Creative Kid Table Week 1: Toilet Paper Rolls & Googly Eyes

We have a pretty awesome art center. It lives in the playroom and is full of really great materials. It was always my pride and joy… until it got out of hand. It became a catch all for junk and completely unusable. For months I meant to clean it out, organize it and bring it back to the incredible space it once was.

Knowing that one of the things on my summer goal list was to use this creative space again, I finally cleaned it out last month! (It was one of those jobs that only takes a fraction of the time you think it will… so you kick yourself for wasting so much time dreading it.)

Now that our art center has been stripped to the basics (crayons, markers, colored pencils, tape, glue and paper), it’s time to get the kids excited about creating again. That’s where the Creative Kid Table series comes in.

Creative Kid Table Week 1: Toilet Paper Rolls & Googly Eyes

What you need: toilet paper rolls and other round tubes, googly eyes, glue and markers. (These are affiliate links. Thanks for supporting A Mom with a Lesson Plan.)

Tips for setting up the creative kid table:

• Clear everything else away from the space so that these few items really stand out.
• Allow your little creators to add other materials if they want to… but don’t suggest it.
• Plan to leave these items set up for a couple of days. You might be surprised that there is more than one way to create with such simple materials.

Questions to get your kids started:

• Talk about what a creature might look like with a lot of eyes.
• “What would it be like if you had eyes all around your head?”
• “Can you make a sad monster? Or an angry one? Or one that is very excited?”

Take it a step further:

• Could the creations become a toy to play with?

Tips for making your own art center:

• Become a junk collector. Think about every piece of “trash” that is about to head out to the curb. Could it be used for something? We have a big box in our art area that holds recyclable gems.
• Take it a step further. If your friends and family know you use recycled material, odds and ends and otherwise discarded stuff… you will be handed creative treasures. ALL THE TIME!!! I can not tell you how many boxes of goodies I’ve gotten this way.