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Fall brings so many beautiful treasures to explore! Colorful leaves, pinecones, acorns, sticks & other natural materials create endless opportunities for children to investigate, create & play. For this invitation, I filled the Explorer Tuff Tray with a variety of fall nature loose parts, including acorns, pinecones & fall potpourri, and paired them with the Explore Nook™ Water Way & Mill Kit, Plastic Water Channeling Guttering, translucent buckets, pitchers & pouring tools, wooden scoopers,...

Halloween is the perfect time to mix a little spooky magic with hands-on discovery! From bubbling potions and fizzing monsters to gooey slime and frozen haunted mansions, these playful invitations encourage children to explore, experiment, investigate & create through play. Over the years, I’ve brought Halloween magic into our learning environments with open-ended experiences that spark curiosity, encourage problem-solving, strengthen fine motor skills & make learning wonderfully messy! Here...

Fall brings the perfect opportunity to explore the comforting scents of cinnamon, the excitement of apple picking, and the joy of creating our very own apple pies! From gathering apples to mixing ingredients and baking delicious treats, the season is filled with opportunities to connect children to nature, food, and the traditions that make this time of year so special. Inspired by Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make You a Pie, written and illustrated by Robbin Gourley, we extended our...

Halloween is the perfect time to bring a little spooky magic into the art experience! From painting with skeleton hands and creating floating ghosts to transforming cardboard into haunted mansions, there are endless opportunities for children to explore their creativity through process art. Throughout the years, I’ve loved transforming familiar Halloween themes, favorite picture books and unexpected materials into open-ended art invitations that encourage children to experiment, investigate...

Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated September 15–October 15, is a meaningful opportunity to introduce children to the rich cultures, stories, artists, traditions & contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities. Over the years, I’ve explored Hispanic and Latino heritage through some of my favorite picture books, artists and hands-on invitation using art, STEM, loose parts, math & literacy to help children make meaningful connections. Here is a collection of some of my favorite ways to...

I Guess I’ll Go Eat Worms by Linda Liu is a remix of the classic nursery rhyme, a silly, playful story about friendship, belonging & finding connection in unexpected places all through a shared love of worms! Inspired by the story, we extended the literacy experience beyond the pages and into play with two simple worm-filled invitations. 1. DIGGING FOR WORMS-For our first invitation, I buried an assortment of bait worms, pipe cleaner worms, and yarn worms underneath a bed of soil in our Cosy...

There is something about pumpkin season that opens up endless possibilities for play. Pumpkins can be painted, rolled, washed, stacked, scooped, poured, investigated, built with, transformed into small worlds & even turned into pretend pumpkin pie. One simple seasonal object can become the starting point for art, sensory exploration, STEM, literacy, dramatic play, fine motor development & so much more. Throughout my years in early childhood education, I have always loved taking familiar...

Inspired by Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony, this invitation took the story beyond the pages and into play, inviting children to create, decorate & imagine their very own doughnuts through hands-on exploration. Please, Mr. Panda follows Mr. Panda as he offers a tray of colorful doughnuts to his animal friends. Everyone seems to want one, but there is one very important word they keep forgetting: please! Beyond its humor and beautifully simple illustrations, the story opens up a natural...

In the World of Wassily Kandinsky: Where Color, Circles & Creativity Collide// There are certain artists whose work seems almost naturally made to be explored through the eyes of a child, and Wassily Kandinsky has always been one of them. His bold use of color, shape, line, movement & abstraction opens up so many possibilities for young children because there is no single object they are expected to see and no one “right” way to interpret what is in front of them. His work invites us to...

When children interact with a book through hands-on experiences, the story becomes something they can touch, retell, count, create, & make their own. Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh is perfect for extending literacy through play. With its colorful illustrations, playful storyline, & counting from one to ten and back again, the book naturally inspires opportunities for story retelling, sequencing, counting, number recognition, & creative exploration. After reading the story together, I...

Every child has a mark to make, & #InternationalDotDay is a beautiful celebration of the creativity, courage, & confidence it takes to make it! Celebrated each year on September 15th (& the days surrounding it), Dot Day was inspired by Peter H. Reynolds’ beloved book, The Dot. The story follows Vashti, a young girl who doesn’t believe she can draw until her teacher encourages her to simply make a mark & see where it takes her. One little dot becomes the beginning of a journey filled with...

One of our favorite ways to extend a beloved book is by bringing the story beyond the pages & into play.. After reading Lily the Pond Mermaid by Lucy Fleming, we were inspired to recreate Lily’s enchanting pond through a small world invitation. The story follows Lily, a tiny mermaid who lovingly cares for her pond & all the creatures who call it home. When a storm disrupts their peaceful environment, Lily discovers the importance of friendship, community, caring for nature, & accepting help...

There are certain artists whose work stays with you, Yayoi Kusama was one of them. Learning of her passing feels especially poignant because her work has been such a source of inspiration throughout my journey of introducing young children to artists & giving them opportunities to experience art in ways that are playful, immersive, open-ended, & entirely their own. Kusama shaped so much of why I wanted to expose young children to the work of real artists in the first place. Her art showed us...

Books have an incredible way of inspiring play beyond the pages! After reading Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert, we brought the colorful alphabet book to life with a hands-on fruit hunt & letter-matching. Inspired by the fruits featured throughout the story, we placed a collection of pretend fruits & veggies in our Cosy Direct Sensory bin, and around it we placed our Discount School Supply sensory letters. The children were invited the children to search,...

Learning the alphabet doesn’t have to mean sitting down with flashcards or worksheets. Children can build meaningful connections with letters when they are given opportunities to touch, manipulate, create, search, & play with them. By incorporating letters into sensory play, process art, water exploration, & fine motor invitations, children are exposed to letter shapes and names in ways that feel natural, engaging, & memorable. Here are four of our favorite ways to bring the alphabet into...