About Me

I'm a teacher turned stay at home mama. I love finding things to make and do!

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Free Art

When I taught kindergarten, the most popular free play area in my room was the art area. Kids would spend their entire free play time constructing impressive projects with simple tools.  I've been wanting to give A the same opportunity, so the other week I set out some art/craft tools to see what would happen.  

This is the before picture of our toy shelf in our main living area (note the lovely wedding photo of Mama and Daddy :)):

This is our after picture!

I placed a magazine holder with coloring books and different types of paper in the first cube.  (Disregard the whole, "my name is P.M." thing.  This is from my afternoon K class and I never peeled the sticker off!) I also added colored pencils and two types of crayons for easy access.
In the second cube, I put a drawer organizer. You can see a tape dispenser and pencil case on top.  The pencil case has a pencil, glue stick and scissors in it (easy for my 4 year-old to get to, but not for my 2 year-old)
The first drawer has popsicle sticks and stampers

The second drawer has stencils and rubbing plates

The third drawer has stickers and a pencil box with markers. I wanted A to have the option to use markers without having them out in the open where little sis could get to them.
This has worked so well, and A has made some really great drawings and popsicle stick creations.  I've since added a bunch of supplies to this shelf and I'll be updating with another post soon.