Blog: Middlers

Good morning. It looks like the warmer weather will continue today. Sarah and Caitlyn have carefully selected these invitations for middlers today.

Sensory Invitation: Pouring Station.
Gather several different cups/buckets/small pitchers and fill them with water to create a pouring station. You can add food coloring to each of the buckets to see what happens when the colors mix.

Intent: This sensory activity allows for middlers to explore the senses of sight, touch, and hearing. This is also a great activity to do outside since it will be so hot today!

Art Invitation: Crumpled Paper Art
Read/Listen to Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

You will need:
White construction paper
Watercolors
Paint brush
Scissors

Cut the construction paper into smaller pieces (a little bigger than postcard sized). Take one piece of your cut paper and crumple it into a ball. Choose a color from your watercolors and paint all around the outside of your ball. Gently unfold it and press it down gently. Crumple it up again and paint with another color. Gently unfold it and press it down. You can continue this process with as many colors as you want. Let the papers dry. When you’re done you can hang up your art, use it as stationary, cut it up for collaging, etc.

Intent: This activity allows for a different way to explore art and creative expression by using inspiration from the story to create this process art. This activity includes fine motor development by using the hand muscles to paint.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Water wall.
Reuse your plastic bottles to make a water wall. Cut off the bottoms of the bottles and hang them on a wall over a bin. You can tie them on with string or use zip ties. Have your child pour water into the bottles and watch how it flows into the other bottles and down into the bin.

Intent: We want to encourage the middlers to get outside and use all of their big body muscles to enhance gross motor development. This is also an exploration of physics and a wonderful way to keep cool!

Good morning. This has been a very difficult week for many of us. If you are struggling with how to talk with your children about current events, we recommend the following resources for families:

Good morning! Caitlyn and Sarah have some wonderful invitation ideas for middlers today, including a cooking invitation!

Sensory/Cooking Invitation: Make fresh squeezed orange juice or lemonade. Squeeze a few oranges to get all of the juice out and drink up. See recipe below for an easy healthy homemade lemonade!
INGREDIENTS
5 cups water, divided
1/3–1/2 cup honey (or other desired sweetener)
1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 5–6 large lemons)
INSTRUCTIONS
In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of honey and turn heat to medium. This is called a simple syrup, and it prevents a big clump of honey (or sugar) sitting at the bottom of the pitcher while you stir forever to get it to dissolve.
Once the honey is dissolved (this may take up to 5 minutes), pour it into the bottom of a half-gallon pitcher or glass jar.
Add the lemon juice and remaining 4 cups of water and stir well.
Taste and adjust sweetener, if desired.
Homemade lemonade is most refreshing when served cold and/or over ice.

Intent: This sensory activity allows for middlers to explore the senses of taste, smell, sight, and touch.

Art Invitation: Tin foil painting.
Spread out a piece of tin foil and paint on it! We wonder how the paint will behave differently on the foil and what your middler will notice about that.

Intent: This activity allows for a different way to explore art and creative expression by painting on a material that is not typically used for play. This activity includes fine motor development by using the hand muscles to paint.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Nature Shapes
Have your child go around outside collecting natural objects from outside. These could be twigs, rocks, pieces of bark, grass, flowers, etc. Once they have a full basket/collection have them organize and separate each different natural item. Now they can start making shapes with their items. Some examples could be making a circle out of rocks, or flowers. Making a square from blades of grass. Some may be easier to demonstrate shapes than others.
Extension: What shapes can you find around you outside?

Intent: We want to encourage the middlers to get outside and use all of their big body muscles to enhance gross motor development. This activity gives an opportunity to talk about different shapes and what makes each shape different and unique. It also helps the middlers work on grouping and sorting materials with similar properties.

Welcome back! We hope you found some moments of joy over the weekend. Here are three activity invitations from middler teachers Caitlyn and Sarah.

Sensory Invitation: Bubble Bin
You will want a medium to large sized sensory bin. Add two parts bubble bath/body wash soap to one part water. Whip them together using a whisk or hand mixer until the bubbles have a nice stiff peak (you can add a drop or two of food coloring for more colorful fun). Have your child use toy cars/dump trucks, animals, etc. to play in and push around the foam! They may also love just playing in the foam with their hands!

Intent: This sensory activity allows for middlers to explore and play with a foamy soap. They can explore the feel of it and use fine motor skills to maneuver their toys around the bin.

Fine Motor Invitation: Weaving with pipe cleaner
You can use a baking/cooling, basket, or anything with holes in it. Then you will want to use pipe cleaners or ribbon or string for your child to weave through the holes.
If your child has never practiced these skills, demonstrate to your child how to weave using words like “over” and “under” or “up” and “down” to help them visually and verbally see/hear the pattern. Now let them practice!

Intent: This activity incorporates fine motor development by focusing on the process of using hand and finger muscles to hold and weave through the open holes.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Outdoor Spray Bottle Painting
Using a spray bottle, fill it with a little bit of paint, and the rest of the way with water. Give the bottle a good shake so the paint and water are mixed together. Take a large piece of paper or cardboard and either tape it to a wall or lay it on the ground. Have your child use the spray bottle to spray the paint water at the paper to create their design! This activity was done most days at Lakewood and we know the middlers loved using the spray bottle to paint!

Intent: We want to encourage the middlers to get outside and use all of their big body muscles to enhance gross motor development. We wanted to incorporate a familiar activity that the middlers loved when they were coming to Lakewood.