ERS Quantities Brainstorm

ERS Quantities Brainstorm

 

 

 

At our February Reflective Practice Group, we played a BINGO like game to look at meeting the quantities of materials needed for the Environment Rating Scale.  Most of these areas need 3-5 items, which can be costly.  Below is the brainstorm from the group of low cost alternatives.  The activity areas we looked at are ones that are often found in our practice assessments to be lacking.

 

Activity Area	You might find this at the Dollar Store	You might find this at a Thrift Shop	You might find this at home, homemade or free	You might find this at someplace like Target or Fred Meyer	You might need to get this from an ECE catalog
Props for sand or water play	Sand molds, buckets, plastic shovels, flowers, measuring cups, watering cans, funnels, tubing, spoons, strainers, wash cloths	Sifters, shells, measuring cups, fish, egg beaters, basters, gems, whisks, funnels, colanders, pitchers, trucks/cars,	Sponges, towels, syringes, basters, leaves, shells, tubs, ice, food color, shells, sticks,	Trucks, cups, food color, baby soap, water wheels, molds, scoops, basters, cloths, sponges, animals, fish, rakes, buckets, PVC tubes	Test tubes, tubing, glitter, animals, dolls, beakers, boats, water wheel, tubs, cars, pipettes
Manipulatives (vs. small building materials)	Buttons, beads, pegs	Zippers, links, peg boards, lacing items	Snaps, lacing cards, geoboards, shoes and laces, Beads for stringing, put/take box	Stretchy balls, geoboards	Chain links, nuts/bolts, peg boards, lacing cards, pop beads, locks boards
Counting	Glass counters, straws, dice, dominoes, cards, pomp poms, calculators	Glass rocks, clock, buttons, ice cube trays, muffin tins	Buttons, calendars, make graphs, rocks, Beans, play money, egg cartons, homemade math games	Dominoes, playing cards, toothpicks, play money, number chart	Unifix cubes, Abacus, teddy bear counters, cash register, clock, timers, number chart
2nd dramatic play theme – Post Office	Envelopes, hats, manila envelopes, maps, boxes, calendar, play money, stamps. Cards, rubber finger, stamp pad, rubber bands, pencils, stickers	Satchels, blue (USPS) or brown (UPS) shirts, cards, maps, phone, scale	Mailbox, junk mail, packaging, signs, stamps, packing peanuts, forms, newspapers, shoe boxes, make price chart, boxes, scale, keyboard, paper, print pictures of post office from web	Stamps, postcards, bubble wrap, date rubber stamp, stationery, address labels, tape, envelopes, mailboxes, maps	Scales, scanners, play money, mail boxes, uniforms, cash registers, nametags, mail trucks, hats
3D art materials	Playdough, foam, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, straws, craft sticks		Homemade doughs, paper tubes and boxes, Styrofoam, wood	PVC pipes, tubes,  foam, boxes, playdough, clay	Clays
Movement props	Scarves, wands, ribbons, streamers, bean bags, balls	Tap/ballet shoes, hula skirts, scarves	Ankle bells, bean bags, scarves, streamers, ribbons	Feathers, hoops, CD player	Bean bags, yoga cards
Diversity in dramatic play (cultural, ability, male/female)	Ethnic dishes, jewelry, glasses (lenses out), hats	Male and female dress-ups, ethnic dishes, crutches, wheelchair, cane, walker, wok	Glasses (lenses out), male and female dress-ups, take out menus from local ethnic restaurants, empty food containers,	Bento boxes, magazines, ethnic cook books, male and female dress-ups, Asian dishes, jewelry	Multicultural dolls, dolls with disabilities, posters/pictures, books, play foods, ethnic kitchen sets, world play money
Measuring	Measuring cups and spoons, rulers, tape measure, yard stick	Measuring spoons and cups, timer, rulers, scales	Tape measure, bathroom scale, height chart, graphing, yardstick timer	Yardstick, rulers, scales, timers, tape measure, measuring cups and spoons, height chart, stopwatch	Scale, height chart, timers