Create an arts and crafts center for preschool students to create and play. Craft materials can be found at inexpensive prices. Even recyclable materials from home can be used in the arts and crafts center, such as paper towel tubes, egg cartons, milk jugs, buttons and yarn. Use egg cartons to make caterpillars, toilet paper tubes to make little pigs and milk jugs to create bird feeders.
Make homemade items to add to your arts and crafts or manipulatives center, such as homemade play dough, colored sand, bubbles and paint. These items can be made relatively cheap from your own home. To make these items you need basic ingredients you can probably find in your kitchen. Items such as flour, vegetable oil, food coloring and dish soap can be used to make a variety of homemade play things. ArtistsHelpingChildren.org has some ideas and recipes for several safe homemade items.
Create a math and manipulatives learning center for students. Use a variety of materials to get kids familiar with numbers and counting. Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, beans, pasta and marbles are some inexpensive materials to use in the center. Have kids count the items as they put them into paper cups. Place measuring items such as rulers and measuring cups in the center to encourage students to use the items and become familiar with them.
Add new items to your music center to bring out the enthusiasm in your students. Make your own musical instruments from materials you find around the house. Place dry beans between two paper plates, then staple the two plates together around the edges. Shake your instrument to make music. Create a small stringed instrument using a toilet paper tube, a rubber band and a stapler. Cut a rubber band in half, then staple each end to the inside of each end of the toilet paper tube. Pop the rubber band to create a musical sound.