We invited the children to put aside their normal paint brushes and use skeleton hands instead as their tool to create. We provided butcher paper, paint, and skeleton hands galore !The children jumped right in and loved exploring the different ways they could use the skeleton hands in order to paint on the butcher paper. Working on the vertical  painting surface puts a whole new spin on the experience.  Physically they are using the large and small muscles of the arm with vertical painting. Simply moving the skeleton "brush" from the paint bucket to the paper requires focus and control which enhances their fine and gross motor skills. All these movements enhance their hand-eye coordination as well. Continuous exposure to these movements through large scale vertical painting also helps control their marks later on. Children who are provided opportunities to paint regularly learn to think with an open mind, to look at situations creatively,  develop critical-thinking skills & make decisions about what works and what doesn’t on their own, how to mix colors to create new ones, or how to make certain movements/techniques to create designs and get the paint on the paper.  Painting freely has a fluidity that is different from other art media which in turn make children more empowered and confident to express their creative artistic style.  Through painting, children continuously gain so many skills which gives them a foundation to look at the world with curiosity and wonder.

Diwali is the Indian “festival of lights”—a holiday that celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Diwali is a five-day celebration where friends and family gather to light their brightest lanterns to rejoice in the victory of light over darkness. While there are many traditions during this festival, on the second day of Diwali homes are decorated with diyas (candles, lamps and lights) along with beautiful designs and patterns on floors known as Rangoli. Rangoli is thought to bring good luck, prosperity in the house and in the family, and to welcome guests. We have been reading books about the traditions of Diwali the past couple of days during circle/story time. Books are such a beautiful way to open a child's mind to the beauty of each culture and their special traditions. The more children learn and see representation of all cultures in classrooms and in our homes, the more knowledge and understanding we provide for everyone while making every child feel seen and heard in their community. To set this invitation to d ecorate Rangoli designs with loose Parts we provided place mats as the base to create, a tinker tray full of a variety of colorful loose parts, and diyas + tea lights. The children were invited to create and decorate unique designs.

A couple days ago inspiration struck from @littleloftplaystudio (a.k.a @prekwolfpack & @ mamahood.and.co ) and we just had to pull out our skeleton to have some fun. To set this invitation we placed   Colorations® Simply Shiny Washable Tempera ,   BioColor® Fluorescent Paint  in our  Silicone Mixing Cups  + paint brushes from Discount School Supply and a decorative life size skeleton.  All mediums & canvases of art support creativity to come naturally to all children because they encourage freedom of art expression. When it comes to young children art is much more about the process than the end result. When young children are given opportunities to experiment with art on different canvases such as this spooktacular and interesting one, there are endless benefits and so much fun! Through this type of art they are given the freedom to decide on their own techniques, create however they want which allows children to develop self-expression, it can be therapeutic, allows expression without using words, works wonders for the imagination. Painting this way will help children gain confidence by allowing them freedom to create art with no guidelines.  The sensory process with the paint + the 3-D Canvas with so many grooves/textures allows them to explore different techniques. They learn, explore, and experiment about color theory when mixing + creating new colors. And all this painting helps with the development of hand-eye coordination,  strengthening the finger & hand muscles, and full body movement as they maneuver their body to paint the skeleton.

There are so many wondrous spooktacular takes on creating potions, brews, elixirs, during this time of year. Inviting children to conjure some magic in a tuff tray, mud kitchen, water table, sensory bin, bath tub, or outdoor play space is a great way to let their imaginations run wild while creating, exploring and experimenting with some hocus pocus. To set this invitation in  our @discountschoolsupply  Tuff Tray I placed cauldrons, @learningresources  beakers + cylinders, pipettes, @dollartree  cups, & TTS potions bottles. In some of the containers vinegar mixed with @colorations.artoflearning  metallic + fluorescent paint and in others just water. With @armandhammer  baking soda & @dawndishwash  soap we froze some creepy mixtures to make fizzy concoctions. Oodles of loose parts too (spiders, skulls, snakes, bats, eye balls, & bones from @target & @dollartree). The children were invited to create their own witches' potions, elixirs, & brews. Whether you celebrate holidays or not, the magic can ignite so much amazing & engaging play + early science that is exciting to what is currently happening and relevant in a child's world.

In Mexico & other Latin American countries,  Día de los Muertos (November 1-2) is a time to celebrate & honor loved ones who have passed on. It is believed that during this holiday the deceased are able to visit friends and relatives on earth & once again enjoy the things they did in life, such as food, music, & drinks. Día de los Muertos is such a beautiful & lively celebration filled with color, music, & joy that children love to learn about. The ofrenda (altar) is perhaps the most recognized aspect of Día de los Muertos. It is a dedicated space used to remember & honor the dead. It is a reminder that life is eternal & that the presence of the deceased loved one is everlasting. The ofrendas speak of affection toward the deceased & are an expression of love towards life. Traditionally, the altars are placed on a table with a decorative table cloth that has several layers, decorated with key elements representing heaven & earth, while all being customized to a family's likings with the following items: Photos of friends & family-to help loved ones to remember them while they were in the prime of their lives. Candles + incense- Each soul is represented by a lit candle, extra ones are placed for the forgotten soul. The incense burn guides the souls through its aroma Both are elements that help spirits return. Water- Placed in a container for the souls to quench their thirst after its long journey to reach the altar. Salt – Represents purification. Cempasúchil , or marigolds- The bright color & strong scent of cempasúchil is believed to make it easier for deceased loved ones to find their way back to you.  Sweets & loved ones' favorite foods- Offerings to the dead.  Decorations, such as skulls (death), papel picado (wind), flowers (earth)- represent the cycle of life & death.  Butterflies– Symbolic icons representing the belief in some areas that when the deceased leaves this world and passes to eternal life in the early morning, their soul returns to earth as a butterfly to visit their loved ones. Setting up an ofrenda to let the child(ren) explore the offerings and continuously reading stories such as  Día de los Muertos (Celebrate the World) & The Day of the Dead: A Bilingual Celebration are great books that honor the celebration & cultures + establishing an inclusive environment where every child feels seen, heard, & celebrated or introducing something a child may never have experienced. The more we learn about all cultures in classrooms or in our homes, the more knowledge, respect, and understanding we provide for everyone within our communities.

During the end of October each year, Día de los Muertos the ancient Mexican traditions honors ancestors and loved ones who have passed. The preparation of sugar skulls, delicious food, flowers, art, and shrines are made for the festivities of singing, dancing, and reminiscing. We read the books Día de los Muertos (Celebrate the World) and The Day of the Dead: A Bilingual Celebration to honor the culture and establish an inclusive environment within our center. Continuously reading stories that honor cultures establishes an inclusive environment where every child feels seen, heard, and celebrated. The more we learn about all cultures in classrooms or our homes, the more knowledge, respect, and understanding we provide for everyone within our communities. Preparing an ofrenda, or altar, to honor deceased relatives plays a central role in the celebration of Día de los Muertos. Altars or shrines can be built in homes or in the community and typically include photos, mementos, candles, marigolds and favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Calavera de Azucar/Sugar Skulls traditionally are created as ornamental gifts for children and family members during Día de los Muertos. These brightly colored skulls represent the departed souls in the circle of life.  We created sugar skulls for the children to paint by drawing skulls on Discount School Supply  cardboard paper with permanent markers. Placed Elmers Glue on the drawings and sprinkled epsom salt all over to look just like the sugar skulls you would see in the altars. Let it dry overnight. The next day we provided Colorations liquid watercolors in our paint trays + pipettes and invited the children to paint the epsom with twisty droppers or pipettes. After drying they turned into brightly colored beautiful Día de los Muertos Skulls.

Since children are born with a sense of wonder & a passion to understand the world around them, they instinctively & constantly ask questions, observe, & try out solutions. Through these types of invitations children build a foundation for future scientific learning that can directly influence their interests later in life. Children are programmed from birth to be scientists & by tapping into their natural predispositions early on, we can nurture & establish a positive approach to science that will stay with them into the future & foster a lifelong lover of science or any subject for that matter. Providing these opportunities supports the development of other skills & attributes such as: communication skills, collaborative skills, team working perseverance, analytical, reasoning, problem-solving skills, expands their vocabulary, encourages them to extend & embed their learning through related literacy/numeracy, honor creativity, develops patience, turn taking/listening, organization, attention to detail, & so much more. These are all lifelong skills that will help them throughout the rest of their lives. To create these magnificent monsters we mixed @armandhammer  baking soda mixed with @colorations.artoflearning  Fluorescent BioColors and Dawn Dish Soap in a bowl. Then we placed googly eyes and eyeballs on the bottom and top of the silicone ice molds and froze the mixture overnight. We placed the icy monsters on our tuff tray, provided @learningresources  twisty droppers + pipettes & @heinz  vinegar. The children were invited to create a mleting monster mash! Through this invitation we learned all about chemical reactions through the magic of Melting Fizzing Monsters! As they experimented with the components the children experienced seeing & creating a chemical reaction.  When baking soda (base) & vinegar (acid) are mixed together, one of the products this reaction creates is carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas escapes, & that gas forms the fizz you see.

When children go to special events, see movies, read books, experience environments, spark an interest in a subject matter, or engage in imaginary play, being able to provide an environment with their current curiosities can honor rich play. Play comes in all different forms, and our core memories are associated with play that was meaningful to us. Whether a child is interested in dinosaurs, space, or in this case monster trucks, the magic of small world play can truly bring their wonders to life. To set up this Halloween Monster Jam in our Discount School Supply Tuff Tray I placed dirt, sand, way to play roads, ramps, skeletons, tombstones, cones, barrels, monster trucks, and water!  Exploring these materials through open-ended play is a great way for extending literacy, language, imaginary & sensory play. Through this play they can reenact what they see at events such as monster jam, see/hear in stories, movies, shows, experiences, & environments around them to deepen their understanding of the world. This type of play can be defined as where children accept and assign roles, then act them out. When children engage in this type of play they break through the walls of reality, use their imagination, pretend to be someone or something different from themselves, explore different worlds, & have actions to go along with the roles they have chosen to play. Childhood can quite possibly be some of the most magical years with such fun experiences like Monster Jam, so why not spread more magic with PLAY and create memories that will stay with a child forever!

These STEAM invitations are perfect for learning & exploring about the weather +  changing of seasons.  After reading & talking about rain, we learned some of these fun facts: -The average puffy, white rain cloud weighs as much as 100 elephants?! -The rain cycle starts with bodies of water evaporating under the warmth of the sun, turning from liquid to gas. That warm gas rises up into the sky. But as it rises, it hits cooler air & as it cools, it turns liquid again. -Water droplets are itty-bitty. The average drop inside a cloud is smaller than the thickness of a piece of paper. When billions of these droplets come together, a visible cloud forms. So while an entire cloud may be heavy, the individual droplets are much lighter than the air around them. Eventually, the droplets in the clouds are heavy enough to be pulled down by gravity & that's rain! Then we set out to explore & experiment with these two invitations: 1. Rain Cloud in a Jar Experiment: T o set this up we set out different sized clear glass jars with water, leaving 1/2 inch of room. We placed shaving cream to represent the cloud. Then we provided another cup with water that was mixed with different Colorations Paint (Liquid watercolors + BioColor). We gave the children pipettes & they were invited to create rain. They drew the colored water with their pipettes & squeezed it over the shaving cream rain cloud. While they used their fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination to create rain, they began to see that they made the cloud rain! 2.Invitation to Paint Rain on Umbrellas:  We hung umbrellas to float from branches & placed some on the ground. Provided water mixed with Colorations Paint (Liquid watercolors + BioColor) +   placed Learning Resources Twisty Droppers + Pipettes as the painting tools. The children were invited to squirt, drip,explore, experiment, & create rain on the umbrellas.  Scientific opportunities such as these let children learn & explore their environments through a multi layer hands on approach. As they learn about cause & effect, cycles of nature, comparisons, chemical & physical changes, reactions & properties of matter, their curiosity about how the world works continues to build. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) invitations are a great way to expose a child to both process art & science all together. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers & artists all use the same critical thinking skills to find new & innovative solutions. Through the process of experimenting, exploring, & creating with STEAM the child is using creative & critical thinking skills. There is limitless learning, benefits, & creativity going on throughout this whole process. They became innovative as it encourages the children to think outside the box while instilling wonder and curiosity throughout the whole process. The more opportunities & exposure to STEAM invitations such as this instills innovation within them, which provides for a stronger cognitive foundation that will support them to adulthood in all aspects of their life.

It is that spooktacular time of year where we make our annual Cardboard Haunted Mansion near our Outdoor Interactive Painting Gallery & Art Studio. The beauty of cardboard & process art is that anything and everything can be used as a canvas or morphed into something creative. Cardboard is such a versatile material that provides a great surface to paint on. Since it comes in so many different sizes, textures, & shapes it allows the children to explore art in a different medium, use their imagination to think of a range of ways to paint cardboard boxes, & promotes collaboration as the children can work together to paint and talk about what they are creating. Since the children are so excited for Halloween we decided to honor their current interests and assemble a "Haunted Mansion," with recycled boxes and let them paint with Colorations Tempera Paint from Discount School Supply! This inspired so much excitement and engagement as the children transformed and reinvented these boxes into a spooky house! Through painting children enhance their fine & gross motor development, hand-eye coordination and control, openness to experiment/take risks with tools provided, build stronger social and emotional skills, further develop their language as they express what they are doing in the process, and continue to have the avenue of using their most powerful capability creativity + imagination.

Reading stories have always been a point of inspiration to spark more playfulness in our invitations. Books can be a jumping point and path to create more intentional experiences such as art, sensory play, science,dramatic play, math, and small world play. By creating a #tufftray that makes the book come to life is quite possibly one of the best ways to extend the literacy experience while building comprehension skills, and creating life long lovers of reading!  One of the best ways children learn is to build on their curiosity and interests. Reading stories with related concepts or themes that they are enticed knowing more about can be particularly beneficial for their knowledge building. When you share books about a topic of interest, you open up opportunities to ask children questions, for children to ask questions, and to explore context and ideas.  Then when you pair hands-on experiences with the books, kids have the opportunity to make richer connections between the story,  their environment, extend or expand on ideas, build comprehension and language skills, retain the information and knowledge,  learn something new, and increase their understanding of the world around them. Activities and experiences such as this can help kids process and solidify their new knowledge while giving them an opportunity to try out new vocabulary and concepts. They can then apply those new words, information, and ideas to other situations to help themselves figure things out and to convey their own ideas all through the power of play!

Spooky season is here and today we invited the children to paint floating ghosts which made for some fun filled action art and BOO-tiful creations! To set this invitation we filled our Discount School Supply paint cups with Colorations® Fluorescent Paint. The floating ghosts were made out of balloons, white paper tablecloths, and tied with fish wire to some branches on a tree. The children were invited the children to paint Action art involves processes that are fully body experiences where the focus is on the process rather than the finished product. “Action Art projects result in products to be enjoyed and admired, but it is the process of exploration and experimenting that stimulates the child’s learning from discovering and creating." This process invited so many amazing conversations, while encouraging collaboration and cooperation while navigating the space as they painted. This type of art also promotes honoring their complete creativity because they are in an environment where innovation is honored, there is freedom to explore, and there are no rules. All aspects of the painting process from gripping and re-gripping the ghosts to manipulate it to stay in place, painting all sides of the 3-D ghosts, balancing to reach in order to paint, standing upright, holding the paint cup in one hand while painting with the other gave the children an opportunity to be completely immersed in the process of creating while building and challenge so many physical and cognitive skills. Due to the ghosts hanging and not staying stationary, this activity was great for enhancing hand-eye coordination plus moving not only their hand but whole body to simultaneously accomplish the task of painting. This process also encouraged the children to use bilateral coordination, using both sides of the body at the same time, while each hand is performing its own task.  Every time we provide the children with the opportunity to create art in innovative ways, we are reminded of how engaging, beneficial, and important process art is in the early years.