By incorporating a variety of materials that foster creativity into the spaces where your kids spend their time, you’ll enable your kids to express themselves, deepen their understanding of the world around them with hands-on experience, share what they know, demonstrate their skills, and learn new things. Open-ended materials will encourage exploration, discovery, transformation, and imaginative play, because they’ll become anything your kids want them to be!
Materials should have different:
- Textures
- Patterns
- Shapes
- Weight
- Colors
Materials can be things like:
- Blocks and building materials
- Dress up clothes
- Trucks and trains
- Arts and crafts materials
- Dolls and puppets
Materials can be everyday items:
- Straws
- Fabric pieces
- Buttons
- Paper towel tubes
- Empty containers
Adapted from Virtual Lab School