The article presents the results of own research, which were aimed at verifying whether and to what extent children initiate a free and spontaneous research and discovery activity in contact with everyday objects and waste materials. Research problems were formulated regarding heuristic strategies manifested in the course of children's play with everyday objects, cognitive activities in heuristic play and typologies of creative attitudes revealed in this kind of play. The observation method was used in the studies. The obtained empirical data allowed for the identification and determination of cognitive activities and types of creative attitudes manifesting in the heuristic play taken by children. The conclusions from the research indicate that fun creates the possibility of not only researching or discovering new properties, functions, features or essence of objects, but also enables shaping various creative skills of children, which manifests itself in specific types of creative attitudes. The typologies chosen and the proposed solutions can be fair in the process of learning and diagnosing the child's development as well as his work in pre-school education.