Featured in The Possibilities of Play: Imaginative Learning Centers for Children Ages 3-6, by Dr. Jean Feldman and Carolyn Kisloski, this learning center activity is a perfect opportunity to develop small-motor skills and practice recognizing environmental print and thinking creatively.

City Designs

Materials

Store and restaurant logos
Photos of your school and community
Packing tape
Wooden blocks of different sizes
Paper
Markers

What to Do

Find store and restaurant logos on the internet, and then print them and cut them out. Tape the logos to blocks with clear packing tape. Tape pictures of your school, post offce, and other places in your community to other blocks. Encourage the children to design a city with the blocks. For a greater challenge, give the children paper, markers, and tape and let them make their own signs that they tape to blocks for buildings. For even more fun, walk around your school and community and take pictures of the children’s favorite places. Make copies of the pictures and tape them to blocks.