The Creative Campus The Place For Learning Activities for all ages!

Welcome to "Travel Week"!  Thanks for visiting us. Does your child or students have a place near or far, that they cant ask enough questions about?  How are you exploring this place together? What are some of the things you have enjoyed learning about this location?  what to get other fun ideas from creative people?  Join the conversation! Creative Campus Early Childhood Learning Activity Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Thecreativecampus/ Watch this space for the rest of the week for more fun ideas on Travel. Enjoy your day!  Your Creative Solutions Creator and Professional Mess Maker!  Theresa

Today   over in the Group we are talking about Gardens. There are many different ways you can use this theme to teach different areas. Today I Shared a Fun activity that can be used in a pretend play area or in the real life experience Science area. You can read about it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Thecreativecampus/ I would like to hear what your favorite activities are for This Theme?  Do you use it for real life experiences?  or Do you use it to engage Pretend Play?  Leave me a comment and Let's Get This Learning and Growing Conversation Started! Have a great day!  Your Creativity Producer and Professional Mess Maker! Theresa @ The Creative Campus!

Happy Friday Creative Friends, Today I want to share something with you that I think you will enjoy!  I get a lot of questions through my website http://thecreativecampus.weebly.com/create-and-grow-weekly-solutions.html  each week, on how to bring together Learning, Growth and Play! People say it seems impossible. I promise you it is NOT! I have created something for you that I will post every Friday! I can't wait to hear from all of you! Head over and take A look, I just posted some fun things on math Today! Don't forget, I will also be sharing a Small Part of my Soon to be launched " Invitations to Play with Loose Parts" Program. Each Week you will get a small piece of the whole year program that I will offer later this year! https://plus.google.com/collection/UdD7SB Have a Great Weekend, and Keep Your Questions Coming!  I love to Answer them and share the fun activities I have learned!  Your Creativity Producer and Professional Mess Maker!  ...

Hello Creative Friend! As you may know, I started using a Theme this year " Invitations To Play With Open Ended Loose Parts". As a part of this theme each day, I share questions and activities for learning Using play. You can find them by Joining my Fb Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Thecreativecampus/  . Today I want to share with you my favorite one from this week! T. G . I . F ! Today I want to share an Invitation with you that will wrap up all the activities we talked about this week. Earlier this week I encouraged you to create your own version of an animal book like Brown Bear! Today I want to encourage you to make your favorite animal. My Favorite way to do this is to use a Brown Paper Bag! you can stuff it if you wish depending on what animal your going to make! you can leave it empty and turn it into a puppet. Totally up to you ! Today's Questions For Engaging and Learning: 1) What can we use to make our animal? 2) What Animal Are we going to...

Happy New Year and Happy Monday! I wanted to talk to you today about, Loose Parts Play! This is something I recently discovered... and I LOVE IT! Instead of offering Teacher directed activities, I love the idea of offering pieces for play, as an invitation to explore and learn on their own. the creativity is endless and totally personalized. You can offer this kind of play for Any Topic or Subject. this play lends its self well to Art, Science and Even Make Believe Play. The Math ideas are endless as well. Leaves, Trees, Pumpkin,  Snowmen! are some of my favorite "Themes" to use with this concept. You can offer so many different materials depending on what your learning goal is. What are your favorite ways to use Small Parts Play? I am so excited about using this Learning Method with my friends. I am a big believer in hands on learning. I believe this is how children learn best. when children can engage with learning materials instead of my listening to a l...

Hello Everyone! As I Am Sure You Know. The Holiday Season Is Apon us! If you are looking for a Non Toy Gift or Stocking stuffer for the little ones on your list this year, I have a great Option For You! Join My Free Weekly Email Course " 5 Activities To Promote Learning and Development" (Each Week Will Be a Different Topic) http://thecreativecampus.weebly.com/ Print Each Week Out And Combine Them Together As A Gift. Providing Hours Of Hands On Fun! (If You Join Today You Will Get All 6 Weeks In Time To Give As A Gift).

Hello Again! I have a wonderful Science oriented color mixing activity for you.  line a container with tin foil, cover with shaving cream, drip food coloring or I Used Liquid water color (worked great) into shaving cream. You can use holiday oriented colors depending on when you use this activity. Provide the child with a stick or brush. ( I use popsicle sticks). Either let the kids make their own designs    OR encourage then to write their names  in the shaving cream which will spread and mix the colors. I encouraged my friends to make shapes as well. gently press white paper on top after your art is done, peel paper back. (if it sits too long the paper gets wet so be quick). Scrape off excess and Enjoy Your Art! I hope you have as much fun with this as we did! I would love to hear your comments! http://thecreativecampus.weebly.com/

Hi Everyone! today I would like to Talk about using story starters. I like to use these to engage students in learning about a new topic. Showing children pictures of people or objects and asking them either about what is in the picture or asking them to build a story about the object or the activity engages critical thinking Language Development tools.    Another fun activity I like to use with young children is picture displays. I like to take apart or reproduce pictures from my favorite repetitive speech stories and post them for the children at their level. I encourage them to say the words to the stories along with me. Some easy ones to use for this are Brown Bear Brown Bear or The Very Hungry Caterpillar. You can even engage the children in creating their own versions of these and picking their own pictures to add to them.    The possibilities for using this activity are endless, and can be stretched for all ages....

Hello Everyone!! I just wanted to send you a little extra message on this Friday!  I am so excited to tell you about something that I just created. I often get asked, "Do you have any suggestions how I can get my child to learn" (fill in the blank). It is sometimes hard to come up with an idea at that exact moment without knowing the child or their skills and needs. Soooo I started thinking about how I could come up with answers to this question that would be easy to give to someone off the top of my head. I have created a weekly Email course where I will GIVE you 5 activities on a variety of different topics, delivered to your Email Inbox each week!   5 Activities To Promote Learning and Development" (Each Week Will Be a Different Topic)  I Cant wait to start sharing with you! Join My Free Weekly Email Course   " 5 Activities To Promote Learning and Development" (Each Week Will Be a Different Topic) http://t...

    I believe in the concept referred to in a quote by Lao- Tzu:" If you Tell me, I will Listen. If you Show me I will See, But If you let me Experience I will Learn"! That is the philosophy I have built my work around as well. I do believe that we are all different, we have different experiences and points of view and because of this we all also learn differently. this is why I believe that every child needs to be given learning and development experiences based on Their Skills, Needs( both educational and developmental) and Their Interests.  What are the things your children are always asking endless questions about? Maybe the same questions? what are the things that they are drawn too or constantly "Getting into". these are clues to the areas of learning you should incorporate into daily lessons. This is how to naturally engage and further learning! an activity that can be using for many learning areas and experiences I like to introduce "Veteri...

5 Steps To Educational Success in   Early Childhood 1)       Every experience a child is presented with should be dictated by them. This means they should be given choices or options of items to engage with, but the child should be the one making the final choice. This teaches independent thinking and development of the creative process.   2)       All areas of development should be engaged in each activity that the child selects throughout the day.   3)       Always start learning experiences for a place of existing skill sets to create interest in further learning.   4)       Create lessons and experiences around the child’s preferences and interests. Meaning if the child is more interested in art, then use art and the different art modes for teaching and learning. If the child likes to engage in sensory activities, then use senso...

Welcome Back!  I have something for you that I think your really going to enjoy! I know I am very excited to use it in class with my friends!  I call it "Scrap Art". As you see it IS exactly what it sounds like! What I love about this is that the possibilities are ENDLESS. you can create anything with it that your mind can think up. The best thing is, it can be stretched or simplified for ANY age! you can make larger more abstract objects with older children using smaller objects. for younger children (as we did above) you can provide pre cut "Parts" to the art and allow then to decorate with the provided art supplies. I love to use confetti, Tissue Paper, Dry Pasta, Straws. I could go on and on! In this version, we allowed the older children to create whatever they wanted. We provided them with contact paper, Wiggle Eyes and Recycled Art Work. Then the children cut them into whatever shapes they wanted. This is a fantastic art activity that works on all s...

     "Learning With Our Hands Class"            Hello! I am the creator of The Creative Campus , and I just wanted to write to you and let you know what I have been working on.  I started my own business working with Stay At Home Moms and Nannies. Things have been changing rapidly here at The Creative Campus And I am so excited about our progress I wanted to write you and tell you all about it right away! I have expanded my company YET AGAIN! The inspiration came out of the clear blue sky and I ran with it! I have decided that what I enjoy most about what I do, is getting to know you as Moms and Nannies along with your children and creating new learning experiences that help you grow. Because of this, I was inspired to get into coaching. You can now work with me one on one. I work with you to define your child’s current skills and learning needs. Using a Current Skills survey and I will now work with you on a monthly ba...

Happy Spring Everyone!  I hope you are learning lots of fun things and enjoying the wonderful sunshine!  I wanted to share something with you that my friends enjoy and yours will too. I call it "Mix and Match Math". I  take things like popsicles and their sticks (paper versions only) and I put Shapes, Numbers and or Letters on both the sticks and the popsicle its self. then I separate them and mix them all up. I invite my friends to re connect the matches. this can be done with may different items that have two pieces. I also do a version of this with carrots. you could even do this ice cream cones and scoops that match. The fun with this activity is endless depending on your goals. you could even do this will pictures. Cutting them into sections and instructing the children to re connect the edges (which I suggest you cut in designs). I hope you have a lot of fun with this, its one of the favorites in my class. Don't forget....  if you like this and want more ...

Independence in the classroom, I believe that all children learn using different methods and because of this we as parents and educators need to offer different experiences that encourage our children and students to learn about the same subject or topic different ways. I believe that doing so  promotes problem solving skills.   Asking questions about the activities that a child has chosen to engage with encourages children to solve problems independently . Allowing a child to be independent and to figure things out for themselves along side an adult that is observing creates confidence in a child's ability to learn. Confidence pushes them to try new things and to keep trying and learning even when they don't succeed at the first attempt . I also believe that the activities that are provided in a child's learning environment should be  based  on child's skills and needs. this way you are encouraging curiosity, along side ed...

Topic: Art and Creative Teaching Methods   Advice One ( Using art to teach skills )   I believe that there is a place in the Early Child world for both Process and Product art I believe that when children are able to express themselves and use different skills they learn better I use art to teach everything from Letters, Numbers, Colors, shapes even science. A great example of this, is “Splat Painting”. This is a fun activity that allows the children to use their Small Motor skills while creating fun art. You can combing process and product using this method OR you can simply let the children enjoy the Process simply provide the children with a piece of paper and make piles of paint. Cover with wax paper (I even put the paint in between two pieces of Contact Paper) and let the children Pound or roll on top of the paint. Smearing and mixing till they are happy. —   Creating products i...

Hello Everyone!    Valentines Day is right around the corner. I hope your having a lot of fun getting ready for the special day. I wanted to share with you a fun theme I have been working on with my little friends!  I recently held a class on the theme of Aliens and Robots.   This is a fun activity for both boys and girls. All children can use their creativity and create their own creatures. I love these themes because you can incorporate Colors, Shapes and Number learning into the activities. These themes are also great for practicing Eye/ Hand Coordination and Small Motor Skills.   You can also create aliens using the same materials. you can introduce Paint, Glitter, Different Stickers you can make it as simple or detailed as your friends are interested in. If you are interested in learning more about the activities that I have used for this theme I would love for you to join me at my up coming event : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-a_cb6...

Hello Again Everyone! I have something for you that you might find helpful. Manipulatives are a great toy for introducing Math and Reading Skills. These toys encourage children to recognize Color, Size and Patterns. Manipulatives encourage children to engage in creative play without limits. When they do this, they naturally start to recognize that some look similar and then begin to group them. What are some of your favorite Manipulatives to use? I have used many over the years. Play dough is a fun one to use, which offers many different opportunities for Learning, Play and Development. I like to have the children make a simple play dough, which teaches them to follow directions and engages math skills. Then I offer the children an opportunity to play with their play dough which engages motor skills and eye hand coordination. Often I will give the children learning activities to do with the play dough such as Letter Copying, Shape Copying,  and even Number and Counting Pract...

Hello Everyone! I wanted to send you a special invite to a group I started. I enjoy sharing my favorite activities that I have done over the years, so I decided that start posting my ideas online in the form of this blog. This is a fun way to share my ideas with others, however I also like to hear about the activities that others who work with children do as well. Networking and sharing in person is at times complicated, so I have started a Facebook group for this very purpose that I would love to invite you to. "The Creative Campus Activity Group" is where you can find us. I share Activities, Blog posts, Newsletters, Art Activities, Games and invites to my events.  I would love for you to come and share with us as well! I love to meet new people and this is another fun way to make that happen!  I hope to see you there soon! Theresa @ Thecreativecampus.weebly.com

Hi Everyone! I hope your enjoying the New Year so far! I wanted to share a fun idea with you what I have used many times over the years. We all know how important it is to help our little friends learn Letters and Numbers. Well I wanted to come up with a way to do this using "Play", so I came up with "Alphabet Soup" Game. You use your sensory bin filling it with small manipulatives including bugs, cars food things like that. give each child a real life cooking spoon or ladle. then each person gets to take a turn getting one scoop of objects and putting them into their soup bowl. by saying the following rhyme I Scoop (name the object or letter for the very small friends 2/3) out of my soup with my little spoon.  OR for older friends I use this one.  " I scooped (name the object) out of my soup with my little scoop with my little spoon, and it starts with (child names letter). you can use this for children who are learning to read and spell as well. have them...