Interactive Kids Space

Our church moved into its own building 18 months ago, which meant having the incredible privilege of influencing what type of space we would have for our children. A few years ago I worked on a project with someone who became a friend, and when the time came I knew this was who I wanted in charge of our kid's space. Instead of simply choosing a theme, and painting murals on the wall, our environment is interactive.

This is a ball maze in our PreK-1st Grade room. The children can determine the path of the ball by putting stoppers in the slots.
Also in our PreK-1st Grade room is a white board wall. There is a very subtle raised surface that the children can trace like a stencil if they choose, or it is just a big open space for drawing, playing games etc. The stencils are of a house, the St. Louis Arch, a dog, a person, clouds...
Here is William in our Toddler/Preschool Room. The tree stump, bear and rocks are to climb on and were completely hand made!

Also in our Toddler/ Preschool room is a magnet wall with tons and tons of different magnets to play with. The idea behind the shapes was that the wall looks decorated from a distance (if you didn't know it was magnetic), and also should arguments occur, each child could be assigned a spot to play!
This is our birth- 2.5 year old space. Each age group has its own room, with a larger shared area. Here is a tree swing!
This is a felt wall.

I didn't get a picture of the cute little fish that go in this pelican's mouth. The children love "feeding" the pelican.
All of these wheels spin, make different noises, some are more difficult to spin than others.
You can also see the portal here (there are two of them in the space) where kids can stick their heads out and see what is going on!
Those are some of the fun features of our kids space! We were so blessed that our artists love kids, and had a vision for this space. There is certainly more to add as the years go on, and I love the idea of building on to our space. We don't need to choose a new theme in a few years, kids will always love to play!