One of my favorite tools to introduce for early childhood learners is a light table! You can do so. much. with a light table! You can examine, draw, build, and more! In this post I am sharing my budget light table with you as well as my favorite light table manipulatives.
Please note this post contains amazon affiliate links because I am an amazon affiliate (see full Amazon Affiliate disclosure at end of blog post).
DIY Light Table Supplies from IKEA
I chose to make my light table out of the flisat table because we really don’t have room for any more furniture in our house, and we already owned the flisat. It is honestly a great investment piece so if you’re on the fence about buying one, I definitely recommend it. If you want an upgraded table, I would recommend measuring the white table lid, and having a piece of frosted acrylic cut to that size so it is a little sturdier and doesn’t have the lid hole.
Instructions
Okay truthfully you don’t need instructions, you just pop the lights in the bucket, put the lid on, and play! I intended to buy lights with a battery pack, but we live in Japan right now and so that got lost in translation, and I ended up getting a plug in set. Either way you have to watch your kiddos with the outlets or batteries, but the batteries would have been nice so there isn’t a cord sticking out.
Recommended Play
This is what you may actually need advice on. Below I have listed some of my favorite manipulatives for your light table.
- MagnaTiles or the very popular, less expensive PicassoTiles (you get about twice as many picasso tiles for the same price)
- Colored building blocks
- Translucent pattern tiles
- Translucent geometric shapes
- Natural materials like leaves and water (even more fun to play with coloring water!)
- Markers on thin paper
- Tissue Paper (you can make collages and play with arranging to make new colors)
- Letter Construction Pieces
- Small building bricks for older children
Want more play ideas and IKEA hacks?
Lucky you, I have other blog posts to read! Check the art education and DIY blog post sections for more!
