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I am a firm believer in the Reggio Emila tenet that the environment is the third teacher.

I try to set up my classroom environment so that the kidlets can be as independent as possible, and that the environment invites them to explore, discover, create and learn.

I am a huge fan of learning through loose parts.

What if the children were invited to play, explore with loose parts -- inside picture frames ...

What would they be inspired to create ...

Some thrift shop frames

and collections of loose materials, and I was set.

It was fascinating to observe how the different children approached the activity.

Some children created patterns or balanced designs.

This one has a story: the artist told me that she was thinking about watching meteor showers with her mom when she was making her design.

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And others enjoyed filling up the spaces.

Clean up time involved some good sorting activity. The kids changed how they sorted the materials from the way that I originally did it. Great to see their thought processes and hear their sorting rules.

I have put the frames and all the bits and pieces away. It's time for a new invitation to explore. But I think this one will have a return engagement later in the year. It will be interesting to see what the kidlets create then...

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invitation to learn: loose parts in a frame

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I am a firm believer in the Reggio Emila tenet that the environment is the third teacher. I try to set up my classroom environment so that the kidlets can be as independent as possible, and that the environment invites them to explore, discover, create and learn.

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PDF

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Space Design

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Infant Toddler Spaces Design For A Quality Classroom

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Natural Environment

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The Physical Environment A Powerful Regulator of Experience (2)

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Pre-K

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Effective List

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Pre-K Booklet

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Early Learning Environment

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Creative Curriculum

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Creative Curriculum Preschool Equipment List

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Pre-K

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Play Space PDF

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Key Principles

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Using Principles of Nature-Based Preschools to Transform Your Classroom _ NAEYC

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Interest Areas

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How to create

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Designing Activities

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Exploring color

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Bev Bos

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Hang on! Just one thing left to do ...

1. Go to your email in box.

2. Add [email protected] as a contact in your email program ... because you don't want your freebie to land in the spam folder.

3. Find an email from me, Sheryl....check your spam folder and promotions tab, too.

4. Click the download button to get the printable .. and keep an eye out for your welcome email next!

5. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can see my activities in action!

Warmly,

Sheryl

Looking for toddler and preschool lesson plans?

I've got you covered! I, along with a group of talented teachers and homeschoolers, have put together an entire year's worth of plans you can do in your classroom or at home.
Click Here for Toddler Lesson Plans Click Here for Preschool Lesson Plans

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Hang on! Just one thing left to do ... Go to your email in box. Add sheryl@teaching2and3yearolds.com as a contact in your email program ... because you don't want your freebie to land in the spam folder. Find an email from me, Sheryl....check your spam folder and promotions tab, too.

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Link to page

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The light table can be a fun addition to the preschool classroom. You can use it to build skills and develop concepts in many different ways. Maybe you have a light table and wonder what to do with it. Maybe you are looking to expand learning at your light table. Whether you are a light table newbie or a pro, you can find something here to jumpstart learning with light table activities.

Using a Light Table in Preschool

There are so many ways to incorporate a light table in your classroom. Light table activities are a wonderful engaging tool to use in the classroom that you can use time and time again.

Make Your Own Light Table (Pre-K Pages) - The light table is a popular center in many preschool classrooms. The gentle glow of the light shines upwards and creates opportunities for playing and learning with color and light.

Tools and Toys for the Light Table (Pre-K Pages) - The light table has quickly become one of the most popular "must-have" centers in today's preschool classrooms. But what do kids do with a light table?

Light Table Must-Haves (No Time for Flash Cards) - Check out these must haves for your light table and get a preview of how it works!

From Light Table to Light Pegboard (And Next Comes L) - If you remember Light Bright as a child then you will adore this activity!

Everyday Light Table Play (Teach Preschool) - If you want to use your light table more, then this post is perfect for inspiration!

DIY Mini Light Box (Teach Preschool) - If a lightbox isn't in your budget, check out this fun mini DIY version!

Ideas for the Light Table (Teaching 2s and 3s) - This might really be the Ultimate collection of light table ideas!

Light Table and Loose Parts (Where Imagination Grows) - Have your students enjoy some free play with this light table activity.

Light Table Activities

No matter the theme, or holiday in your classroom you can use a light table. These light table activities for your pre-k classroom are so versatile and a wonderful way to work on reading, literacy, and math.

Feathers on the Light Table (Pre-K Pages) - Feathers are a multi-sensory natural material for preschoolers to explore. There are so many ways for children to learn and play with feathers! When presenting them on a light table, children can observe the feathers lit from below to further marvel at their structure. This is a great activity for Thanksgiving, spring, or any time of year.

Hearts on the Light Table (Pre-K Pages) - This Valentine's Day light table activity is super easy! And your kids will have a blast making and learning the letters of the alphabet with a seasonal twist!

Light Table Letter Hunt (Pre-K Pages) - Preschoolers love learning the alphabet through sensory exploration! This snowy letter hunt is fantastic on or off the light table. Kids will find the texture irresistible as they explore literacy in this hands on way with this light table letters activity.

Colored Water and Eyedroppers (Pre-K Pages) - This invitation to explore color mixing on the light table is perfect as the seasons are changing. The colors of autumn leaves are mesmerizing both in nature and in this light table activity!

Sorting Colored Disks (Pre-K Pages) - Color sorting is an important skill for preschoolers to practice. Color identification and math skills are explored simultaneously. Any activity that can be presented on the light table makes learning irresistible and mesmerizing! A bit of prep provides a preschool sorting center that can be visited by children over and over again.

Letter Tracing Game (Where Imagination Grows) - This is one of our favorite fall alphabet games! Tracing letters on the light table with loose parts! It's so easy and can be adapted to fit many different preschool themes by just changing the loose parts.

Water Beads and Shaving Cream (Parenting Chaos) - This simple activity of Water Beads and Shaving Cream on the Light Table is by far one of my kids' favorites.

Spring Counting Activity (Where Imagination Grows) - You can find the instructions with this post to make this easy light table spring counting game for toddlers and preschoolers. It's a really simple learning activity that you can throw together quickly and it's a great quiet time activity too.

Ice Trays and Glass Stones (And Next Comes L) - Learn how to use ice cube trays with your light table!

No Mess Painting (Happily Ever Mom) - Painting and the light table can be tricky and messy! But this activity will show you how your toddler can paint, without making a mess and use the light table to do so!

Making Designs and Letters with Floral Marbles (Brick by Brick) - Practice letters and making designs with glass beads and your light table.

Sand Art (Still Playing School) - This sand art light able activity is a wonderful sensory and fine motor skills activity.

DIY Numbers for the Light Table (Still Playing School) - Learn how to make your own transparent numbers for the light table! Your preschooler will enjoy playing with these colorful numbers as they work on math concepts.

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20+ Fun (+Easy!) Light Table Activities To Use In Your Pre-K Classroom

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The light table can be a fun addition to the preschool classroom. You can use it to build skills and develop concepts in many different ways. Maybe you have a light table and wonder what to do with it. Maybe you are looking to expand learning at your light table.

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Light Table Activities

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Uses and Precautions

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Activity Ideas

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Sensory play is play that engages or stimulates the senses - touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Sensory play supports cognitive development in early childhood with physical, language, creativity, emotional, social, and mathematical development.

A sensory bin is a container that holds different materials for children to explore sensory play. Sensory bins don't need to have a theme, but themes can be a great way to continue exploring a subject or introduce a new concept. According to a report from the Official Journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics, children should be allowed to have unstructured time to play and educators are also being encouraged to recognize playful learning as an important complement to didactic learning.

Have multiple children at different ages? Younger children can explore touch and sound in an open-ended way, while older children can explore sorting, counting, number and letter recognition, creating a story with the materials, and work on fine motor skills. Playing alongside one another is a great opportunity for cooperative play and can help children learn social skills as they practice how to be patient, take turns, and share.

No! Sensory play can happen anywhere! For example, babies are experiencing sensory play when they are introduced to their first foods. Washing hands, washing dishes, and bathtime can be sensory play. Helping in the garden, playing at the beach, and building forts in the snow can be sensory play. The opportunities are endless!

We hear you, but we think it's so worth it!

Want to contain the messy play? Place an old sheet on the ground under the tray. When play is finished, you can wash the sheet and keep your floor clean! Depending on the weather, the outdoors are a great place for sensory play, especially for those learning how to pour water or other liquids. A picnic blanket, towel, or tarp also work great for containing sensory bin materials. The bathtub is another great place to have sensory bin play!

Is your child in the pick it up and dump it out phase? Consider using a larger bin that is more difficult for them to pick up by themselves (maybe a large tote or tub? maybe a container within a container?), and provide lots of different sizes and shapes of scoops and bowls within the container for filling and dumping exploration. A small plastic kiddie pool is another great idea to contain messy play!

It's okay to have rules to set clear boundaries regarding sensory bin play. Rules might be that the contents must stay inside the bin, no throwing, and the materials always get put away when play is finished. Children are great helpers, and learning to use a broom and dustpan is great for fine motor skill development.

There are mess-free options for sensory play as well. Sensory bottles are a great alternative. Simply add rice and small objects to a clear bottle and observe the sound the rice makes as you manipulate the bottle. Sensory bags are a great sensory play idea for babies as an introduction to color mixing and different textures. Simply add different colored liquid materials (try shaving cream + paint, or oil, water, + food coloring!) to a ziploc bag and tape to the floor (pro-tip: tape the bag closed, all the edges of the bag, AND tape it to the floor). This is great for tummy time!

Keep in mind the age of your child for choosing which objects to place in your bin. If your child is in the stage of life where they explore the world by tasting or mouthing objects, make sure to stick to taste-safe recipes, supervise play (or even better, play alongside!), and monitor the size and shape of objects to prevent choking hazards. As a friendly reminder, always make sure to check the ingredients of sensory bin materials to make sure they are non-toxic and safe for play.

Many recipes for sensory play contain food coloring. If this is a concern, consider using natural dyes as an alternative coloring agent. Beet powder, turmeric powder, freeze dried strawberries, various teas, spinach, cinnamon, cocoa powder, hibiscus, and purple cabbage are all vibrant edible options to add some color to sensory play recipes. There are also conventional natural food coloring sets available on the market.

Sensory bins present an opportunity for independent play. New to independent play? Sometimes the best way to encourage the growth of independent child-led open-ended play is to just be present and observe. After observing, you might be surprised and learn something new about your child! Some children may crave more direction to get started - and that is okay, too! Maybe you can try modeling play by scooping and pouring alongside them. If you notice that your child doesn't want to get messy, that is okay, too! If they are experiencing a tactile aversion to something, don't be afraid to take it slow and don't force them to touch anything they don't want to. You know your child best! At GRCM, we love to ask open-ended questions to let the child take the lead in play. Here are some ideas to get you started!

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Sensory play is play that engages or stimulates the senses - touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Sensory play supports cognitive development in early childhood with physical, language, creativity, emotional, social, and mathematical development. A sensory bin is a container that holds different materials for children to explore sensory play.

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What to put into the bins?

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Tools to Use

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Thinking outside the box!

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What is it?

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Connecting the dots

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Ever thought of creating story baskets to support children's schemas?

How can your setting take children on a journey with their schemas? As children display schemas in their play, it is important to identify these and find other ways of supporting them. Schemas have been around for many years, however these are becoming more recognised due to practitioners developing the skills and knowledge in understanding and identify what they are.

The patterns of behaviour children display are examples of behaviour that they go through when exploring the world around them. Practitioners working in the early years sector should look at ways to support these schemas as these shouldn't be forgotten. When children are displaying these types of behaviour they are learning the necessary skills and knowledge that will help them later on in life.

Types of schemas;

By being an observer and watching children's play, you will easily notice the pattern of children's behaviours. There are different types of schemas eg enclosing, rotation, enveloping, transporting, trajectory, connection and there are a few others for you to research. Do your research and find out more about each schema, having the understanding will enable you to think of other activities to offer the children.

Introducing story baskets to support children's schemas;

Finding stories to support children's schemas is a great resource to add to your EYFS learning environment. Why not arrange the books in a wicker basket, allowing children to freely access the stories. These story baskets can be used during circle time or can be placed in your book corner for adults to share with children one on one.

Ten books to support schemas;

1. Whatever next - enclosure and containing

2. Mr grumpy's outing - transporting

3. Tip Tip Dig Dig - transporting

4. The Very Busy Spider - rotation

5. Peppa post - enveloping

6. Pumpkin soup -transporting

7. Room on the broom - trajectory

8. Hungry caterpillar - transporting

9. A perfect day for it - trajectory

10. 1, 2, 3 to the zoo - connection

For more suggestions click here

Adding these storybooks to your environment gives children the opportunity to extend their patterns of behaviour and explore the world around them whilst learning new skills.

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Ten EYFS storybooks to support children's schemas

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How can your setting take children on a journey with their schemas? As children display schemas in their play, it is important to identify these and find other ways of supporting them. Schemas have been around for many years, however these are becoming more recognised due to practitioners developing the skills and knowledge in understanding and identify what they are.

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Schemas and definitions

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Proximal Play

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Guide to it all!

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Examples of each part

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Development PDF

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Balls and things

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Outside Tubes and Balls Loose Parts Invitation (1)

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Teaching Investigation

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Loose Parts Investigation Performance Rating Scale

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Materials and Ideas

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Ages and Stages

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A Guide

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The space Opal School children refer to as a Small World is more than space for them to find and tell stories. Small worlds offer children the possibility to take on new perspectives, challenge their assumptions, and invent new ways to be together.

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Setting the Table: Small World - Opal School

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The space Opal School children refer to as a Small World is more than space for them to find and tell stories. Small worlds offer...

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Ideas with Trays

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Over 70 Tuff Spot Tray ideas - all in one place!

Small World Play

Small world themes created within the Active World Tuff Spot Tray are ideal for sparking imagination and play. Add a themed mat to the base to give you a great start to creating your own small world. Mats help spark the children's imagination; with a few extra props, children love recreating stories they have heard before or making up their own. Simply transferring your farm to your Tuff Spot Tray and adding a few natural materials like logs, sticks and stones from the outdoors will help make your small world play truly magical. Below is a beautiful fairy and elf small world village in a tuff spot. With felt fairies, Mushrooms, wooden accessories, blue shimmer materials for water and hessian. Metallic fairy houses, plastic ivy and flowers and glass pebbles.

Get really creative and create scenes from a Magical Fairy and Elf Wonderland - by the wonderfully talented Clare Wilson as featured on her Tuff Spot and Sensory Play Facebook page.

Dinosaur Parks

This wonderful jurassic park themed dinosaur land, also by Clare Wilson, has artificial grass, plastic plants, a lovely handmade walkway and volcano, water beads, split peas and lentils to make a real sensory tray. You can add your own dinosaurs too.

This simple tray just includes mud and stones - the children can then add their dinosaurs and get stuck in! Add water to make a real messy land! Why not build mountains and valleys with the mud?

Food

The easiest way to start is to look through your cupboards at home or in your setting and find what needs using up! Cereal and pasta (cooked or uncooked) can be a fantastic play resource for babies (as long as it is well supervised). Mixing different types of cereal and pasta allows babies to explore a range of textures with their hands. Cooked spaghetti can be used to hide objects for children to find. You could also add food colouring to the water while cooking your spaghetti to change the colour. Be careful to avoid pulses as these can be toxic if consumed when they are uncooked.

Reflective Play

Children are fascinated by mirrors and their reflections. Try a plastic mirror insert in the bottom of your tray - could it be a magical lake? There are many resources available to complement your reflective scene - you could try Mirror Pebbles, Metallic Boulder Blocks and Jewels.

Children love to use other reflective resources such as pans, spoons and foil blankets and materials - they instantly grab their attention. The mirror inserts make a lovely base for collections - experiment and explore with shiny and wooden spoons and wooden accessories. Add marvellous metallic construction blocks and pebbles to create a real reflective world.

Ball Play

A simple and popular use for the tray in settings is to fill the tray with play balls. Children as young as 8 months love to sit in the Tuff Spot Tray amongst all the colourful balls. The balls will often end up all over the room but toddlers can help fill the tray again and often enjoy hiding objects for each other to find.

Schematic Play

Active World Tuff Spot Trays can be filled with resources that will support and enhance a child's schematic interests. Fill the tray with items that are aligned to the rotation schema such as rolling pins, balls, vehicles, items with lids and spinning tops. Add building bricks and construction sets to allow children to create structures, containing them in the tray, without being knocked over or damaged. If your child is interested in transporting, enveloping and containing, make collections of interesting and varied items for them to explore and place in the Tuff Spot Tray. Why not try a chalkboard mat in your tray? This open ended and versatile mat encourage children to create their own scene. Simply roll up when finished and the design can stay intact for its next use.

Use to create small world environment or use for mark making activities

Sensory play

Try adding different sensory materials such as crazy soap, soap flakes and cornflour mixtures. Children can mix, swirl and make marks including letter and number formations.

Children love exploring jelly. They can explore it from inside the tray or outside depending on their confidence level with sensory materials. Hiding toys in the jelly helps to keep children's attention - include objects to support the different themes you may be covering on different days. Always ensure children are well supervised at all times. Try adding different textured materials for sensory play and bury items underneath for children to hide.

Try mark making in glitter too! Add snowflakes and white confetti for a wintry feel.

Cut up white packaging to create a white tray liner and then cut tiny scraps as confetti. Instant Snow is also fab for tuff trays!

Sand and Water

The trays are perfect for holding Sand and water. Take them outside and use on the ground or on height adjustable stands for some messy and sensory play, using bubbles and boats in the water, and buried treasure and metal detectors in the sand to incorporate ICT into the play!

Fill the tuff spot tray with sand and add Squidgy Sparkle Letters or Number or shapes to the sand - which letters can the children find - can they identify each one - can they find enough letters to make a word?

Create a turtle tuff spot with our talking turtles. Fill a tuff spot tray or similar with a water and bubble solution and place a laminated copy of the song inside. Immerse the turtles in the soapy water and sing the rhyme together.

The Turtle Song

I know a little turtle
His name is Tiny Tim
I put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim
He drank up all the water
He ate up all the soap
Now he's got bubbles
Deep down in his throat
Bwwww bwww!

Painting

Active World Tuff Spot Tray are great for keeping paint in one area. Filling the tray with a selection of different colours and allowing children to use this for foot painting is a fantastic activity, simply make sure you hold their hands so they do not slip. Alternatively using their hands children can make their own marks in the paint and then print their drawings using paper to take home or display. You could incorporate some big art tools to pattern and mark make.

Discovery

Fill the tray with a variety of items linked to a theme such as Sea creatures or mini beasts and encourage the children to explore and identify what they can see. It is also a lovely idea to fill the tray with items found on the beach, in the woods or in the back garden. Provide magnifying glasses so that the children can look at the patterns and details. These discoveries can help draw out new vocabulary or observations which the children will love to share.

Fine Motor Skills

Use the tray for focused activities such as developing fine motor skills. Place cup cake tins in the tray for threading items to be placed into. Select a range of threading resources such as chunky beads, pasta, giant buttons. Provide colourful shoes laces, ribbons and string for the children to choose from.

Fill the tray with items like pom poms and tweezers for picking out and sorting exercises, or scissors and a selection of leaves for cutting.

Circle time

Active World Tuff Spot Trays work well as an area for children to focus. Create themed locations within the tray and place it in the middle of your small group with items to tell a story and enable the children to select which item will come up next in your story, or fill it with items of interest for the group to discuss.

Pirates and treasure!

Engage the boys (and girls!) in your setting with a pirate-themed tuff tray incorporating our beautiful potion bottles to make pirate potions and grog! Digging for treasure in sand enables children to count and sort their findings. Try the TTS Metal detectors to search under sand. Use Encourage them to get creative by designing their own treasure maps. Combine this with dressing up and the children will have a fantastic pirate-themed play session!

ICT in the Tuff Spot

Why not use the tuff spot tray as a track for Bee-Bots, Blue-Bots, or Clever Cats - it will help to contain them whilst the children programme them.

Planting seeds

Contain everything that you need for a small group of children in one tray as a group activity. Children can handle all items such as compost and seeds and even create small tags - writing the label themselves.

Inspire and engage with each of our 22 mats. Place them in your tray and stand and watch imaginations soar. Children can add all the small world accessories they like. Watch them make towns, jungles, fairy tale landscapes, dinosaur worlds, space scenes and pirate and watery worlds. A fantastic resource.

Top Tip: Make your own Tuff Tray mats by cutting patterned fabric or PVC table cloths (from Dunelm or The Range in the UK) to fit the shape. You can get a grass effect, flowers, under the sea, fruit and many more depending on the store.

Use a range of Tuff Spot stand from height adjustable stands to more robust wooden stands with either storage underneath or seating so that children can sit down around the Tuff Spot Tray.

Do you use Active World Tuff Spot Trays in your setting? We would love to hear about some of your children's favourite activity ideas or maybe you have a suggestion on additional resources we could offer.

With thanks to Adele Crozier, a nursery manager and blogger from Playful Learners; childminder Gini Hancock, from Giraffy's Daycare, Charlotte Parry and Clare Wilson, for their imaginative contributions to this article.
Shop our range of Active World Tuff Spot resources here Shop our range of small world play toys and resources here
For more Inspiration please visit our Active World Tuff Spot Tray Pinterest Board.

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Over 150 ideas for using your Active World Tuff Spot Tray

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Used in settings for over a decade, Active World Tuff Spot Trays offer a flexible contained space for open-ended play. The large size (1m in diameter) and 8 sides encourage group play - there's room for up to 6 children to play comfortably together.

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Dramatic Play Ideas

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Uses for Clay

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Better Kid Care Link

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Clay sculpture

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Ages by example

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Placement practices

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In order for children to create art, they need an inspiring space. The art center should look like an artist's studio, filled with children's art as well as that of well-known artists. The art center should allow children to feel creative as they explore materials to express themselves. The art center also allows children to make their own discoveries, either independently or together, and to feel confident in the choices they make.

Setting Up an Art Center in Your Classroom or Family Child Care Home

The location of your art center will depend on the space available in your classroom or home. The following are several different possibilities:

Near a window: The natural light through the window is pleasant, and children will be able to look outside for inspiration.

Near a sink: Placing the art center near a sink allows for easy clean-up.

On a floor that is easily cleaned: Art supplies will inevitably end up on the floor, so a tile floor that can be kept clean or wiped easily is key.

Outdoors: Most materials used inside can be easily taken outside to continue art activities, and clean-up is often much easier outdoors.

What an Art Center Should Look Like

Neat and organized: Children should be able to easily locate the materials. Also, if the center is organized, the expectation is that the children will help keep it that way. This way, there is already a limit in place so they know that part of their responsibility is to clean up after themselves.

Well stocked with a variety of materials: Children can easily become bored with using the same materials over and over again. To maintain their interest, the art center should be stocked with many types of materials, varied by size, color, texture, etc.

Limitless: With a well-stocked art center and encouragement to be creative, children should have minimal boundaries. Although rules are necessary, children should feel that they can create the art they want with the materials provided.

Easy-to-clean furniture: To maintain the life of the furniture, you should plan on having smooth tabletops that are easily wiped clean. If you are unable to use an easy-to-clean table, an alternative is to use a plastic tablecloth that can be wiped clean.

Appropriate seating: Both children and adults should feel comfortable in the space. Children also should have the option of standing, so art easels and large painting surfaces should be provided as well. It also is important that adults interact and join in on the creativity, so adult-sized furniture should be available.

Art easels: Art is a great way for children to develop their motor skills. While at the table, they are primarily working on fine motor movements, but art easels provide a large area where they can move their arms up and down, working on their gross motor skills. Art easels are also great because they allow children to have a change of scenery so they are not always doing art at the table. Also, art easels can easily be moved outdoors so art can take place in different areas of the classroom.

Storage: Some space should be available to children all of the time, while other materials should be kept out of reach.

Choosing Materials for the Art Center

The art center should have many different options for children to choose from. Some examples include:

paper (manila, construction, newsprint, computer, wallpaper books, magazines, catalogs, used greeting cards, etc.)

molding materials (modeling compound such as Play-Doh, clay, rolling pins, plastic knives, cookie cutters, shaving cream, etc.)

paints (tempera, watercolors, finger paints, etc.)

crayons, markers, pencils, chalk, and erasers

colored tape

children's scissors (left- and right-handed), hole punch

paste, glue, tape

paint brushes, sponges

rubber stamps and ink pads

collage materials (scraps of fabric, yarn, ribbon, feathers, glitter, buttons, macaroni, any small "beautiful junk" items)

seasonal leaves, nuts, cones

recycled materials (yogurt cups, fabric, yarn, tissue paper, foil, bottles)

miscellaneous items for creativity

​ ​ Keep in mind that most of these suggestions would be appropriate for a group of preschool-age or school-age children. An art area in a toddler classroom will look very different, because toddlers' fine motor and cognitive skills are still developing. Be especially cautious about offering materials that are choking hazards to very young children, who may still be likely to place objects in their mouths. Supervise children of all ages when they are using art materials.

For More Information

To read more about learning centers and about art in child care, take a look at the following eXtension Alliance for Better Child Care articles:

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Planning a Successful Art Center in Child Care

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In order for children to create art, they need an inspiring space. The art center should look like an artist's studio, filled with children's art as well as that of well-known artists. The art center should allow children to feel creative as they explore materials to express themselves.

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Block Play

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Block Play

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Lesson Plan

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PDF

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Mathematical Perspective

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Block Play

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The what, why, and how

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Lesson Plan Sample

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Lesson Plan Sample

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Project

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Activity

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Investigating Patterns

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Investigating Shapes

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Exploring with paper.

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Tree Exploration

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“There’s a Hole in the Tree!” Kindergartners Learning in an Urban Park _ NAEYC

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The Plan

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The Plan Building on Children's Interests

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Sounds Exploration

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Multiple Lenses

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Capturing Nature’s Beauty through Multiple Lenses _ NAEYC