Illuminating Creativity: Exploring 30+ Open-Ended Light Panel Activities for Kids
Embarking on the enchanting world of open-ended light panel activities with kids is like unlocking a realm of wonder and creativity. In this blog, we invite you to join us in exploring the mesmerizing possibilities that unfold when children engage with light panels without constraints or predetermined outcomes. These activities not only captivate young imaginations but also serve as a canvas for endless discovery and innovation. As we illuminate the path to open-ended exploration, you'll discover the magical interplay of light and creativity, fostering holistic development in our little learners. So, let's turn on the light and embark on an illuminating journey into the boundless world of open-ended light panel activities for kids.
You can download our free light panel activity guide here
This activity is such a fun way to explore primary colour mixing in a new perspective. As children explore mixing the colours they can also practice making unique patterns!
Take a freezer bag and pour primary colour paint in different corners of the bag! Squeeze out all the air in the bag and seal it. Once sealed place your bag on your light panel cover and tape it down. Place the cover on your light panel and turn it on!
Begin pulling the paint from each corner and mix them together to explore what colours they create! Once your colours are mixed start exploring creating patterns and drawing with paint scrapers or your fingers!
Geometric Reflections
This activity is a great way for children to explore shapes, creating patterns and symmetry! Children will love exploring reflections and being creative with all the different loose parts.
Take two acrylic mirrors and gently tape them together to form a mirrored corner. Place it on the corner of your light panel and then place translucent pattern blocks, counters and other translucent loose parts in containers for children to use to create their geometric designs that will be reflected fully!
Rainbow Mark Making
This activity is a great way to encourage children to explore sensory play and pre-writing skills in a new way. Drop your play scarves over the light panel and place your light panel cover over the scarves. Once it is in place pour play sand in the tray and offer paint brushes or sticks to encourage mark making! Turn on the light panel and begin exploring.
Children can explore letter, number and shape formation, creating mark patterns, explore open ended mark making, or simply explore revealing colours!
Mark making is the beginning of a child’s journey towards writing and is an important step in a child’s development for handwriting, creativity and coordination! The added element of sensory play allows children to explore and create in a new texture.
Let's observe and notice different unique nature specimens! This is such a fun and engaging activity to inspire nature-based learning and science-based inquiry. Go on a nature walk or go to local nature centers and pet stores and acquire specimens - fill jars or refillable window blocks with your specimens and leave out magnifying glasses and note taking materials for children to observe. They make great motivators for children to draw and write and to use lots of rich vocabulary to describe what they are seeing. They are practicing looking closely to draw what they see, and they have even built a “creepy” land to walk around in.
Want some specimens of your own to observe? Here are some tips or tricks for acquiring them! As the seasons change go outdoors and look for abandoned hives, nests, or sheds. You can also go to your local pet store and if they sell reptiles or bugs ask for sheds. Ask friends and families if they live in heavily nature -based areas to look for interesting finds to bring in or photograph to support your inquiry and children's time in nature
Some inquiry points that are supported by this invitation:
• Can you identify the animals and insects? Which ones do you know? Which ones do you want to read about in a book?
• What do you notice about each of these specimens? Can you make notes or do a drawing!
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Can you group specimens together that are related?
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What stories can you create with items from this shelf?
Light Panel Colour Crystal Construction
What colourful creations can you construct? This is such a fun and easy colourful construction invitation for the light panel! Beside your light panel add translucent loose parts and construction blocks and see what children create!
Playing with blocks and other construction toys is more than just play, it is intuitive to their early development! As children build and construct, they will begin to explore beginner early learning concepts and change the way they think!
Construction toys are an excellent way to develop strong problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, observe cause & effect, practice STEM inquiry and more. Constructive play is a thoughtful form of play that is, in many ways, goal oriented and inquiry driven. Children who are engaged in constructive play use materials to create something and as they play and learn they can create new structures with increasing difficulty! Adding loose parts help aid their creativity and discovery as they mix colours, add dimension to their structures or explore mixing materials and balancing them.
Can you form the letters in the sensory bag? This activity is a great easy way to build fine motor skills as children form the letters and create patterns as they explore.
To create your sensory bag open a sandwhich bag and pour in a cup of hair gell, two tablespoons of water and colour it with liquid watercolour paint or food colouring. Seal your bag and then mix the liquid together in the bag untill combined! Once it is ready tape the bag to your light panel cover and scatter your transparent letters around it.
Ways to extend the play:
-Spell beginner sight words
-Create mark patterns
-If you have a younger child encourage them to just explore the textures!
Rainbow Light Panel Sorting
This activity is a great way to explore light play and colours! Simply arrange your play scarves in rainbow order on the light panel then place the cover over them. Once you have turned the light panel on to see your rainbow lit up offer translucent loose parts in a bowl and encourage them to match.
Children can explore how many loose parts will fit in that colour on the light panel, tones and shades of colours, build within that space with the materials and more!
Light Panel Flowing Watercolours
This is such a fun way to explore colour, open ended creativity and water play on the light panel!
To set up your invitation plug in your light panel and add your cover. Then add a small amount of liquid watercolor paint to your no spill paint cups and pour a small amount of water in and mix to gently dilute the colours! Then add pipettes and encourage children to begin pouring colours on the light panel. Watch how the colours flow into one another! What kind of colours are you seeing being created? What do you notice with the different amount of paint you add and with what techniques you use?
Light Panel Nature Observations
This activity is a wonderful way to examine nature treasures in a new way! Simply place your nature finds on the light panel, offer magnifying glasses and start making observations!
Using the magnifying glass, you can hold you treasures to the light and make observations about what you see! Can you see the veins in the leaves? What colours do you see in the leave? What do you notice?
Pebble Count & Stack Challenge
Can you count and stack the pebbles? This fun and easy activity will have children working on their hand eye coordination, counting, number recognition and more!
On a light panel place different numbers all over and offer pebbles in a bowl and invite children to count & stack! As children play they naturally will ask and answer the questions: How high can they stack? Does it matter which pieces you use? Compare your towers using your pieces how do they compare?
Ways to extend the play:
-Create a pattern in how you stack (is it by colour? shape?)
-Represent different groups of numbers with your stacks!
-Can you stack using only the colour that matches the number?
Light Panel Mosaics
Can you create your own stained glass mosaic? This invitation inspires children to explore open ended creation with loose parts, process art and build fine motor skills and shape recognition!
Art and loose parts play open up a whole set of learning and play experiences for little learners. Children are SO naturally creative and inspired by loose parts, often we can see the natural link between loose parts play and art as it inspires similar play patterns and creative thought.
Children have a keen eye for aesthetics. Given the time, space and opportunity to explore loose parts, they naturally lean toward intentional and meaningful creations!
To create their mosaics all you need are translucent mosaic tiles, a light panel and mirrors! To help spark children's creativity show them photos of stained glass windows and mosaics and talk about what they notice. Do they see shapes? Patterns? Colours? What can they create?
Dinosaur Fossil Investigations
Can your child be a palaeontologist and discover the bones and dinosaurs under the dirt? This activity is a fun and easy way for children to explore and discover a light panel in a new way!
Arrange your dinosaurs and bones on a table and take a photo of the flat lay! Then print your photo to the size of the light panel and place it under your light panel cover. Once ready, pour a brown sensory base on the cover and add your tools - paint brushes and magnifying glasses. Turn your light panel on then invite children to investigate!
Ways to extend the play
-Identify how many dinosaurs you find vs bones!
-Point out the bones from smallest to largest.
-Count how many of each dinosaur you see!
Make & Spell Your Name or a Friend's
This is such a fun and easy activity to work on letter recognition, spelling and recognition of children's names spelled and their friends!
On your computer review your class list and on microsoft word create a table & column with the same amount of letters as your students name then extend the row beneath enough that a letter gem will fit! Make one for each of your little learners then print them out and cut them out. Place them on your light panel with loose letter jewels and invite children to spell their name and other friends!
Ways to extend the play:
-Have them spell CVC words
-Work on spelling high frequency words
Rainbow Light Colour Investigations
This activity is a great way to explore light play and colours in a fun and easy way! All you need is a light panel, translucent loose parts and building materials.
Go on a scavenger hunt around your learning environment for different translucent rainbow loose parts of all colours! Place them all in a large basket and then turn on your light panel and pick a colour and invite children to begin sorting!
This light panel invitation a great way to introduce colours to young children and work on their colour recognition skills. Read a book about colours with your children to talk about all the colours of the rainbow! What do they look like? What are some different names for them?
Liquid Watercolour Coffee Filter Painting on the Light Panel
This is such a fun and easy process art activity that will have children exploring their creative side as they mix colours and create unique tie dyed coffee filters and see their watercolours come to life through the light panel.
Simply place your light panel cover over your light panel and lay coffee filters on it. Pour your liquid watercolours in paint pots and add pipettes and begin dropping paint all over them.
Shape Match Light Panel Play
Can you match the tissue paper shapes to the right shape on the light panel? This activity is a dun & easy way to explore shape recognition!
On your light panel cover, take a dry erase marker and draw your shapes. You can then cut your shapes of all sizes out of tissue paper and place them on the light panel cover. Then invite children to match the tissue paper shapes with the shapes you have drawn on the light panel!
Ways to extend the play:
-Fold the shapes to see if you can create other shapes! For example: fold a rectangle in half to create a square
-Layer shapes of different colours on top of each other to see what colours you can make!
-Count how many of each shape fit within the outline!
Mindfulness Mark Making
This is a fun and easy activity to promote mindfulness and self regulation through a creative outlet that takes less than five minutes to set up!
Place a light panel cover on your light panel and gently pour some sand in it! Soft the sand so it is evenly distributed on the cover then offer the mindfulness stencils and mark making materials so children can trace and create the images!
This is such a fun and easy light panel invitation for children to build, explore, collaborate and create
Simply pour out the translucent pipe tubes in a light panel then invite children to build! These are perfect for building fine motor skills and perceptual development. They are ideal for exploring spatial relations and early engineering concepts!
Once they have constructed their structure or tube system use pipettes to gently pour water in the tubes and watch how the water flows through the system!
Light Panel Loose Part Mandalas
This activity is a way to allow children to be creative, explore symmetry, geometric patterns and colour!
Mandala is actually a Sanskrit term that means “circle.” Mandalas are circular with a design that radiates out symmetrically from a unifying center. The circular design is meant to express the concept that everything is connected in life
Talk to your child about the origins of the mandala and ask about their creation. What inspired their pattern? What colours did they choose and why?
Can your little scientists investigate the animal skeletal x- rays and match them to the animals? This invitation allows children to observe animal skeletal system and learn all about different animals!
Invite children to layer the x-rays over the picture cards to see the bodies of the animals from the inside out! You can
use the included guide with the picture cards to describe where and when the animals lived, what they ate and how big they grew.
Ways to extend the play:
-Invite them to match and layer all the animal picture cards with their matching x-rays
-Sort the animals in a line from smallest to largest
-Use the magnifying glass to look at the animal skeletons up close!
-Can you match the animal cards and x-rays with animal figures you have
Open Ended Painting
This is such a fun and easy way to provide an sensory based open ended art experience that allows children to be creative and explore colours in a new way!
All you need is paint, no spill paint cups, paint brushes and a light panel cover!
Ways to extend the play:
-Explore colour mixing
-Talk about mark making and invite children to make their own designs
-Explore number or letter formation
-Paint a story
-Just paint!
Roll, Count and Build
Can you roll the dice and then build a structure with that number of blocks on your light panel and match a number? This is a super fun and easy way to work on number recognition and representation!
On your light panel place a pair of dice and then pour loose parts or construction pieces in a bowl and then add numbers all around the light panel. Invite children to roll the dice and find the matching number and build a structure.
Rainbow Light Panel Sorting
This activity is a great way to explore light play and colours in a fun and easy way! All you need is a light panel, coloured translucent jugs and translucent rainbow pebbles.
Simply pour the rainbow pebbles out over the surface of the light panel and place the jugs on the light panel and offer tweezers to help aid their sorting. Watch as children explore all kinds of early math concepts as they play!
Ways to extend the play:
-Create a colour pattern
-Count how many of each colour there are
-Explore colour mixing with primary colour pebbles
-Create unique pebble creations
Build a Letter
Can you use the pieces to build uppercase & lowercase letters? This is a fun and easy light panel invitation that helps children work on letter formation and recognition.
This tactile experience of building letters helps children build a strong foundation of early literacy skills and promotes letter recognition. Using all 100 of these soft translucent straight and curved pieces are easy to snap together to build letters!
Ways to extend the play:
-Talk about which letters have straight and curved lines
-What different do you notice between uppercase and lowercase letters?
Light Panel Loose Parts Rangoli
Can you create Rangoli using colourful loose parts? This loose parts invitation allows children to be creative and learn about the cultural celebration of Diwali. Diwali also known as Deepavali is the Festival of Lights! Diwali symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.
The rangoli represents the happiness, positivity and liveliness of a household, and is intended to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good luck. Rangoli patterns are bright, colourful and beautiful designs that are traditionally made on the floor and created using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, colored sand or flower petals. Rangoli designs are generally complicated because it is believed that the negativity present around us gets caught in the complexity of the rangoli design and does not enter the house!
Alphabet Search & Find
Can you find & reveal all the letters of the alphabet? This activity is a great way to explore letter recognition and sensory play!
On a sheet of paper write the alphabet all over the page and place it on the light panel! Then place the cover over top and pour water in, when ready add dark coloured paint and dish soap and mix with a whisk! To add additional mystery you can add 2 tbsp of cornstarch. Then create a check list with all the alphabet letters and place it beside! When ready turn on the light panel and add a glass with a rounded bottom and begin searching.
Light Panel Fill the Dots
Can you fill the dots with just the right amount of coloured water in the matching circles? This activity is a great way to practice early math concepts and build fine motor skills!
Place a light panel cover over your light panel and using washable markers draw circles of varying sizes all over the cover! When ready pour water into paint pots and dye it with washable liquid watercolour paint or food colouring and place pipettes beside the tray! When ready offer children to begin filling the circles.
Ways to extend the play:
-Count how many drops it take you to fill the circle! Compare how many it takes for each size
-Estimate which one will take the most and least
Light Panel Number Representations
This activity is a great way to explore number representation, counting and beginner math skills!
Simply place translucent letters around your light panel and coloured loose parts in the center. Encourage children to either count loose parts all of the same colour and place them beside the number or create groups of loose parts to represent adding (three groups of three for 9, three of one colour and two of another for 5)!
Dinosaur X-Ray Investigations Inquiry
Can your little paleontologists investigate the dinosaur skeletal x-rays and match them to the dinosaurs? This invitation allows children to observe dinosaurs skeletal system and learn all about dinosaurs!
Invite children to layer the x-rays over the picture cards to see the bodies of the dinosaurs from the inside out! You can use the included guide with the picture cards to describe where and when the animals lived, what they ate and how big they grew.
Ways to extend the play:
-Invite them to match and layer all the dinosaur picture cards with their matching x-rays
-Sort the dinosaurs in a line from smallest to largest
-Use the magnifying glass to look at the dinosaurs up close!
-Can you match the dinosaur cards and x-rays with dinosaur figures you have?
In the deep blue sea
Let’s dive under the sea and explore the ocean as well as the shores that surround the sea. This small world is a fun and easy way to bring the ocean to life and allow children to explore what they know about the sea!
Ways we can extend the play and learning:
-Read a book about the Ocean and talk about its importance to our ecosystems and what we can do to help the ocean!
-Identify the ocean animals you see in this tray! What other ocean animals do you know?
-Create a story with the small world!
Rainbow Block Light Panel Tetris
Can you use the rainbow bricks to cover the entire light panel? This activity is a great way to help children explore shapes and building visual comprehension skills.
Simply offer a container of translucent building bricks beside a light panel and begin by placing bricks of each colour along the bottom row in various orientations. Encourage children to continue covering the light panel with blocks to form a tetris like grid.
Ways to extend the play:
-Encourage children to create structure with a certain amount of bricks or using all the bricks
-Sort the bricks by size or colour
-Count how many bricks you can fit on each line of the grid using different formations
Light Panel Sight Word Word Search
Can you find all the sight words in the word search?
This activity is a great way for children to explore word recognition, practice visual comprehension and practice their vocabulary! As children tackle the word search they are practice key early literacy competencies based on how they search. Will they be looking for letter strings at the beginning or end of the word? Searching for vowels related to the word? Looking for obvious letter patterns that allow them to spot words in the grid?
So as children do the word search they are developing their understanding of the structure of words because the searching for letter strings demands it.
They are also developing pattern recognition, the ability of your brain to order and create meaning from what they see, which is really important for the brain and for children’s development!
To create this word search either measure out a grid or print a template off online! Cut out your grid. Then take a sight word list and begin to write the sight words horizontally and vertically on the grid. Once finished writing your sight words fill the blanks with random patterns of letters of the alphabet! Then place your grid on the light panel and cover it with the light panel cover and on the cover write the words the children are searching for! Add transparent counters for children to use to cover the words when they find them!
Light Panel Number Sort
This activity is so easy but a great way to practice number recognition! On the light panel cover using a dry erase marker write the numbers and place transparent numbers in the middle and encourage children to match.
Ways to extend the play:
-Write different representations of the number (dots, tally’s and the written out word) and match
-Create a number line!
Light & Colours
Let's explore the colours of the rainbow! This tuff tray is a great way to introduce colours to young children and work on their colour recognition skills.
Ways to extend the play:
-Encourage children to find more coloured item in the room and sort them!
-Count how many of each colour you have
-Talk about different tones & shades of the colours you see
Can you save the dinosaur bones and skeletons from the lava?!
The level of dinosaur expertise a kid can have is seriously astounding! Scientists call obsessions like this an “intense interest.” A 2008 study found that sustained intense interests, particularly in a conceptual domain like dinosaurs, can help children develop increased knowledge and persistence, a better attention span, and deeper information-processing skills. Children develop their cognitive abilities, understanding and learning as they explore!
In short, dinosaur obsessions for children are super healthy for them and inspire them to be incredibly well developed learners!
This little sensory light panel small world was so much fun to create! On your light panel, place a yellow play scarf and cover it with a light panel cover. In your tray pour play sand in a corner and outline the border with small rocks! In a corner opposite place a volcano, either a play volcano or a cup covered in kinetic sand. In the rest of the light panel pour a mixture of yellow, red and orange rainbow rice to resemble lava. Then place your dinosaur bones, fossils and skeletons in to act as artifacts for your little paleontologists.
Ways to extend the play:
-Create imprints of the dinosaur footprints in the sand and match them to the skeletons!
-Measure and sort the bones by size!
-Try and create a skeleton with the bones!
-Make your own dinosaur fossils by imprinting the bones, skeletons and footprints in playdough!
In the radiant world of open-ended light panel activities for kids, the journey is full of imagination and discovery. As we conclude our exploration into the boundless possibilities illuminated by these activities, it's clear that the magic lies not just in the light itself, but in the imaginative paths it paves for our young learners. From sensory-rich experiences to unstructured creativity, each moment spent with the light panel becomes an amazing creative opportunity to learn. The interplay of light and imagination creates a canvas where children's curiosity knows no bounds. Let's continue to foster a love for open-ended exploration, embracing the enchanting glow that guides our little ones toward endless realms of learning, creativity, and joyful discovery.
You can download our free light panel activity guide here
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