Open-ended materials support children to design, make, reflect, refine, remake and discuss their ideas. Let’s look at how you can make a creating kit together, one that your child can use over and over!
Gather all the materials
Go on a treasure hunt in your home and garden/park with your child looking for items to create with. You might find:
- Paper from the printer and other types of paper such as wrapping paper, coloured paper, cardboard, newspaper, advertising material in your letterbox, envelopes (new or used)
- Materials to recycle such as egg cartons, cereal boxes, other small boxes (see what you can save into jars or leave in the bag inside the box if these are in your pantry), plastic bottles and containers, big boxes from deliveries or those ones you kept just in case, tissue boxes (great for posting things into when you’re little), paper tubes, ribbons, packaging materials, tissue paper. Natural materials like shells, leaves, twigs, stones, interesting seed pods and any other items capturing your child’s interest.
- Any art materials like paint, food colouring, glue sticks and other glue, string, tape, stapler, child-sized scissors, hole punch, crayons, marker and chalks.
Store the materials in a large container
Keep adding to these containers over time. Children will love this collection and will spend hours creating, using this resource often.
Enjoy!
Enjoy the peace and quiet when your child is fully engaged, or join them to create! Don’t forget to take photos of your child’s creations and share with other family members; your child might like to choose the ones they want a photo of.