Easy Light Panel Play Idea - Exploring Colours

A beautiful and inviting way to play with the light panel using lucite cubes and cellophane!

Beautiful play using lucite cubes on the light panel!

Light panels are such a beautiful resource for creating wonder and awe through play and learning! We bought one for our home several years ago now and over this time I have explored different ways to use it with my children.

For this play invitation we also used a mirror behind, which adds to the magic with all the beautiful reflections that it creates!

This very simple play idea for the light panel ended up being used in several different ways.

*Important: Play ideas for children ages 3+ as uses small parts. All play was supervised.

How to set up the invitation to play:

We used:

• Coloured cellophane (Officeworks)

• Lucite cubes (Bauspiel brand)

• A3 Light panel (from Educating Kids)

What to do:

1. Cut up some pieces of cellophane in the different colours.

2. Add onto the light panel with some lucite cubes.

3. Add more lucite cubes next to the light panel in a basket or tray.

4. Leave for your children to explore.

Simple set up - pieces of cellophane on the light panel.

These items were also added in for play:

• Specimens (Our Earth Life)

• Small world props - trees, wood slices

• Tiger figurines (CollectA brand)

Exploring Colours Light Panel Play Idea

How my children played with this invitation ...

Colour sorting

Placing the lucite cubes onto the correct colour cellophane. Deciding what to do with the pink cubes as we didn't have pink cellophane.

Colour sorting using the cellophane & cubes

Lucite Cube Towers/Pyramids

Stacking, organising to make a pyramid, counting the lucite cubes to see why one pyramid looked taller, comparing to see this tower has more cubes than the other.

There are lots of possiblities for learning through play!

Stacking cubes on the light panel

Small World Play

A light panel makes an interesting prop for small world play, providing a magical base for all kinds of small worlds!

Here my children were playing with the tiger figurines and other small world props - trees, wood slices, toadstool on the light panel.

Small world set up on the light panel

STEM Play

Building an enclosure for the tigers using materials, such as straws, pop sticks and lucite cubes. I asked the girls - "Can you build a fence for the tigers using these materials?"

Loose parts work well on the light panel for play

Exploring the Lucite Cubes and Mirror Using Sunlight

This was the same setup just used with the light panel turned off and natural light coming through the windows. This gave a new way to play with the materials as the sunlight and mirror added another level of wonder!

Cellophane, lucite cubes and sunlight!

Opportunities for learning through play ...

• Exploring colour sorting

• Naming the colours

• Visual discrimination - deciding which colour is which.

• Building towers with the cubes - learning about balance and making the structures sturdy and stable

• Counting - how many of each colour?

• Vocabulary

• Critical thinking

• Creativity - deciding how to use the materials for play

• Collaboration skills (when playing with others)

• Fine motor skills

• Hand eye coordination - picking up the cubes

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Light panels are the perfect resource to use with items such as cellophane and lucite cubes. As you can see from this blog post, a few simple materials can open up a world of possibility for play and learning!

Thank you for reading this blog post and I hope you found some inspiration.

Until next time, have fun learning in a playful way!

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