Creation Station, The Best Thing I’ve Ever Added to My Classroom

Kids are crafty and creative. If you give them a pile of materials, they will think of ways to put things together that we, intelligent adults that we are, would never have thought of in a million years. They’ll make all of our Pinterest searching and project planning seem like, well, child’s play. But Creation Station isn’t just about making things! Here are a few of the areas that get a boost when options like this are added to a classroom:

Fine Motor Development
Hand-Eye Coordination
Materials & Tools Experience
Critical Thinking
Planning
Problem Solving
Oral Language

Creation Stations are easy to set up and inexpensive. I sent out a message to parents asking for their recyclables and they started pouring in! I found some clear bins and made labels, sorting things by type and by what would fit into a bin together. I put our other art materials nearby. Our markers, glue, scissors, and crayons are all in easy-to-transport bins, jars, and baskets since we work with them all over the room. Most of our “general” crafting supplies are on a tray so that we can move the whole shebang at once.

The kiddos keep it straightened and I do a weekly purge of the out of control scraps. I went through this week, with the kids, and labeled each jar of markers with the colors that should be there so that each jar has a full set instead of 10 greens.

Below are just a handful of projects that have come out of the Creation Station (all from our current unit which just started last week!). I gave no directions and made no suggestions. I provided bins and art supplies, parents provided recyclables, the rest is all the kids.

C made the spaceship and taped the straw on the bottom as a handle so he could fly it around. He then taught R how to make one and they had to problem solve because R’s straw kept falling off.

H made this rocket and telescope, then taught M how to make his own telescope. If you look closely, you can see something very intentional in H’s telescope. She said, “You can see things that are far away. If you look, you can see the earth through this telescope. It’s blue and green. The blue is water.”