Pre-K Printable Fun
  • Home
  • About
    • Subscribe
    • Facebook Group >
      • Instagram
    • Contact Me
  • Blog
  • Theme Planning
    • Preschool Spring Themes
  • Educator Resources
    • Dramatic Play
    • Art & Creativity
    • Language & Literacy
    • Math
    • Physical Health
    • Science
    • Social & Emotional Development
    • Social Studies
    • For Educators
    • For Parents
    • Free Preschool Printables
  • Join our Membership
  • Log In
  • Store

Create an invitation to play using printables and loose parts

10/23/2020

Comments

 
Picture
Learn how to set up your own invitation to play using printable activities and loose parts! Join our guest blogger Veronica Green-The Director of Ronnie's Preschool, as she shares tips and resources for setting up these lovely invitations in your own early childhood program.
Play is an innate desire for children. Play is how children make sense of their world, create new theories and build upon their knowledge.  Play is the essential tool we as Educators use to guide children through their development to become independent, creative and higher level thinkers who have the confidence and skills to problem solve, and learn from their mistakes.  Children learn through hands on experiences and I am going to discuss how we can create engaging play experiences for children. This is a special project as I am combining Pre-K Printable Fun activities with Loose Parts from my personal collection. 

Why set up an invitation to play?

I love to set up inviting and beautiful invitations to play for children that are filled with wonder and curiosity.  An invitation to play is simply that, an invite, a welcoming to explore the curiosities, questions, and wonderings the children or yourself may have with the items set out.  There is no set directions to follow, but the materials specifically chosen with meaning and intention, provoke the children where to look but not what to do. This invitation to play using the Crow Color Cards and the Color Leaf and Tree Matching printables are combined with a variety of unique and interesting resources that provoke colors, matching, sorting, and identifying but also many opportunities to simply play with the items.
Picture
Invitations to explore:
  • Colors
  • Matching
  • Sorting
  • Identification
Additional Possibilities
  • Small World Play
  • Social Interactions
  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Sensory Experience
Picture
Picture
Picture

What materials do we choose?

This is such an important aspect, because the resources and materials we provide children not only add to the wonder and curiosities of the children, but also the potentialities of learning.   Loose Parts are an integral part of any invitation to play I create. They are a must have! But, What are loose parts?  According to Daly & Beloglovsky (2015) authors of Loose Parts, Inspiring Play in Young Children, “loose parts mean alluring, beautiful found objects and materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change while they play” (page 3).  This is a very broad definition because loose parts can be ANYTHING! Adding wood cookies, colored stones, real leaves and peg people to this Literacy and Letter Invitation to Play provides limitless opportunities for play and learning.
Picture

loose parts, play, and Sensory Systems

Utilizing Loose Parts in play is wonderful because of the different textures, weights, sounds, movements, tastes, and visual stimulation they provide.  We are all sensory and need sensory input, and children are developing their sensory systems.  Carol Kranowitz, author of The Out of Sync Child, said, “Sensory is developmental, not learned.”  Carefully choosing items that provide a variety of sensory stimulation and combining that with open-ended opportunities for play is essential for any child’s development.  Loose Parts such as real leaves, sticks, wood cookies, grass, pine cones, and rocks are a wonderful way to bring the outside in and connect children with nature which is a very naturally calming sensory experience in itself.
Invitation for Literacy and Letters
  • Uppercase and Lowercase
  • New Words
  • Matching
  • Fine & Gross Motor Skills


Additional possibilities:
  • Small World Play
  • Building
  • Transient Art
  • Sensory Experience
Picture
Picture
Picture

Why should we make the invitation aesthetically pleasing?

Think about yourself walking into a kitchen or clothing store, or a new restaurant.  How does it make you feel or react when you see a beautiful display or cozy pillows and comfy chairs with soft lights hanging from above.  Our curiosity is provoked from a well thought out display of baking bowls or wine glasses that makes us have to touch and explore the item.  Or in a cozy restaurant we don’t notice the time, want to stay, feel relaxed and connected with the person we are socially interacting with. Aesthetically pleasing environments that have been designed with meaning and intention are thought provoking, resulting in high engagement.  This is what we want for children, and they deserve it. Children are remarkably creative, and given the right environment they will flourish and shower us with their ingenious ideas and creativity. Some of the elements I add that can make the invitation to play more visually appealing are mirrors, greenery, lights, and fabrics.
Picture
Invitation to Play with Numbers using the Counting Tree Rings from the Leaves and Trees Activity Pack combined with Loose Parts and Mirrors as the base.  Adding mirrors to any invitation to play provides opportunities for self-identity, reflection, and symmetry.
Invitations to play with numbers;
  • Numeracy
  • Counting
  • One-to-one correspondence
  • Sorting
Additional Possibilities:
  • Self-identity
  • Reflection
  • Symmetry
  • Sensory Experience
Picture
Picture
Picture

Where do I start?  and how do I collect loose parts?

These are two very common questions among Educators, and my advice is to START SIMPLE!  Introduce new items slowly and through invitations to play. The children will show you the endless possibilities and you don’t have the need to go out and collect a hundred new items!  If you notice in the images, I used many of the same items over to show the versatility and I also used items that were either free or relatively inexpensive. I always find a simple way to start with an invitation to play is through play dough.  Children love to poke, squish, and hide all sorts of items in play dough and introducing loose parts this way is simple and easy!
Picture
Invitation to play with dough:
  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Sensory Experience
  • Creative Thinking
Additional Possibilities:
  • Social Interactions
  • Language
  • Gross Motor (since there are no chairs)
Picture
Picture
Picture

To begin your collection of loose parts, find out if your city has a local reuse centre or an art junk store.  These locations you typically pay a very small fee for a certain amount of weight. For example, my local reuse center I paid $5 for 10lbs of items.  I created a whole loose parts shelf with all sorts of unique items for $5!! Other ways are to ask your families or community to donate items. Sometimes providing a list of specific things you are looking for can help, so you don’t receive too many unwanted items.  Lastly, NATURE is filled with wonderful loose parts. Go on a nature walk and collect sticks, rocks, pine cones, bark, and other beautiful found objects outside!
Here is a list of some of my favorite loose parts:

  • cardboard boxes and tubes
  • glass colored stones
  • wood cookies & tree stumps
  • shells, rocks, sticks
  • feathers, pom poms
  • napkin ring holders
  • bracelets
  • hair rollers
  • cable reels
  • sewing reels
  • fabrics, scarves
  • tin cans, juice lids
  • old dvd’s


I hope you are inspired and feel confident in creating beautiful meaningful and engaging invitations to play for the children in your program! 

Thank you,

Veronica Green
E.C.E., B.P.E.
Picture

About our guest poster

Veronica Green is the current Director of Ronnie's Preschool. She has been an Early Childhood Educator for 6 years, supporting a variety of children from infancy to kindergarten in many different capacities, including her position as an Assistant Director for a YMCA Early Years program.

Veronica has been a long time participant of our FB Community, and has been very active in sharing photos of her amazing environment, and invitations to play.  
Be sure to follow her on Facebook and Instagram to view her inspiring ideas

If you are looking for some opportunities for professional development, she is also supporting early childhood educators in a professional capacity with her amazing On-line and Live Local workshops in Winnipeg, Canada. On her website  ronniespreschool.com, you can also sign up for her newsletter called  "All Things Early Years"  which is full of professional development resources, and view her suggested educator resources.


Printables featured in this post

Leaves and Trees Activity Pack

$5.00
Shop

crow color clip cards

$0.00
Shop

Fall Play Dough Mats

$2.00
Shop

You Might Like

Creating a Space for Construction
Ikea on a Daycare budget
Card Games for Early Learners
Educator Spotlight
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Comments
    Picture

    What can I help you find?


    Get Free
    Lesson Plans!

    50+ Free Sample Preschool Lesson Plans!
    Free Lesson Plans
    Sign Me Up!

    Popular Products

    Let's Build STEM Poster Pack

    $3.00
    Shop

    Circle Time Binder

    $8.00
    Shop

    Alphabet Play Dough Mats

    $5.00
    Shop

    Let's connect!


    By Category:

    All
    4th Of July
    Activity Pack
    Airport Dramatic Play
    Alphabet
    Animals
    Ants
    Aound The World
    Apples
    Aquarium
    Arctic Animals Igloos Ice
    Around The World
    Arts & Crafts
    Back To School
    Bakery
    Birds
    Black History
    Blocks And Construction
    Book Lists For Kids
    Calendar
    Camping
    Canada
    Candy Canes
    Car Wash
    Caterpillars And Butterflies
    Childcare Providers
    Chinese New Year
    Chinese Restaurant
    Christmas
    Circle Time
    Circle Time Binder
    Circus
    Clouds Wind & Rain
    Colors
    Community Helpers
    Costume Shop
    COVID19
    Craft Tutorials
    Cut And Paste
    Deck The Halls
    Dental Health
    Dentist Office
    Diner
    Dinosaurs
    Doctor's Office
    Dramatic Play
    Dramatic Play Props
    Early Learning Standards
    Earth Day And Recycling
    Easter
    Educator Resources
    Educator Spotlight
    Fairy Tales
    Fall
    Family Friends Home
    Farm
    Farmers Market
    Father's Day
    Feelings And Emotions
    Felt
    Fine Motor
    Fingerplays
    Fire Safety
    Flowers & Bees
    Focus Wall
    Forest Animals
    Free Printables
    Fruits-and-vegetables
    Fun In The Sun
    Gardening
    Gingerbread
    Graduation
    Graph & Measure
    Grocery Store
    Gross Motor
    Groundhog Day
    Halloween
    Health & Safety
    Healthy Me
    Holiday
    Holiday Printables
    Homeschooling Pre-K
    Hot Chocolate
    Ice Cream
    Ideas For Educators
    IKEA
    Infants & Toddlers
    Insects
    Kwanzaa
    Language & Literacy
    Learning Spaces
    Learning To Count
    Learning To Read
    Leaves & Trees
    Lesson Planning
    Let's Build
    Letter Formation
    Letter Recognition
    Little Miss Muffet
    Loose Parts
    March
    Martin Luther King Jr. Day
    Math
    Meals
    Medieval Fantasy
    Member Round UP
    Military
    Mother Goose & Nursery Rhymes
    Mother's Day
    Movie Theater
    Mud Kitchen
    Music
    Music Space
    Music Wall
    Name Recognition
    National Card Playing Day
    News Station
    New Years
    Number Formation
    Numbers
    Ocean
    One To One Coorespondence
    Oral Language & Literacy Activities
    Organizing
    Organizing & Storage
    Outer Space
    Outside
    Parent Communication
    Parent Engagement
    Pattern Blocks
    Patterning
    Penguins
    Pets
    Phonemic Awareness
    Physical Development
    Picnics
    Pie Stand
    Pizza
    Play Dough
    Police
    Pond
    Positional Phrases
    Post Office
    Post Office Printables
    Pre-K Activities On A Budget
    Pre K At Home
    Pre-K At Home
    Pre-K Printables Club
    Pre-Writing
    Printable
    Printing Tips
    Process Art
    Product Tutorials
    Pumpkin Patch Dramatic Play
    Pumpkins
    Puppet Theater
    Puzzles
    Rainbow
    Reading Space
    Rebus Stories
    Rhymes
    Rocks Dirt And Mud
    Round Up
    Routine
    Safety
    Sandwich Shop
    Santa And His Helpers
    Santa's Workshop
    Scarecrows Corn And Crows
    Science
    Science And Discovery
    Science Space
    Seek And Find Activities
    Self Care
    Sensory
    Sensory Bin Activities
    Shapes
    Sight Words
    Small World Play
    Snack Tutorial
    Snakes
    Snakes Printables
    Snow And Snowmen
    Social Emotional
    Social Studies
    Songs
    Sorting And Classification
    Spaces
    Spiders
    Sports
    Spring
    Spring Cleaning
    Spring Weather
    Squirrels And Acorns
    STEAM
    STEM
    Storybook Theater
    Storytime Activities
    St. Patrick's Day
    Summer
    Sweet Treats
    Teaching Tips
    Theme Pacing Calendar
    Themes
    Toy Rotation
    Transportation
    Turkeys And Thanksgiving
    Tutorials
    Under The Sea
    Valentine's Day
    Veterans Day
    Veterinarian
    Visual Discrimination
    Water Cycle Science Activities
    Weather
    Winter
    Winter Clothes
    Winter Themes
    Word Families
    Word Wall Activities
    Worms Snails Slugs
    Writing Activities
    Writing Tray
    Zoo
    Zoom

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    September 2018
    June 2013
    February 2013
    April 2010

    RSS Feed

50+ Free Preschool Lesson Plans

Picture

Get your free sample plans!

    I'd like the plans!

Submit

Let's Connect

Picture
Copyright © 2020 prekprintablefun.com
  • Home
  • About
    • Subscribe
    • Facebook Group >
      • Instagram
    • Contact Me
  • Blog
  • Theme Planning
    • Preschool Spring Themes
  • Educator Resources
    • Dramatic Play
    • Art & Creativity
    • Language & Literacy
    • Math
    • Physical Health
    • Science
    • Social & Emotional Development
    • Social Studies
    • For Educators
    • For Parents
    • Free Preschool Printables
  • Join our Membership
  • Log In
  • Store