main content
Sense of Place for Wee Ones

The Sense of Place for Wee Ones collection conceived by Dr. Sandra Duncan is the first modular furniture system that nurtures a child’s inherent need to move, play, and belong. Built upon extensive research and theory, this beautiful collection provides infants and toddlers with an environment that supports their innate play patterns and encourages physical and cognitive development.

Hover over or tap on the items in the following images to see more information about each piece in the collection.

Download Brochure
Stove & Cupboard Kitchen
Stove & Cupboard Kitchen
$599.95

The innovative 360° play design and the incorporation of intentional holes, ramps, mirrors and levels, transforms traditional storage into exciting play opportunities and encourages young children to actively engage with the furniture from all sides.

Weeones Sitting Area

Infants, toddlers, and two-year-olds have a natural drive to move and explore. Designed to purposefully encourage their innate play patterns and repetitive behaviors, the Sense of Place for Wee Ones Collection invites children to enthusiastically connect with the world around them and gain deeper understandings by amplifying the axioms of sensorimotor play.

Two children playing around the Angled Storage unit
Carrying & Placing

Children have an ingrained need to transport items. This collection inspires them to transport balls, ribbon, and other materials to explore how the items interact with each piece of furniture.

Hiding & Revealing

Children are compelled to put stuff in holes! This collection features many intentional holes and hiding places for them to investigate and to watch as items disappear and reappear again.

Child rolling balls into a hole in the top of the Activity Island unit
Making & Unmaking

Children are intuitive improvisers and creatives. Watch children interact with the Sense of Place for Wee Ones Collection as they invent and devise unique ways to use each piece.

Turning & Stopping

Designed to include knobs, ramps, and varying levels, this collection engages children’s natural inclination to spin, roll, turn, and inspect different levels on apparatus.

Child turning knobs on the Stove and Cupboard unit
Child playing at Activity Island

Sense of Place for Wee Ones celebrates the spirit of place by rejoicing in the wonder of childhood and the importance of being little. The key features of this collection emerged from innate characteristics that infants and toddlers exhibit. These characteristics are intricately woven throughout the design.

Weeones Giraffe
Movement Connoisseur Icon
Movement Connoisseur

Wee ones have an inherent need to move. Through its intentional design, this collection promotes the repetitive movements that children need to engage in to learn, grow and develop.

Boy jumping in excitement
Sensory Seeker Icon
Sensory Seeker

Wee ones use all of their senses while establishing understanding of their environments. Details in this collection like ramps, holes, mirrors, and levels enrich play and encourage sensorial experiences.

Girl rolling ball down top of Angled Stoarge unit and into a hole
Pathfinder Icon
Pathfinder

Wee ones will exuberantly navigate their environments in unique and unusual ways. Coves, tunnels and pieces designed to be interacted with from all sides, provide visual and physical pathways throughout the classroom.

Girl rolling ball down top of Angled Stoarge unit and into a hole Girl rolling ball down top of Angled Stoarge unit and into a hole
Girl crawling through Honeycomb Tunnel
Enthusiastic Improvisor Icon
Enthusiastic Improvisor

Wee ones interpret their environment in unexpected ways. The furniture in this collection can easily be rearranged and reorganized, creating modular systems that meet their changing needs.

Animation of a furniture arrangement example
Children playing around Sink and Fridge unit and Stove and Cupboard unit
Download the Collection Brochure
Download the Configurations Guide

»Experts, from Piaget and Montessori to Neil deGrasse Tyson agree, babies are born scientists. They observe interactions and test their hypotheses just like scientists do. Toddlers are also born engineers. During play, they experiment with cause-and-effect to solve problems and test their physical skills. The brilliance of the Wee Ones collection is that it responds to this natural curiosity with built-in invitations to investigate ideas. From strategically placed ramps and holes to openings just perfect for crawling inside, this furniture blurs the line between functional shelves and interactive big body play. Because these activities appeal to their play schema for orientation, enclosure, transporting, connecting, and rotation, very young children will busy themselves with spontaneous scientific engineering work, giving caregivers an opportunity to follow Magda Gerber's advice: 'Do less, observe more, enjoy most.'“

Shop the Collection

Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Exploration Storage
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Exploration Storage
Item 37400
$405.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Angled Storage
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Angled Storage
Item 37401
$405.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Activity Island
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Activity Island
Item 37402
$405.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Hide-Away Cove
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Hide-Away Cove
Item 37403
$699.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Sink and Refrigerator Kitchen
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Sink and Refrigerator Kitchen
Item 37404
$599.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Stove and Cupboard
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Stove and Cupboard
Item 37405
$599.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Honeycomb Tunnel
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - Honeycomb Tunnel
Item 37493
$499.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - 24" Corner
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - 24" Corner
Item 37492
$225.95
Image of Sense of Place for Wee Ones - 18" Corner
Sense of Place for Wee Ones - 18" Corner
Item 37471
$174.95
Image of Through a Child's Eyes: How Classroom Design Inspires Learning and Wonder
Through a Child's Eyes: How Classroom Design Inspires Learning and Wonder
Item 92826
$34.95
Image of Inspiring Spaces for Young Children
Inspiring Spaces for Young Children
Item 18893
$34.95
Image of Rethinking the Classroom Landscape
Rethinking the Classroom Landscape
Item 81334
$34.95

About Sandra Duncan

Dr. Sandra Duncan

With over 45 years of experience and a doctorate in education, Dr. Sandra Duncan has a wide and varied background in early care and education. She has extensive experience in working with young children and parents, teaching at the university level, designing professional development programs for practitioners, and authoring several teacher resource books. Now, Dr. Duncan is bringing her years of theory and best practices to the early childhood classroom in the form of the Sense of Place furniture collection - an exclusive to the Kaplan portfolio of furniture offerings. With its modern aesthetics, many authentic and true-to-real-life details, and considerations for what the youngest of children need to thrive best in their first learning environments, the Sense of Place collection provides ECE educators a beautiful backdrop to creating the most meaningful and lasting of learning experiences for years to come.