Kids are very creative in play. They may be interested in symbolic play, using things to represent other things. They may be interested in sensory play, exploring the sounds and sights and textures of materials or the ways they interact. They may be interested in motor play, exploring how objects move and how they themselves … Read more
This particular camp* invitation was whole-cloth taken from Denita over at Listen to the Children. She’s been collecting clips, towel clips, and clothespins for a toy zipline for years and I only had about a month, but I managed to find a few that worked like I hoped they would! I should clarify here that … Read more
This camp invitation* was so simple and so engaging — all I did was collect a bunch of things that weren’t paintbrushes and set them out with a big piece of paper and some paint! The possibilities are, of course, endless, and any replication of this activity would end with a zillion zillion different permutations … Read more
I set up an invitation at camp* to make “nature soup”. If we had had the access, I would’ve loved for the kids to be able to pick whatever flowers and leaves and weeds and pinecones were interesting to them and were in the vicinity. However, for our specific purposes, all we had was a … Read more
I knew that among the play invitations that I had available at camp*, that I would want to have one more structured, writing-based invitation every day. I wanted this for a variety of reasons: there were several older kids who were going to be coming to camp; writing and literacy is an avenue to so … Read more
The single play invitation that I was most excited for in all of Camp Creativity* was set for Thursday: the “make your own potion” station. This could totally have been anywhere from really simple to really complex. I probably fell on the side of the scale closer to really complex 😉 We have had several … Read more
The space that I had available for camp was the open outdoor area between the building I work in and the next building over. It has parking lots on either side, so I knew we would need a bit of a buffer so that it was very clear that activities were nowhere near the parking … Read more
I am SOOOOO excited to tell you guys all about “Camp Creativity”, the sensory-rich, arts-and-crafts, child-led play day camp for 30 kids and their parents that I have been planning for a couple of months and finally got to run last week! I’m not kidding when I say it’s probably going to take me a … Read more
Throwback to one of the activities I did in the past… I brought this giant keyboard mat, set it on different instrumental settings and we drew all over it with dry erase markers while it played music! This gave us the chance to practice drawing/writing while lying in prone on the floor, and drawing and … Read more
Use ultra-washable paint (1 part washable kids’ paint, 1 part dish soap) — or, even easier, chalk — to decorate outdoor toys. A car like this one, a scooter/bike, a backyard slide…you name it, you can probably color on it. If you can’t get the chalk to stay, you can dip the chalk in water … Read more