Blocks of various sizes and materials-soft for younger children, wooden blocks of varying sizes for older children along with cars and trucks and little people to create great buildings and cities.  Block building activities give children their best introduction to math, balance, design, and creativity. Children learn a great deal through the problem solving that occurs as disruptions frequently take place in the block center, but teachers give children the skills to figure out how they can work together.

Materials and props for creative dramatic play fill this area. There will be kitchen toys, baby doll toys, dress up, and other materials to enhance the children’s pretend story making.  Children explore life experiences and their own wondering ideas of how things work. Children begin using items to represent other items, making up stories, and playing pretend with their friends in this popular area.  In these first two mentioned centers, children at a young age begin the understanding of symbol making as they use different toys to represent their ideas in play.  It is from these pretend and imaginative times that children will grow an understanding of words as symbols of thought and that will enable children to one day understand how words can be used in books. Toys used will be open ended and creative allowing children to pretend their own stories. Our learning materials will not make use of cultural, cartoon type toys that limit the pretending to just what children have seen on tv. We want children to create new pretend play scenes.

Table top and manipulative toys facilitate development of small motor skills and figuring out how things fit together and work.  These might include stacking toys, legos, bristle blocks, shape sorters, puzzles, bead stringing, and counting toys.  This area is where many problems are solved both with the materials and in conflict with other children.  

Art materials and tools help children explore the process, not a final product, using a variety of creative materials such as paints, crayons, markers, collage materials, scissors, and tape. You will not see any teacher made models, coloring sheets, or other predetermined adult standards setting the child up to feel as though they cannot meet the expectations.  The art center at school is for creative, child initiated, and experiential work, whether we know what it is or not does not matter.  It is the child’s work. Adults will not draw for children but guide them in creating their own pictures.  We want the child to feel proud of their work and not just for a finished product to please the adults.  Manipulating these creative art materials also grows those small muscles which will one day handle a pencil for writing.

Out of respect for all our families, you will not see jello, pudding, rice, beans, pasta, or grits or other food stuff being used in a careless manner in the art center as an item to glue or play with.  These are staple foods for families and should not be wasted in play. 

There are sensory tables in toddler and preschool classrooms giving children time to play in water or sand, ice, mud, or snow or other creative ways teachers design for children to learn through their senses. Infants are exploring the world through chewing on toys and scooting along on the floor. They get to experience the different floor coverings, mats, cushions surrounding their space. Measuring, pouring, comparing and experimenting with materials enable children to learn, feel, and figure out what to do with these materials.  Sometimes it will be messy, but that is ok. Water and towels will clean it up.