Developmentally Appropriate Materials for First- Through Fourth Grade Children (Ages 6-10)
Teachers must carefully consider how to use developmentally appropriate materials and resources to foster first- through fourth-graders' creative thought. Materials for these children should also reflect their need for realistic, rule-oriented, and peer activities. The table below lists a variety of developmentally appropriate materials for this age group.
| Type of Material | Appropriate Materials | Examples |
| Skill/concept | Books/records | Books on different cultures, recipe books, Caldecott and Newbery Award books and tapes, folktales, fables, historical fiction books in a series, biographies, jokes, riddles, tall tales; music of all types |
| Games | Strategy and memory games; more-complex board and card games for problem solving and decision making; sports games | |
| Gross motor | Active play | Organized group games |
| Outdoor | Jump ropes, flying disks, bicycles, rope ladders, wagons, beanbags, assorted balls, sports sets | |
| Manipulative | Fine motor | Gardening equipment, canister of buttons to sort and classify, weaving looms, sewing kits, combination locks, pickup sticks, Spirographs |
| Puzzles | More complex puzzles with 50-100 pieces; puzzles of reproductions of paintings; form boards by famous artists | |
| Investigation | Science materials and kits; printing sets; terrariums and aquariums to create and observe | |
| Construction | Building sets | Sets with realistic models, additional unit blocks, shapes, and accessories; props for roads and towns |
| Carpentry | Add screwdrivers, vises, and accessories | |
| Self-expressive | Dolls and soft toys | Dolls from other cultures; more detailed, smaller dolls; varied play settings and action figures |
| Dramatic play | Storybook masks and costumes, walkie-talkies | |
| Sensory | Collecting toys in sets; clay and clay tools | |
| Art/music | Small crayons, chalk, watercolors, hole punchers, staplers, all music instruments, basket-making materials, pottery wheel, stencil and craft kits | |
| Natural and everyday | Sand and water | Add food coloring, funnels, pumps, hoses, plastic tubing, and assorted containers and utensils |
| Simple cameras and film; computers, paper and pencils; items for "collections" |
Excerpted From:
Excerpt from Creative Thinking and Arts-Based Learning Preschool Through Fourth Grade , by J.P. Isenberg & M. R. Jalongo, 2006 edition, p. 288.
© 2006, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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