What can you do with cups, sticks, or yarns? You can build, create, and come up with a new game!
There is no right or wrong way to play. I came up with different ideas to how I can play with the materials! You can try some of my ideas, or try your own and share with us!
Mess with It!
My child is ready for…
- Doing simple activities, like matching and sorting.
- Working with one or two materials at a time.
- Practicing basic skills, like stacking, cutting, and scribbling.
These activities help children develop basic skills to be ready for more complex activities!
Explore It!
My child is ready for…
- Trying different materials and ways to create with them.
- Making things, without the goal of what exactly to make.
- Pushing the skills to the next step to more intentionally use tools and techniques, such as tracing or cutting in specific ways.
These activities are open-ended and not intended to make a particular object (like animals or vegetables). They instead focus on developing skills and ways to use tools as the next step up from Mess with It! activities.
Imagine It!
My child is ready for…
- Using their imagination, pretending, and being creative.
- Following prompts that ask them to come up with their own answers, instead of simply following steps that are shown to them.
- Working with multiple art materials and tools.
These activities give children the challenge of making a specific item (such as animals or vegetables), while giving them the challenges of thinking creatively and deciding what they want to make and how they want to make it.
Try It!
My child is ready for…
- Coming up with ideas to solve problems.
- Testing their ideas, which might not work the first time, and trying again.
- Being interest in building, experimenting, and engaging in STEM activities.
These activities often involve multi-steps and allow children to test their ideas with a clear goal to make things work. These activities may come with the idea of “failing” but encourage children to try different ideas.