The Materials Center began with the belief that children need and deserve opportunities to express their ideas. Objects sourced from the local community are ripe with possibility, compliment children’s innate curiosity and their desire to explore. Join Wendy Gelsanliter, our Material Center's Educator, in this introductory workshop on ways to collect and introduce materials in the classroom. Through hands-on activities and visual examples of how children from city schools use materials, participants will walk away with both a practical know-how in starting materials collections in their own schools, and an understanding of why materials belong in early childhood contexts.