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 ended...

We all use communication in different ways. Some of us rely on verbal communication such as speech, Others of us speech that is non verbal. This means that we may use gestures to get the things we want and need from others. Sometimes we can even use pictures for communication. We often do this in Early Childhood Education Programs. We label items with word titles so that we can learn the name and use of the object as we begin speaking and reading. A great tool for enforcing communication with children of all skill levels is “Process Charts” these are pictures demonstrating how the task should be done. They can be either be displayed as already finished in order OR you can number the pictures and give them to the child, as they finish a step the add the picture to the chart to remind themselves of what parts they have already completed. There are tasks that children must master in order to begin creating effective communication. First they need to understand and use “Eye Contact” ...

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...

Language development is a skill that can be encouraged through all forms of play. today I want to give you a few activities that will enforce Language using Sensory play and experiences. I like to play games that turn learning into fun. some of my favorites are Chica Chica Boom Boom which is a game taken from the book. It can be played as a group or one on one. This game enforces eye hand coordination and letter recognition. (for more details on this game search my blog for Chica Chica Boom Boom). This is another wonderful game that can be played with kids who are learning to use and expand language. I like to offer a sensory station that has Shaving Cream or Sand Or Noodles and in this station I try to find small interesting objects that the children will be interested in investigating. I gather the children by saying " I spy With My Little Eye...  Something blue, Something that starts with the Letter "T" so on and so forth. this gets there attention and interest. th...

Play is how children develop their Skills, Creativity, Relationships and sense of self. Some people believe that  play is unproductive (especially as children get older). I however believe that play is really a child's work. By this I mean, that children grow and learn as they play. Children are not meant to learn through sitting still and listening, watching things be demonstrated or reading from a book alone! Children learn when they experience. Some children are interested in some forms of play and learning over others. This is what makes them individual. I believe that that most productive learning environments provide all forms of play and learning work in a way that allows every child to choose what interests them the most. These forms of play/ work should include but don't have to be limited to  : Small Motor :Digging, Stringing, Cutting, Coloring, Painting, Mixing , Large Motor: Running, Climbing, Spinning, Kicking, Math: Counting, Meas...

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...

Hi Everyone!  I just wanted to share with you a part of a new blog series I started, called 5 Activities. Each post will give 5 activities to use for a specific topic. I hope you enjoy these posts and I look forward to your comments! Science: Dino Bone Dig   I have use this one over the years. I have enjoyed doing this activity myself. you can find different types of bones or fossils and burry them in your sand table. give each child brushes or scoops to dig out each bone and build a creature. You can use the fossils (objects work too) and press them into playdough to make your own fossils. this is a fun hands on science activity that allows the children to learn about why some things fossilize and some don't. Grow Flowers or Plants. Provide seeds or already started plants. encourage the children to care for their plants daily. As the plants grow and produce food the children will enjoy the rewards of their work. Cook Simple Meals Or Make Playdough: this is fun ...

Cooking   Math and Science   Advice One Critical Thinking and Cause/Effect   (Math and Science Skills) Cooking is a wonderful activity that creates fun interactive learning experiences with your children and students. What children don’t realize as they are cooking, is that they are also learning. They are using Math Skills (measuring) Science Skills (mixing wet and dry ingredients) They are even using their motor skills (Mixing, Rolling and even sometimes cutting with cutters). One of the things I love to use with children is Play dough. Not only can the children engage in the “Making” process, they also get to enjoy the finished product over and over again. I like to make a very easy Cinnamon Applesauce Play dough.   Mix Equal Parts Applesauce, Cinnamon, and add flour little by little to help the thickening process.               Advice Tw...

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 ...

Welcome Back Friends, I wanted to share another idea with you that I think is a lot of fun. this is something that can be used Indoors, Outdoors and even while you are out doing other tasks. "Scavenger Hunts". This is a great activity for Home and School! This is an activity that practices many skills such as Critical Thinking, Vocabulary Building, Attention Span and many other things. If your in the store and you want to keep your child engaged while you are accomplishing other tasks! you can give them a pictured list (depending on their age) and you can tell them OK we need to find the things on this list before I finish my shopping or whatever task it is you have your child along for. this gives your child a sence of importance and independence that they have a "Job" to do. https://www.facebook.com/thecreativecampuspreschool  like us and leave a comment saying you read my blog, and I will send you my newsletters and many other free goodies. you will also have a...

Hi everyone!  I wanted to write you a post and let you know about something I have been inspired to do ( thanks to all the reading I have been doing). I want to start writing blog posts on different topics and give ideas on effective ways to engage in the topic with young children. Sometimes these things will be about children who are Developmentally Delayed ( something I have studied for years) and sometimes it will be about topics that relate to children of all abilities. This time I would like to write about Language Development. I recently read some interesting books and articles on this topic, and learned a lot of interesting things. As I'm sure you know, we are all different kinds of learners. Some of us are Visual, Some of us are Hands on and some of us are Auditory. I happen to be a visual and hands on learner myself. If I try to learn about something through reading it in a book, forget I won't remember in 20 minutes from now. It is said that children at a young ...