Use your lightbox to teach color identification and color mixing. Find colored transparency sheets in primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Cut the sheets into shapes and put them on the lightbox. Encourage the children to build patterns and designs with the shapes. What happens when the colors overlap? How many different colors can they create with just three primary colors? Cut a variety of shape and sizes to encourage creative exploration and creation.
Celebrate the seasons and holidays with a variety of lightbox activities. Take the children on a nature walk to collect leaves in the fall. Use the lightbox to examine the leaves and create arrangements. During Halloween draw a spiderweb pattern on enough clear transparency sheets to cover the surface of the lightbox. Give the children plastic spiders and cotton with which to play. Give the students transparent green triangles, beads and sequins to build and decorate Christmas trees in December.
Lightboxes serve as an ideal surface for tracing activities. Provide a variety of templates for tracing. Draw the templates with a thick black marker. Provide thin white paper for the children to place over the template and trace. Letters, numbers and student names work well for older preschoolers. Younger children can trace lines, curves and simple shapes. Or consider letting the children trace simple pictures to make their own coloring books.
Old picture slides or X-rays look amazing on a lightbox. Give the children magnifying glasses to examine the details on transparent picture slides. Talk about what they see. Encourage them to tell stories based on the picture. Put X-rays on the lightbox for children to explore or engage in dramatic play. Consider adding medical supplies and doctor coats to make an interactive imaginary play center.
Allow the children to create works of art with a variety of materials. Crepe paper, tissue paper, transparent beads and colored glass all work well on a lightbox. Give the children ample time to touch and move the materials, creating original designs. Consider taking photographs of the creations to display in the classroom.