The Play-Centered Partner for Your Head Start Program
See what purposeful, open-ended play can make visible
Webinar
Join Kodo for a practical conversation created for Head Start leaders, education managers, coaches, and teaching teams.
Bringing the Indoors Out: Explore Ways to Play in Outdoor Learning Classrooms
September 15, 2026 • 4:00 p.m. EDT • 1-hour
This webinar explores how open-ended materials can extend the same rich, inquiry-driven experiences your Head Start classrooms offer from indoors into outdoor spaces. We'll walk through materials and how to introduce them in ways that invite child-led investigation rather than adult-directed activity. A panel of Head Start staff will join to answer real-world questions about policy, implementation, and what this looks like day-to-day in a Head Start setting.
Participants will:
- Identify how open-ended materials support the same developmental goals as indoor play-based learning
- Learn practical guidance for introducing, rotating, and maintaining outdoor materials in a Head Start classroom
- Explore how outdoor loose-parts play connects to Head Start ELOF domains
- Hear directly from Head Start staff on policy considerations and real classroom implementation
The most meaningful classroom materials do more than fill a shelf. They invite children to wonder, imagine, build, negotiate, test ideas, tell stories, and begin again.
Kodo pairs thoughtfully designed materials with educator resources, hands-on Play Workshops, and ongoing coaching. Together, these supports help Head Start teams create engaging environments, strengthen teaching practice, and build on what children reveal when they are fully absorbed in
play.
Play is the vehicle. Learning is the outcome.
Designed to work with The Creative Curriculum®
Teaching Strategies Partnership
Through Kodo’s official partnership with Teaching Strategies, educators can bring versatile, open-ended materials into the interest areas and investigative studies of The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool.
The Kodo Kit for Teaching Strategies® includes sixteen tools and materials selected for their durability, flexibility, and appeal to young children. Educators also receive downloadable resources connecting the materials to:
- The Creative Curriculum® interest areas
- Investigative study topics
- Teaching Strategies objectives for development and learning
- Practical classroom implementation
The kit also includes access to a 30-minute virtual training course to help educators begin using the materials with confidence.
Professional learning that begins with play
Professional Development
Kodo Play Workshops invite educators to experience open-ended materials the way children do: with time to explore, test possibilities, exchange ideas, and reflect.
Kodo Training Sessions give educators the content that backs up the learning: the research, standards alignment, and child development foundation behind meaningful play.
Both Play Workshops and Training Sessions offer guided, hands-on learning, allowing educators to develop practical ways to:
- Create environments that invite investigation
- Follow children’s interests and emerging ideas
- Ask questions that deepen conversation without taking over the play
- Support collaboration, creativity, and sustained engagement
- Connect everyday play with STEM concepts and learning goals
- Make children’s thinking and learning visible
- Use observation to plan meaningful next steps
Workshops are available in live, in-person and virtual formats.
Head Start Priorities
Support for the work your program is already doing
School Readiness
School readiness is bigger than a checklist. It includes children’s physical, cognitive, social, emotional, language, and approaches-to-learning development, along with the readiness of families and schools to support them.
Kodo materials create rich opportunities for children to communicate, collaborate, persist, move, create, investigate, and follow their curiosity. Educators can connect what they notice during play to individual child goals, program school readiness goals, and the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework.
CLASS® Alignment
Strong interactions grow from responsive educators and deeply engaged children.
Kodo’s open-ended materials and Investigation-Based Teaching Practices™ give educators opportunities to follow children’s ideas, encourage conversation, extend thinking, and maintain purposeful engagement. Kodo professional development is designed to strengthen practices reflected in the CLASS domains, with particular support for Classroom Organization and Instructional Support.
Materials do not create meaningful interactions on their own. Educators do. Kodo helps give them something rich to build on.
Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Support
Families bring essential knowledge, strengths, cultures, and hopes to a child’s learning.
Kodo helps programs make play and learning easier to share with families through documentation, conversation, and open-ended experiences that can continue beyond the classroom. Kodo Home Collections can also create a bridge between classroom and home, giving children and families shared materials and familiar ways to explore together.
These connections can support PFCE priorities related to family partnerships, teaching and learning, and families as lifelong educators.
Featured Kits
Teaching Strategies kits for the way children really play
Choose a broad classroom collection or focus on the Creative Curriculum interest areas most important to your program.
The Kodo Kit for Teaching Strategies®
A versatile collection of sixteen open-ended tools and materials designed to energize Creative Curriculum interest areas and investigative studies. Includes educator resources and introductory virtual training.
Creative Curriculum Interest Area Kits
Available in Basic and Comprehensive collections in the below outlined interest areas.
The Kodo Kit for Teaching Strategies ®
Toys + Games Kits
2 products
Sand and Water Kits
2 products
Art Kits
2 products
Discovery Kits
2 products
Dramatic Play Kits
2 products
Block Play Kits
2 products
Outdoor Kits
2 products
Let’s build on the strengths already present in your program
Your educators know their children, families, and communities. Kodo brings materials, professional learning, and responsive support that help them create more room for curiosity, connection, and meaningful play.
Because when children are free to explore deeply, learning becomes visible in all kinds of ways.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Kodo materials invite children to communicate, move, collaborate, create, investigate, and persist through play. Educators can connect these experiences and observations to individual child goals, program school readiness goals, and ELOF domains.
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Yes. Kodo offers hands-on Play Workshops and Training, virtual learning, and ongoing coaching focused on environments, materials, educator-child interactions, investigation, and reflective practice. Learn more here.
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Kodo materials can provide a meaningful starting point for sharing children’s investigations with families. Home Collections can also help programs extend familiar, open-ended play experiences beyond the classroom.
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Kodo’s Teaching Strategies kits are designed to enhance Creative Curriculum interest areas and investigative studies. The Kodo Kit includes downloadable connections to study topics, interest areas, and Teaching Strategies objectives for development and learning.
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Kodo can partner with program leaders to identify materials and professional learning that support local priorities, classroom needs, and educator development goals.
