Foster creativity by offering children choice in terms of materials. Arranging the room into distinct centers, where children know they can go to engage in specific activities, such as reading, cooking or painting and coloring, also promotes creativity. In her book "Introduction to Early Childhood Education," author Eva Essa suggests including open-ended play materials that give children choices and have a variety of uses.
Encourage dramatic play. Provide a variety of costumes encourages children to explore various roles, such as being a police officer, dentist or carpenter. Acquire props, such as wands, badges, glasses, and shoes that can be used in a variety of combinations. Storing costumes and accompanying props in clear, labeled boxes makes it easier for children to see what is inside each container and to keep related items together when cleaning up.
Arrange child-sized furniture like stoves and sinks to create a cooking center. Use low shelves to hold baskets with kitchen props such as pans, plates, cups and plastic food, items that encourage children to offer hospitality to their classmates as well as to practice selecting a menu, measuring ingredients and setting the table, important social and life skills.
Provide many types of musical toys, including xylophones, keyboards, triangles or tambourines. Play or sing familiar tunes like "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" or "The Alphabet Song" so children can use their instruments to produce new sounds and provide accompaniment.
Keep at hand a variety of art materials. Use small bins or baskets to store different types of brushes, such as large ones for paint cups as the easel or small, thin ones for water colors. Offering paper in a variety of sizes and textures as well as choices in writing utensils, such as colored pencils or markers and chalk in varying thicknesses, promotes artistic expression and experimentation.
Change the sensory table regularly. Put water in the table along with small plastic boats, sea animals and shells for a nautical theme. Fill the table with sand and provide measuring cups, small plastic pails and shovels to explore the beach. Collect crunchy fall leaves that children can crackle with hands and bury pine cones or toy squirrels. Whether touching, weighing or measuring, children are using their own creativity to learn about the properties of the objects.