K-5 Schools
Unlock Academic Success, Engagement, and Belonging Through Play
We help K-5 school leaders transform classrooms into vibrant spaces where social-emotional learning (SEL), academic achievement, and mental well-being intersect and thrive. Through the power of play, our programs foster connection, creativity, and growth in students and educators alike.
Start with Playlab: A Gateway to Meaningful Change
Playlab is a foundational framework designed to aid public school educators and leaders in embedding play-based learning into school culture, schedule, and the physical classroom environment. Playlab emphasizes agency and choice-making, empowering students to take ownership of their learning and make meaningful curricular connections with simple, accessible materials. By fostering autonomy, creativity, and collaboration, Playlab supports students' social-emotional needs while nurturing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
A Comprehensive Approach: Playlab integrates SEL, academic learning, and open-ended exploration to create classrooms where students feel safe, inspired, and ready to learn.
Supporting Social-Emotional Growth: By providing opportunities for choice, self-expression, and meaningful engagement, Playlab helps students build resilience, navigate conflict, advocate for themselves and others, and cultivate empathy and self-awareness.
Kickoff Workshops: Begin your Playlab journey with a dynamic workshop—virtual or in-person—where we’ll introduce the framework, inspire your team, and lay the groundwork for lasting impact.
Learn more about how Playlab can transform your school. Explore Playlab.
Tailored Professional Development
Our custom virtual and in-person workshops are designed to meet the unique needs of your school, sparking fresh ideas and meaningful impact. Topics include:
Process Art: Whether educators are just beginning to explore process art or are well-versed, we inspire creativity and problem-solving with open-ended art activities that prioritize exploration over finished products.
Materials Exploration: Explore collage, loose parts, wire, clay, and other materials as languages of expression while transforming classrooms into studios that nurture risk-taking, discovery, and connection.
Classroom Environment: Design classrooms that celebrate identity, foster connection, and ignite imagination through intentional organization and thoughtful design.
Documentation of Play: Master techniques to observe and document children’s learning journeys, making their growth visible and meaningful.
Expand Your Impact with Our Professional Development Offerings
Playlab is just the beginning. Schools and classrooms that embrace Playlab often find themselves inspired to deepen their engagement with The Creativity Project through our additional programs:
Learn The Creativity Project Approach
Deepen your team’s expertise with a series of on-demand workshops that deepen practices and mindsets around open-ended play and process art. These workshops are perfect for staff looking to sustain and expand the Playlab philosophy.
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$168 per classroom (1-5 classrooms)
$126 per classroom (5-15 classrooms)
$108 per classroom (15+ classrooms)
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Each educator will sign up with their own email and password which gives them access to a portal that houses each of the 5 workshops in the series. Workshops are available to watch at your own pace, with unlimited access.
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Yes, you can purchase this Workshop Series at any time of the year. Content is self-paced.
This is your Year of Yes!
A 3-part series of live + recorded professional development workshops designed for educators and caregivers who believe in the power of open-ended play and process art, but also need practical tools to make it work. We build on what participants love about our TCP Approach series with a deeper focus on what happens after the inspiration: the routines, the challenges, the language, the mindset.
Materials Matter Course
Discover how to curate and use open-ended materials that spark creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration in your classrooms. This self-paced course equips educators with practical strategies to enhance their teaching.
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$264 per classroom (1-5 classrooms)
$196 per classroom (5-15 classrooms)
$168 per classroom (15+ classrooms)
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Yes, you can purchase this course at any time of the year. Content is self-paced. Although we did design the flow of this course from basic to more complex, you can pick and choose where you want to begin and spread it out over any time period that works for you.
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Yes, we include reflection questions and PD certificates for each module.
ART & PLAY GUIDES
Our instantly downloadable, Art & Play guides are designed to be used flexibly with toddlers through the primary grades. They center on broad themes connected by simple, easy-to-prep and clean-up invitations, extensive picture book guides, and academic and social emotional curricular connections. Each guide provides a month's worth of meaningful, open-eneded, creative explorations.
We understand the challenges schools face in meeting both academic and emotional needs. Our evidence-based, play-centered approach has helped public and independent schools nationwide create joyful learning environments where students and teachers thrive.
Let’s reimagine what’s possible for your school. Explore how our workshops and programs can support your broader goals for student success.
Why choose The Creativity Project?
