ABSTRACT
Transport Tots is a weekly playgroup held in a central gallery in the Streetlife Museum in Hull. It started its life experimentally to explore ways to engage families with under 5s in Hull museums. In April 2016, Transport Tots, advertised through the Hull Early Years Service and Social Media, was delivered for the first time. The researcher attended a series of four weekly sessions, both observing Transport Tots sessions, collecting field notes and photos taken by the children themselves, talking to parents and children and participating in the families’ walks around the museum space after the sessions. A number of regularly attending children at Transport Tots just wanted to play with the same toys each week. For some it was cars, the train set, the construction and emergency services role play, while for others it was quite simply very familiar items like the jigsaws.
