Play Invitations

Large scale structures implies capacities, abilities and perceptions completely different from a small scale structure. The dialogue between the macro […]

Spiderwebs have inspired design, art and technology. Spiders can weave these thin but strong nets while manufacturing the raw material: […]

How wonderous it is to explore a city by night! Everything looks so different. And light really enhance some details […]

Representing the tridimensional world on a two-dimensional surface has been a challenge since the origins of artistic expression. No matter […]

Migration is a form of adaptation and part of the life cycle of many animal species that move from one […]

Time transforms everything. Construction, climate change, habits, and traditions continuously reshape the landscapes, the things we use, the buildings, how […]

When a few raindrops appear on a sunny day, we tend to look to the sky for rainbows. But they […]

The sky is blue, and the clouds are white. Except when they are a burning red and yellow or a […]

Emotions are felt differently by each person. Fear, for example, can send us body signals like dilated pupils, sweaty hands, […]

When we play with the possibilities of our body’s movement, we are often amazed by what we can achieve. But […]

Children are naturally interested in exploring the physical environment, observing, acting on, seeing how things react, and building new theories. […]

We are used to seeing our body as a complex shape full of details. To go beyond that representation, we […]

Understanding the places we inhabit has much to do with what we capture through our senses. Sound, for example, is […]

Many sounds are part of our daily life that we unconsciously listen to. As these sounds fill the background, we […]

It is impossible to disconnect sound from movement. We can think of movement as an emotional response to sound, as […]

Our perception of line varies according to the scale of our experience. One thing is to interact with a line […]

Often when we create a collection, more than collecting objects, we are collecting stories: the place where we found it, […]

Playing with loose parts to represent our faces ignites our imagination and the skill to create relations between objects and […]

Many standing structures have an inner system, like skeletons inside animal bodies, that serves as support and resist to tension, […]

Set up this Play Invitation so children can create beautiful collages, using advertising materials (brochures, postcards, and other colorful “junk […]

Using black construction paper as a background makes the colors and shapes in a collage “pop.” Children can use special […]

This play invitation unfolds the wonder of mixing pigments in water, creating unexpected color compositions. Children can develop spatial awareness […]

Here’s a simple painting technique that gives children an amazing opportunity to create some incredible designs. By using rubber bands […]

What makes a good surface for painting is not just its texture or format but also the possibilities it allows. […]

There are so many ways to make children’s drawings come to life. With this Play Invitation, glue tracings will stand […]

How amazing would it be to make a secret message drawing? With this technique, children can make invisible drawings that […]

Drawing is the first permanent way children communicate their ideas. With this Play Invitation, children will discover the beauty of […]

This is an amazing printing technique that results in surprising and unpredictable, but always dazzling, effects. By engaging in this […]

Drawing on different surfaces expands children’s repertoire of materials, and offers them new possibilities for expression. As wood has a […]

Brown bags make wonderful painting surfaces, not just because of the resistant material they are made of, but also because […]

There’s something wonderful about discovering unexpected effects! This is what usually happens when we mix different media or materials, especially […]

Encounters between art and nature have the power to arouse our curiosity and draw our attention to shapes and processes. […]

Tiny things capture children’s attention because of their scale – and because they are so small, children can see them […]

What Could Lead Us to This Play Invitation Materials Needed Setting up This Play Invitation How to Create the Painting […]

Using unusual materials for an art surface, such as a large ice chunk, activates children’s curiosity! With this Play Invitation […]

Using common materials as an art surface, such as newspaper, provides rich opportunities to explore lots of different possibilities and […]

This is a great Play Invitation that combines math and the creation of three-dimensional art. Cardboard tubes are an inexpensive […]

With this Play invitation, children can experiment with materials and techniques, discovering exciting new ways to transform their ideas into […]

Cardboard is an amazing material that offers many possibilities to develop creativity, and to experiment with mixed media techniques. In […]

There’s something maginc about creating your own materials. This Play Invitations offers children the opportunity to live a process of […]

This Play Invitation introduces one of the many different ways to manipulate and move paint. By holding a hand broom […]

This activity introduces one of the many different ways to manipulate and move paint using a common kitchen item: a […]

This fun Play Invitation is always one of children’s favorites. It mixes movement, sound, and mark making! A plunger is […]

We definitely love a Play Invitation that brings movement and mark making experiences, and this one is a favorite no […]

Creating marks is a way for children to assume their own place in the world, to establish their existence, and […]

Creativity doesn’t just depend on how we use materials, but also on the materials themselves.In this proposal, we go to […]

Children love tents, forts and hiding places. This is a great way to harness a secret drawing place and foster […]

This Play Invitation explores the big science ideas of constancy and change. When children make marks on a coffee filter, […]

In this Play Invitation, children can explore concepts like connection, line and shape.  They’ll also exercise eye-hand coordination, as the eyes guide the hands in their […]

This is a deeply creative and fun way to make marks! Part of the fun of this activity is the […]

With this Play Invitation children can develop their visuospatial attention, since they’ll need to observe and coordinate their movements according […]

When children create tools like the Scribble Maker, they get to try out new ideas and see themselves as inventors, […]

When children draw, they are usually close to the paper and therefore have more control of the marker or pencil. […]

Markers on “wheels” provides a wonderful exploration of speed in the act of making marks. With this Play Invitation children […]

In this invitation to play, a water-resistant medium is applied to a dry paper before painting. The crayon resists the […]

Chalk drawings on rock date back to the Stone Age. Did you know that chalk is a form of limestone […]

There is a predictable pattern when mixing colors together to produce a new color. With this Play Invitation, children can […]

Did you know that black is not considered a color because it doesn’t have a specific wavelength of visible light? […]

Did you know that we can see millions of distinct colors but cannot name each of them? Human language categorizes […]

Secrets and mysteries feed our imagination, and are part of a fantastic world that children create spontaneously and naturally. With […]

This is an imagination-filled marking adventure! When we join different forms of expression, the most fantastic proposals can emerge. In […]

The sense of sight is the ability to see and identify objects around you. Our eyes give us the capacity […]

The world is full of sensory stimuli. Everywhere we go, there are colors, smells, sounds, and textures. With this Play […]

Sometimes children can find it difficult to put what they are feeling into words. Mark making can provide a safe […]

When you repeat a sequence, mathematically speaking it is called a pattern. Drumming is a natural way to teach children […]

When a child makes a mark on a piece of paper with a marker, the mark is constant in its […]

This Play Invitation is wonderful for helping children feel the space of the paper and the size of their markings. […]

Children use mark making as a means to explore their emotions and make meaning of their experience. Mark making can […]

Markers make big, bold marks! Think about the certainty and strength of a good marker. The biggest challenge of markers, […]