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

Hello Everyone!   As you know I am working on a theme this year.  I enjoy providing my friends with "Loose Parts" For play and letting them create their own play with  the parts. I do this by providing things that are connected to the theme we are talking about. I don't ever give instructions on how to use the items. I let the children explore the items and engage together. For Instance today I am writing to you about " "Letter" and a few themes that I enjoy using to Teach "Letters". For Alphabet soup, I would set you small letters, Pictures of random items, and Cooking utensils. By Doing this, you encourage many different forms of learning. Language, Math, Science.  I hope you enjoyed these activities, and If there something you might be struggling with? or feeling frustration around while you're creating Letters- Chica Chica LooseParts Advice: Using Games and Sensory activities is a great hands on way to encourage children to e...

Today I want to encourage you to get your kids involved in daily tasks. Let them help with meal prep. Label the doors and shelves with picture of items for the to choose from along with the number of items to take. Post pictured steps they need to follow to complete a task (dressing themselves, Feeding animals), and so on. Let them help with yard work. This may mean giving them one task such as scooping dirt into a pot with a shovel.  Its a great way to share one on one time and teach independence. Letting kids do things for themselves builds Self Esteem . Let them figure out how to complete the task on their own (trial and Error). Encourage Their Creativity and interest in doing things for themselves. Remember that your children are watching what you do, and they will use their play to Imitate your actions. "If they see you do it, They will want to try". Questions For Learning and Engaging: ... 1) What do we need to complete this task? 2) What...

Plant An Indoor Garden This Monday Morning! Are you are looking for Engaging Garden activities on this Chilly Monday Morning? I have something for you! Put out Solo Cups, Dirt, Seeds and Scoops! talk to your child about all the different seeds. Let them choose the ones they want to grow! Questions For Further Learning and Engaging: 1) How Can you Tell the difference between a Fruit, a Veggie a Herb? 2) Which kinds of foods do you like best? 3) What will this plant look like when its ready to pick? Have Fun Learning and Growing This Week!  Your Creativity Produce and Professional Mess Maker! https://www.facebook.com/thecreativecampuspreschool/

Happy Friday Everyone!  Today is Art Day Friday. I hope you are having fun learning and growing as you learn and study Gardens. Don't Forget If your looking for ways to learn and engage, you can always join the Fb Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Thecreativecampus/ We share everyday! Don't forget, I answer your questions each week. If you have a question about creating Learning and Engagement as you play, Leave me your questions. I would love to help you find fun ways to learn and play together!                                             https://plus.google.com/collection/UdD7SB If you ever find yourself wishing that you had activities put together for you, that showed you how to create fun learning experiences through play. I have something to share with...

Good Morning Creative Friends! What are you learning this week?  Are you exploring a theme?  Are you looking to learn a skill? What are you looking for to support your learning this week?  I am looking forward to having a lot of fun, engaging conversations this week Here, Over on The fb page and in my group!  I love hearing about the creative engaging ways you like to learn and grow. This Morning I encouraged my friends to go outside with a shovel and a bucket. Dig in the dirt!  see what you find. what does it feel like? what does it smell like. what might your little ones want to put in the dirt? Have fun today as you learn! Leave your comments and questions below and I will share my friends ideas as well. Your Creativity Producer and Professional Mess Maker, Theresa @ The Creative Campus.

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...

Clouds!  this is a really fun theme. you can even use this one with different age ranges together.  The pictures included in this post are a few of my favorite activities I have done with this theme. Printing clouds with puffy glue is a fun art activity that engages Eye Hand Coordination.   Read the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" and print out the images. you can use them for fun Gross Motor activities. Gather the kids together and do a Cloud themed "move Like A" Game. Play Music and One at a time, pull the pictures from a container. Tell the students, "Move Like A.... Mitten, Bird" Ect. You can also Display the pictures around a room, and walk around the room giving clues about the pictures they might find. Clouds and Loose Parts  Invitations To Play and Learn This is a great sensory subject that can be used in so many ways. I love to use cloud activities in the sensory area. The Science area allows the children to investigate and experiment...

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” ...

Hello Everyone! I was Going through all the content I have shared since starting my business, and I found something that I haven't shared in a long time!  I think it is something you will enjoy reading, and get some helpful tips from at the same time!  I would love to hear your thoughts. you can leave me a comment here or contact me through my website! http://thecreativecampus.weebly.com /  The content I want to share with you is at The link below http://app.emaze.com/281274/signature-talk#4 Creative Development Talk  Have a look and let me know what you think. Thanks so much! Theresa @ The Creative Campus

Transportation is a fun, Hands on and Creative Theme that I like to use to engage many areas of learning. Give Children Loose parts and encourage them to create their own Cars, Trains, Planes or other forms of getting around . I like to take this theme one step further, Providing children different kid's of blocks that can be stuck together ( bristle or magnetic) let the children use their creativity and build cars and so on. Then encourage them to create play using them.     I also like to give children boxes, Wagons and Scooters. Allow them to use their whole bodies to engage in creating Transportation. Allowing them to build Boats, or Trains and then pulling them into their Pretend Play is a wonderful way to Encourage Children to Build Creativity and Language. I hope you enjoy recreating these creative activities with your friends, and if you want more of these free ideas on a regular basis. Visit my website and join my FREE Email Program where I will send you 5 acti...

Topic: obstacle Courses and Gross Motor Games Advice One Use Games To Increased Gross Motor Skills I believe that using play is the best way to increase your child or students gross motor skills. This allows children to play and have fun with friends and yet they are building strength and coordination. I have a few favorite games that I like to use with my friends, and I encourage you to use them either at home or in your classrooms with your students.               Advice Two Obstacle Course (Going On a Bear Hunt) This is a great activity that enforces gross motor skills and coordination. This game is one that can be created in the form of a physical course, or you can simply sit on the floor and go through the motions. Either way it’s a fun experience and uses listening and coordination skills. Advice Three Keep it In The Air Game This last game is one that can be uses in many different ways for many dif...

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...

This Concept works for all formal areas of learning. Math, writing, reading, science. This is wont require as much work as it sounds like it will.Look at the goal that is attempting to be taught... and turn the written information and bring it into real world experiences. This will engage children in the learning process. extend children's interest in learning and engage their physical needs at the same time. Turn skills or themes that children need to learn or practice into games.If we let children experience learning, their interest and engagement will go so much further.    This is also a great method for Transportation and Construction   Construction/Gross Motor Play Encouraging your children to use their imaginations and every day objects to create learning and creative experiences. This also  squashes boredom and engages creative thinking and determination to "figure New things out" . Sometimes as parents and educators we forget that child...

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...

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...

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...

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...