What do we need to play and test our ideas with Arduino ? Firstly a "bread board" for sticking the passive and active components and to make the connections with the Arduino board.
Then we need also wires for the connections, best done to have them prepared in various lengths and also passive parts as resistors and condensators in various values.
For realising our ideas, tested on bread board there is a Proto shield, which we can use for soldering the parts on it. The best way to hook our shield with Arduino board is to use a pin lath, from which we break two 6 pin and two 8 pin pieces and solder it in proper places as in the picture below.
We can also master our own "Proto shield" from a raw printed circuit board with or without pre-drilled holes.