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

Hello Friends, Have you ever felt like you don't have the resources, Like you are not creative enough to eliminate the struggles you and your child are experiencing as you try to learn and build new skills as you play and explore together? I want to show you that it's just not so! I want to share with you a way that you can Play, Learn and Grow with your child IN SPITE of these feelings of Limitations or Struggles . I believe that when you engage with your child in activities that are centered around them, they naturally are engaged and develop an interest in the activity and learning what lessons the activity provides. Building New Skills and Engagement doesn't have to be work! it can be fun for both you and your child. When I work with clients I help them create "Invitations to Play, Learn and Grow". I describe an invitation as any activity that is set out for a child to explore and engage in at their own pace. These activities are always open e...

Hi!  Welcome To The First Ever Creative Campus Activity Challenge! This Month I shared some of my favorite ways to engage in learning about FARMS! Here are a few in case you missed them on my Fb Page (https://www.facebook.com/thecreativecampuspreschool/) One of my favorite things to do with kids of many different ages, is called "What Is It"? you can put food, Plants or even animals into a container. create descriptive questions, and starting with one question. Let the children feel the item without looking and guess what is inside. this is a great activity for Thinking skills and Sensory experiences 1) Animal Voices : Provide pictures of animals and play recordings on the noises they make. ask the children guess them correctly have them choose the correct animal from the pile till all are chosen. 2) Animal Match : Find Pictures of animals and their babies. display the pictures and allow children to take turns matching adults with their babies. 3) Life Size A...

Art Pasta Wreath Lang Development  Move like a........ (jingle bell, snowman, ) Math Tree and small parts game (number or letter game  "add 3 items that start with " ") Dramatic Play Life Size Candy Land  Game Sensory/ Science  Write in the snow (Kool-Aid)    

Picture Lables with Words Labeling objects that children use or see every day with the word of what they are along with a picture creates a visual and language connection. For children who communicate through pictures this is a very useful tool that helps them develop and learn. one of my favorite ways to do this using play, is by playing something I created called "The Color Game". This is a game that uses mats with pictures of everyday object on it and a set of matching cards (laminated pictures works too) . I divide the cards up among players and everyone takes turns matching the pictures they flip over to the pictures on the board. I have extended this game by adding the letter that each object starts with. This can be used for letter recognition, spelling or even learning to read for older children. This truly is a game we all enjoy playing. Curiosity Boxes with Clues this is another fun and engaging way to develop speech. I like to collect objects tha...

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...

Good Morning Everyone! I am very excited to tell you about and offer you a fun new activity. I call them "Busy Boxes", This is a great idea for when you want to give your children something quiet to do while your in public places such as "The Bank" or "Doctors Office" or even on and "airplane". Although I have to admit while the activity was and is my creation. I have to credit my cousin Kim .D for the inspiration to offer them to you as a Product! Thanks Kim! she asked me if it was something I was selling as part of an event, to which I responded "No its just something im doing as a favor for a charity giveaway". However as the days passed this question she asked me REALLY bothered me! I couldn't figure out WHY( if I created this) am I not putting it out there for people?! SOOOO.......  Now I Am!   I am going to include a link to my pin on Pinterest and give you a way to contact me if you are interested in purchasing them. http...

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...

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...

Welcome Back! I want to share a fun concept with you today. In my class I like to use "Curiosity Boxes" to introduce new topics and skill concepts. This is a fun way to engage students and children in the learning process using games and play. This is a great way to practice using critical thinking and senses as well. I like to Put items in a box or bag that relates to the topic that we are talking about in class that week. Sometimes I have each student come up and put there hand in and only FEEL what's inside. Then proceed to start a group conversation about our "Topic". This gets the children very excited and involved because some of my friends Quickly figure out what it is they felt in the box after we start talking about our topic.  A great example of this is Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See. I like to take Feathers, Fur, and other textures that relate to the animals in the book and let the children feel them without seeing them. They Quickly realize ...

Hi Everyone, I am back from my Mini Vacation.(camping with my Cousins and aunt). It was a great feeling to be by the lake and just relax again. I had forgotten how much fun camping can be. I got the chance to watch my two little cousins 8 and almost 3 playing and pretending and it reminded me of all the fun times I had creating play adventures when I was a kid. Being by the lake and the woods lends itself to lots of opportunities to learn about nature and science at any age. There are lots of ways that children can "learn" about nature and science and not realize it, because they are in their mind just "Experiencing" nature. Going on walks through the woods or along the beach is a great opportunity to create a  learning experience using games like "I Spy" which I did with my older cousin and he was a lot of fun. The other thing that this experience reminded me of from when I was a child, was  "Scavenger Hunts" we used to have these HUGE lists ...