Blog: Middlers

It’s Wednesday! It looks like the temperature in Durham is going to peak around 86 degrees today. It might be a good day to do some water play in the afternoon. Here are some invitations to consider setting up inside or outside.

Sensory Invitation: Create a sensory bottle.
There are so many ways to create sensory bottles. They can be made with wet or dry materials. Here are some examples:

https://teachingmama.org/how-to-make-a-sensory-bottle/

Intent: This is an exciting activity that can create soothing sensory bottles. This allows for a complete activity beginning to finish that the middlers can accomplish. It is also something that they can come back to and explore at any time.

Fine Motor Invitation: Painting with Q-tips or any other similar object you have in your house.

Intent: Continuing to explore alternate methods of painting materials to enhance fine motor development.

Art Invitation: Draw your house using any art material you want (markers, crayons, paint, etc.) We like to invite children to use fine line drawing markers or pens for observational drawings like this. You could also invite children to use loose parts or blocks to create houses.
“What shapes did you use to draw your house?”
“Is anyone inside your house?”
“What colors did you use?”

Intent: We want the middlers to explore how different shapes can be used together to create different objects. This allows for middlers to practice shape recognition and drawing different shapes. Practice using the pincer grip while drawing and see how many different shapes each middler can draw!

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Create a hopscotch board with chalk. Practice jumping, skipping, & hopping.

Intent: Get outside and enjoy the nice weather and beautiful spring scenery. We want to encourage the middlers to use all of their big body muscles to enhance gross motor development. Some of the middlers have been playing hopscotch in the classroom by using our number cards and lining them up. This activity also incorporates cognitive development by practicing counting and number recognition.

Today will be another warm day. You may want to take some of these invitations outside!

Sensory Invitation: Baking soda, white vinegar experiment, and dish soap experiment. Put baking soda in a bowl and the vinegar and dish soap in a separate bowl together. You can also add food coloring or glitter for more of a dramatic effect. Watch what happens!

Science for Kids: Chemical Reactions Using Baking Soda and Vinegar

Intent: Children in this age group often enjoy cooking projects/science experiments. The activity integrates all of the senses except for taste.

Fine Motor Invitation: Pompom Whisk Activity
Stuff a bunch of pompoms (or cotton balls if you don’t have pompoms) through the slots of the whisk until it is stuffed full. Have your child pull each pompom out from between the wires.

Intent: This activity helps promote strengthening and working on the pincer grip (using pointer finger and thumb). This grip is important for holding a writing tool in the future.

Art Invitation: Trace different objects you can find in your house. Find objects of different shapes and sizes and put them out with

Intent:  This activity incorporates fine motor development by holding the object while tracing which strengthens the pincer grip.

Music and Movement Invitation: Have a dance party to your child’s favorite songs!

Intent: To give children an opportunity to use their bodies to express their feelings while listening to their favorite songs.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Practice catching, throwing, kicking, and more with balls! (You can make some balls with crumpled newspaper and tape if needed)

What different balls can you throw?
What ball is easier to kick versus throw?
Is your ball bouncy?
What different sports do you play with the balls at your house?

Intent: Get outside and enjoy the nice weather and beautiful spring scenery, to use all of their big body muscles to enhance gross motor development.

It looks like the wonderful spring weather will continue today. We hope you can open some windows or go outside for awhile today. Here are a few invitations for you to consider. They range from low-mess to high-mess and low adult input to a higher level of set up.

Fine Motor Invitation: Sorting any small toys you have at home (by shape, color, size, material, etc). You will need a collection of small toys or objects (cars, farm animals, counting bears, large buttons, etc.) and a variety of small boxes, jars, or clean yogurt cups to sort into. Older children may enjoy using tongs to move the toys into the containers.

Intent: Children at this age are often drawn to sorting and categorizing in different ways. This invitation provides an opportunity for that while also building small motor skills.

Sensory Invitation: Gel sensory bag. For this invitation you will need a gallon zip-top bag (freezer bags are sturdier than storage bags) and a squishy substance to put in it. Aloe vera gel, hair gel, water cooked with cornstarch and cooled, and shampoo all work well. You can add food coloring if you would like or an assortment of small objects such as sequins. Seal the bag and let your child explore.

Intent: This invitation provides a way for children to increase small motor skills and explore the world in a different way.

Outdoor Invitation: Collecting materials to paint on. Find a box, bucket or basket your child can carry and invite them to collect things like pine cones, rocks, or large leaves from the ground. You can put out a tray, shower curtain, or rag towel for them to display their collection on when they are done.

Intent: Collecting walks help us all to slow down and look carefully at the world around us. This is an opportunity for children to feel different textures, notice smells and colors, and interact with the natural world.

Art Invitation: Painting/drawing on different items from nature (pinecones, rocks, leaves, etc.). Add child-safe paint and brushes to the area where your child has displayed their natural material finds. A wet rag nearby will help with cleanup.

Intent: This extension of the collection invitation opens up the materials to new life and allows the child creative expression.