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

I Spy with my little eye, all my friends who are reading this!  I think your really going to enjoy some of the ideas I have for you on this theme. I love hands on and even messy Learning!  so one of my favorite ways to use this theme is to offer a I Spy Jello Dig! float objects in Jello and solidify. let the children squish, dig, scoop to their hearts content! then talk about the different things they have found. you can tell stories about the objects you have found (this is a lot of fun). I even love to do I SPY inspired art. give the kids themes to choose from, you can even use learning topics... and let them go through magazines or art pieces and glue things on that connect to their  chosen topic . I hope you enjoyed these activities, and If there something you might be struggling with? or feeling frustration around while you're creating and engaging at home?  leave me a message and I would love to help in anyway I can. Leave me a comment below or your ca...

Happy Fall Everyone! I love this time of year. There are so many fun learning experiences we gain at this point in the year. Pumpkin's and all their fun textures. Leaves and the different sizes and colors. The learning goes and goes! Because of this I wanted to share with you some fun learning activities I have created around these concepts. I have a fun leave/ Apple Game that I created when I was working with 3&and 4 year old preschoolers. I made these cute bushels with numbers on them and then I printed Leaves and Apples of different colors and Shapes. I labeled the bushels with numbers as well. Depending on the theme of the week, I lay out the bushels and I provide either the apples or the leaves ad I encourage the children to take turns picking a number card. Then we sing the child's name and say "picked an (color apple) from the apple tree"... and then they put that color in a bucket. Or we say "child's name" picked a certain number of ap...

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....

Games:  are a great way to use eye hand coordination. Playing games like Baseball, Hot Potato, Play dough is a great tool for creating games that use eye hand coordination as well. You can play a game that I use a lot called alphabet soup that creates letters while learning sounds a much much more. (if you want more information leave me a comment below).  Busy Boxes  : are a fun activity that I created. These are small activities that children can engage in to practice a skill. one of my favorites is a "Robot" box. They have to choose parts and stick them together to create a robot. ( I have many others on my website). http://thecreativecampus.weebly.com/programs-products-and-free-content.html Projects : I enjoy providing activities in my classroom that use eye hand coordination. I also love art and I have found a great activity that engages all of it. I like to provide art materials in a bin along with parts of a house. (the roof, side walls, doors ect.) Encourag...

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 Everyone! Today I wanted to talk about something that is very personal to me! I Believe we are seeing a shift in the ways in which we are approaching education. I believe we are starting to see a focus on the individual child and their needs which is a change from seeing large groups of children being taught to using one method that is said to be  "The Best". This is a concept that I believe in very strongly. I personally believe that we need to educate and even parent to each child's personal needs and skill levels. We all know that just because a group of children share the same AGE level, doesn't mean they share the same Educational level or Developmental needs. Some in the group will be further along in understanding of things, while others will not be quite where they should be. Because of this, I believe that as educators, we need to look at the needs of the group and chose topics and subjects to teach TO the whole group, using different methods for...

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful summer. I wanted to share something with you and get your thoughts in return. I know a lot of parents are interested in the concept of Homeschooling and creating an active interest in learning while at home. I wanted to share with you some thoughts on the topic. I believe that Play not only is how children learn best and most naturally, Play also promotes and creates creativity. When children are allowed and encouraged to be creative you build a passion for learning. A passion for learning is the key to getting children engaged in learning which leads to them being able to take in all the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed as they grow through life into adult hood. Childhood is a time for learning and experiencing the environment around them. Play allows children to build confidence in their skills and knowledge at their own pace. That is why when I introduce a new topic or activity, I always test the idea first. By this ...

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 ...