This past weekend I was lucky enough to reignite my passion for conducting a weekend workshop for all three of our centers teachers. Between getting my Masters in ECE @ CSUEB, getting married, having two children, and the pandemic, it has been almost four years since I have been able to create one for my team. It was the best feeling to finally get everyone together in one space and be able to enhance our program through digging deeper on the importance of play and how to intentionally set up invitations to ignite children's curiosity + wonder to create a love for learning through open ended play. This year was even more special since Discount School Supply sponsored the majority of the materials that were used as a part of the training and then gifted to each classroom at all three of our centers. We are eternally grateful for having such an amazing partnership with a company that truly gives back to the early childhood education field. The workshop consisted of exploring Symbols (Letters, Numbers, Shapes), STEM, Sensory + Loose Parts Play, Process Art, & Light/Shadow/Reflection. Each table was set up with invitations that could be applied to all the age ranges we provide care for in our centers (6weeks-5 years). Below I will break down each invitation and link all the products: Symbols (Letters, Numbers, Shapes) Letters -Tempera Sticks -Spectacular Sand -Wooden Letters Symbol Prompts -Tray -Poster Board -Liquid Letters -Prewriting Sand & Light Table Tray Number -Light Table -Tempera Sticks -Slimy Sand -Wooden # Symbol Prompts -Poster Board -Liquid Numbers -Number Peg Boards + Natural Shapes - Translucent Shapes -Tempera Sticks -Translucent Shapes -Slimy Sand -Sensory Geometric Shapes -Poster Board Wiggles -Playdough -Translucent Pebbles -Translucent Stacking Cubes -Tinker Tray -Clear Place Mats -Tempera Sticks -Poster Board STEM Translucent STEM Exploration on the Light Table -Colored Cups -Colored Tubes -Colored Ping Pong Balls -Shot Glasses -Light Table Explore and Create Insects -Bug X-Rays and Photo Cards -Rainbow Pebbles -Tinker Trays (Thrifted) -Pinecones (Foraged) -Insect Figurines Build A Jungle -Tree Blocks -Reusable Leaves -Photo Blocks of Jungle Animals Around the World People and Landmarks -Photo Block Play People & Landmarks -Picasso Tiles -Landmark Figurines -Landmark Images (Printed and Laminated) Sensory + Loose Parts Play Dino Small World Play -Tuff Tray -Rustic Bowls -Rustic Pourers -Jumbo Dino -Dino Foot Prints -Sand -Rocks -Wood Rounds Georgia O'keeffe Snail Loose Parts - Tinker Tray -Place Mats -Sea Shells -Flat Marbles Red + Tan -Snail Shells Insta Snow Sensory Bin -Twisty Droppers -Liquid Water Colors -Insta Snow -Beakers Spring Flower Measuring with Loose Parts - Tinker Tray -Flat Marbles -Speing Buttons -Ribbon -Place Mats Process Art Still Life Spring Flowers - Round Paint Palettes -Construction Paper -Vases (Thrifted) -Paint Swatches (Paint Store) -Paint Cups -Paint Brushes -Acrylic Mirror Abstract Painting -Water Color Palettes -Black Glue -Window Cleaners -Construction Paper Textured Recycled Box Painting -Metallic Bio Colors -No Spill Paint Cups -Butcher Paper -Aluminum Foil -Bubble Wrap (Recycled Packaging) -Boxes (Recycled) - Paint Tool Kit Abstract 3-D Assemblage Art - Butcher Paper -Fluorescent Neon Tempera Paint -Paint Brushes -Makedo Cutters -Hot Glue Gun & Sticks -3-D Structure (Recycled Cardboard) -No Spill Paint Cups Light/Shadow/Reflection Texture Reflection Exploration -Cellophane -Sensory Balls -Large Slinkies -LED lights -Scarves -Acrylic Mirrors -Flash Lights Stacking Mirror and Reflection Exploration -Disco Balls -Clear Cups -Recycled Paper Tubes -Marvelous Metallic Silver Boulder Bricks Dino Light & Shadow Play -Mini Flash Lights -Colander -Sifters -Dinos

Outdoor play is one of the things that characterize childhood. Some of our favorite core childhood memories are when we spent time outside. Children need endless opportunities and time to explore, experiment, manipulate, reconfigure, expand, influence, imagine, change, marvel, discover, practice, take risks, sing, build, observe, create, play, and relax. Since the outdoors is the greatest classroom of all time, at our centers just like inside we have designated areas to create art, enhance gross motor skills, build with loose parts, expand our imagination in dramatic play, experiment with different sensory materials, and an improved Outdoor Sanctuary Comfy Corner thanks to Children's Factory. With the Adapta Bench and Chair , we created a space where the children can come read, relax, and enjoy the outdoors. We really believe in the importance of our indoor classrooms having comfy corners , so we have them as part of our outside areas as well. Even outside when emotions are big and in full effect, a child needs time and space or simply needs a break from hard moment in order to adjust. This kind of safe space empowers the child to be able to process/regulate their emotions, focus, and wind down, while teaching them to deal and work through their feelings, appreciate relaxation, honor the time they need, and give them a skill of a lifetime self-awareness + regulation. This is a great place to start to pave the way to instill the foundation for independent doable social emotional tools for children to carry throughout the rest of their lives. And what better place than outside!

We have been doing so much art between our three centers in preparation for our annual Art Walk Silent Auction. We created this collaborative textured canvas collage as one of our larger pieces. We glued different sized Colorations Canvas Panels ( 6" x 8" , 8" x 10" ) together. Afterwards with a hot glue gun we placed some designs on the cardboard to create a textured surface. Then we provided Colorations Acrylic Paint , Smocks, and paintbrushes and invited the children to paint. Visual arts deeply affect children, for it is one of the most important forms of communication. Painting freely has a fluidity that is different from other art media that children use because when they paint this way, they express and honor their creative artistic style more openly. With open ended painting they are given a foundation to look at the world with the confidence they can accomplish a goal by honoring their creativity. Here is another similar art invitation that inspired this one: Cardboard Collage

#WomensHistory Month is March. Throughout this whole month we have been exploring women’s contributions to history, culture & society. The famous female artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born & raised in Wisconsin. Her clear, bright paintings show the beauty she found in the simple, natural things around her. She loved to paint mountains, seashells, flowers, & even animal bones she found in the desert. Georgia often rearranged the natural things she saw, & simplified them. Exposing children to the arts and different artists at a young age exposes them to various styles & techniques of art. During her time in New York City she painted buildings & skyscrapers. We set out an invitation to create her paintings that were of buildings/skyscrapers in the block center. As a point of inspiration we printed out images of her paintings & during story time we have been reading these books to deepen their understanding of who painted these images. STEM activities are designed to engage & stretch a child's thinking especially when they are challenged to create in new ways. The engineering & design process is a natural fit due to the fact that children already like to build & problem solve with everything. This invitation is a perfect opportunity to change a simple building activity/center & challenge them to think, create in new ways, be inspired by other artists, & enhance their awareness of the different types of ways structures are built. Through all these trials, child(ren) are able to analyze situations more critically & come up with solutions in their own way with anything they put their mind to. STEM subliminally provides awesome real life lessons that are so valuable + enriching to a child, and something they will carry with them throughout the rest of their life.

#WomensHistory Month is March. Throughout this whole month we have been exploring women’s contributions to history, culture & society. While there are so many ways to celebrate & honor women, reading books & integrating them with an invitation is truly a powerful way to connect the two. We have been reading books about the famous artist Georgia O'Keeffe who was born and raised in Wisconsin. She grew up to become one of America's most famous painters. Her clear, bright paintings show the beauty she found in the simple, natural things around her. She loved to paint mountains, seashells, flowers, and even animal bones she found in the desert. Georgia often rearranged the natural things she saw, and simplified them. Exposing children to the arts & different artists at a young age exposes them to various styles and techniques of art. Today we became Georgia O'keeffe and did our very own still life paintings. We set out examples of her various Calla Lily & Iris Paintings, real Calla Lilies and Irises, Colorations® Tempera Paint, Construction Paper, & Paint Brushes. The children were invited to observe, explore, and paint just like Georgia. A still life is a drawing or a painting of an object or a group of objects that is close to you and doesn't move. This was a wonderful way for the children to observe every detail in the flowers & images, compare similarities/differences, & become more aware of details. These types of invitations to paint are amazing because it's interesting to observe each child's individual approach & creativity blossom. The simple joys of painting lets the children be engulfed in being present, creative, & engaged. Children who paint learn to think with an open mind, to look at situations creatively. Because there is no right way in the arts, children who paint can be proud to be unique and to express their artistic style.

Maryam Mirzakhan became the first woman and Iranian to win the Fields medal, a mathematician's highest award. In honor of #WomensHistoryMonth and learning more about the country of Iran during the month of March, we read the story Maryam’s Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani. In the story we learned that her creativity & love of stories helped her & the world to see math in a new & inspiring way. Growing up numbers were not of her interest until she discovered storytelling in geometry. When she grew up, she became a professor who invented new formulas to solve some of math's most complicated puzzles. After reading the story we explored shapes & geometric lines on the light table with translucent loose parts ( Translucent Mosaic Craft Tiles , Translucent Polygons ) & laminating sheets with geometric designs that Maryam would use. If you do not have a light table you can draw the designs on a large piece of butcher paper. The child was invited to create and explore the loose part shapes & designs on the light table in whatever way they desired. While this invitation explores shapes & designs, it can also be a fun way to match colors, shapes, make patterns, & build their recognition/language of the symbols. When a child uses loose parts to create drawn out images, shapes, or designs invitations, it gives opportunities to work on spatial awareness, exposes them to different forms of art, paying attention to detail, & enhancing their language skills as they communicate what they see or what they are doing. As they manipulate the loose parts to fit inside, outside, or around the designs they are enhancing their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, & shape recognition. Adding the sensory shapes to the light table provides for an excellent resource for sensory input. Children are often calmed by the glow of the table & the visual stimulation enhances their experience as they explore.

Saffron is the rarest & the most precious spice in the world. It has given its magical flavor, aroma, & appetizing color to foods, drinks or medicines for centuries. Saffron is one of the ancients & legendary spices that has diverse applications. Iran is the world’s biggest saffron producer & exporter & Iranian saffron is known to have the highest quality saffron in the world. Since the Iranian celebration Nowruz occurs in March, we read the book My Iran to learn more about the culture, explored the flower through pictures, & talked about where it comes from & what it is used for. After that we invited the children to create a Saffron Flower cuisine through sensory play with rice, loose parts, utensils, measuring cups, & dish-ware, since the spice is typically used to color foods, drinks, & medicine. To set up the invitation in we provided two large sensory bins. 1) With water, rice, yellow & orange liquid water color to mimic the coloring of saffron. 2) Purple petals like the saffron flower, red pipe cleaners as the red stigma, & rice. Next we invited the children create saffron flower cuisine. The children were able to scoop, pour, transfer, materials from the one container into another with a variety of kitchen utensils & containers. The assorted containers & kitchen utensils help encourage exploration of measuring & mixing. Whenever sensory play is incorporated in an invitation it fosters creativity & enables children to experiment with science & math concepts. Children begin to understand & investigate with ideas such as more/less, same/different, many/few, empty/full, before/after, greater than/less than.

During March we explore the country of Iran with my own children and the preschoolers. Since Nowruz occurs on the first day of Spring, it is the perfect time to learn and explore about other aspects of the country. Here are other invitations that explore both Nowruz and the culture. This invitation explores the lavish Golestan Palace. It is the sparkling jewel at the Heart of Tehran, Iran and one of the oldest buildings. It became a centre of arts + architecture and has remained a source of inspiration. It represents a new style incorporating traditional Persian arts and crafts and elements of 18th century architecture and technology. After reading the story My Iran by Katia Fradkina and Illustrated by Anastaiia Kompaniiets, looking at photos of the beautiful palace, and talking about it, we invited the children to recreate the building with inspired materials. Acrylic mirrors ( square , small + large rectangles, circles, hexagons ) sticker tiles , and loose parts ( flat marbles , iridescent white + blue mosaic tiles, glitter mosaic tiles , grapats ). Acrylic mirrors are an excellent source of visual sensory input and provide a lot of visual feedback as they create. Children are naturally drawn to the exploration of reflection, perception and appearance and it is a rather calming experience as they explore the materials. Adding loose parts to decorate mirrors like the palace, inspires the children to think more creatively while providing endless opportunities to continuously stimulate their curiosity. Since loose parts are dynamic in nature, it brings about the authenticity of formulating ideas and you can see a child's creativity shine in their creations.

#WomensHistory Month is March. Throughout this whole month we have been exploring women’s contributions to history, culture & society. While there are so many ways to celebrate & honor women, reading books & integrating them with an invitation is truly a powerful way to connect the two. Today we read the book The book Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn't Sorry by Fuasto Gilberti which is great way to learn more about the artist. It explores how Yayoi Kusama covers everything in dots which is what she is known for. Yayoi Kusama is a female Japanese contemporary artist. Her work primarily consisted in sculpture & installation, but she also has been active in painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, & other arts. A great way to integrate the book while giving the opportunity to recreate art just like Yayoi is through a collaborative invitation to create. We provided dot stickers ( small & big ), pom poms ( rainbow striped + glitter ), confetti circles, & glue . The children were invited to freely create all over the recycled boxes wrapped in butcher paper as their canvas. The beauty about collaborative collages are that they build community, foster cooperation, eliminate competition, and it is social! When children engage in #Processart such as this it allows children to explore freely, be in control of the outcomes creatively, & lets them discover art in their own way. This builds their confidence, fosters their cognitive skills & when they become aware of all the different ways they can do art, make predictions, plan it out/problem solve, everything comes full circle in believing they can create anything!

This was invitation was done by one of our teachers and it was too good not to share. Anything that’s translucent will make for magic on any light table. This isn’t traditional block play because the items being used are out of the norm, which makes for a great STEM challenge. Translucent plastic cups, tubes, and ping pong balls are perfect for STEM exploration. Whether it is building, sorting, creating patterns, enhancing color recognition, fine motor + hand-eye coordination skills, creative thinking, endless possibilities are explored through this type play. To set this invitation you will need a light table , translucent cups , tubes , small cups , and ping pong balls. When children explore and create during STEM building, the natural progression of "block play" teaches them how to move & manipulate objects by using their fine motor control to “click” them into place. Building helps the child enhance their visual-spatial skills which is crucial for reading readiness. Encourages thinking & reasoning. These skills are what make children become well-rounded, independent & successful adults. Involves focus & patience. Children need to work slowly & carefully to be successful at creating their designs. Through building & creating, the child will learn to experiment & make new discoveries about how things work. Light tables are an excellent resource for sensory input. Children are often calmed by the glow of the table & the visual stimulation enhances their experience as they explore to further enhance their play through an illuminating experience. Here are other ways to explore light, color, & shadow play: Flashlight STEM Light & Shadow Play , Rainbows , STEM , and Cellophane .

To invite a child(ten) to bead you can get a tackle box or craft jewelry box to store all of your beads and string in one place. Our favorite place to get a variety of beads in bulk from Discount School Supply. Here are the links to the ones pictured in the box. ( Colorations® Bright Wooden Beads , Big, Bright Animal Beads , Colored ABC Beads , Colorful Jumbo Pony Beads, Paint 'M Beads , Fun Shapes Pony Beads, Set of all 3 Pony Beads , Set of Black & White Beading Elastic) Stringing beads or threading beads is a very informative process for children in the early years. Often times it is a simple activity that is overlooked. There are so many developmental benefits for children to string beads in the early years. Fine Motor Skills- when threading the beads they are strengthening their finger muscles & the movement all together. The more they do this the easier being able to write, cut, open containers, button, & tie things. Hand-Eye Coordination Skills- As they grab the bead & place it to go through the string they will improve their hand-eye coordination skills. Bilateral Coordination Skills- As the children take one bead from one & string from another it helps build their bilateral coordination. This will help them in turn perform tasks such as cutting, dressing, pushing/pulling, & more. Visual Perception Skills- Whether they make patterns, sort by color, or sequence in a particular order in threading the beads, this gives them the ability to organize & sort. Which later on will help for pre-reading skills, #/shape/letter/color recognition, & understanding patterns. Early Math Skills- As they count, sort, sequence, & create patterns they are exploring & understanding a variety of math skills in an open-ended way. Language Skills- As they string the beads they will talk a bout the colors, textures, shapes, size, & more, which will encourage communication. Cognitive Skills- Threading takes time & concentration, therefore through this activity they will have to be patient & required to obtain perseverance when sitting for a long time to complete the activity. Creativity- Giving the child a variety of materials where they have the choice to create whatever they want empowers them to feel creative innovative. They have to solve problems on their own, take charge on how to make it work, & execute what their vision is. Ideal for ages 3+z Since beads are choking hazards supervision is always highly recommended.

Most of us know that art is important for children. But beyond why it is important for them to create art it is just vital to expose children to famous artists. Art connects us all. It can take us through history, introduce us to other cultures, the world around us, and to ourselves. Therefore the more a child is exposed to the arts, the more techniques they are aware of, the more they can problem solve to think critically, the more they can creatively express themselves, the more accepting they are, and the more beauty they can see in the world around them. Art is one of the fundamental components of what makes us ALL uniquely human. Kehinde Wiley is the African-American painter who is best known for portraits that feature African Americans in the traditional settings of old paintings with naturalistic brightly colored flowery backgrounds. After talking about his art and looking at what he has created, we invited the children to do a favorite around here and create colorful frames with loose parts ( gem cubes , mandala wooden parts , rainbow pebbles , wooden rings ) to adorn the paintings with open ended materials. As they created the frames, more discussion opened up in detail about the paintings, the children created patterns, compared the different materials they were using, counted and sorted the loose parts, collaborated together to create masterpieces, all while learning about another amazing #blackhistory month artist! Here is a previous rendition with other loose parts to create frames for Kehinde Wiley.