Blog: PreK

Good morning. It is almost the end of anther week and it is starting to feel like summer weather. Here are three invitations for preschoolers today.

Large Motor Invitation: Water Play adventure

Thursday is Adventure Day! It is going to be fairly warm today, you can pack some cool water and go on a short adventure in your neighborhood, or set up a sprinkler in your yard and challenge your child to adventure through the drops. Where can they imagine they are going? Through a waterfall? In the jungle?

This invitation uses large muscles and creativity.

Art Invitation: Watercolor painting

You can easily set up a plein air watercolor spot in the shade with a child’s watercolor pallet, a small container of water, and some paper. This invitation is a place for creative expression and fine motor work. 

Fine Motor/Language Invitation: Audiobook story or podcast and play dough

Today you might consider setting up a quiet invitation such as play dough, a few play dough tools, and something for your child to listen to such as a favorite podcast, or an audiobook. Here is a link to a list of authors reading their own work. We had a laugh listening to Oliver Jeffers’ reading some of his books. 

Finding space for quiet and renewal is an important skill. This invitation is an opportunity for children to practice working on their own, finding a little quiet in themselves, listening, and doing something like working with play dough.

Good morning. As we continue to find resources for talking with young children about current events, we will continue to share them with you here along with our usual invitations for each age group.

Anti-Racism 101 from Books for Littles has some children’s book recommendations you may find helpful.

Art/Connecting Invitation: Sending another care surprise

As the stay-at-home order continues, how are you staying connected to friends and loved ones? Today you could invite your preschooler to make a care surprise for a friend. It could be something you leave on a doorstep or send through the mail. Children often really enjoy sending and receiving mail. You can set out some paper, an envelope and a variety of mark-making utensils. Your child can practice folding the paper so it fits in the envelope and sticking a stamp in the correct location. 

This invitation calls for children to be kind and think of others, use their imagination and creative expression, and builds fine motor skills.

Fine Motor Invitation: stickers/stamps and paper

Peeling and attaching stickers is amazing fine motor work for young children. You can make a simple shape or design on paper (like the first letter of their name or a heart), and ask them to follow the outline with stamps or stickers, or you can set out the materials and allow them complete creative control. Some children also want to cut out the stickers once they are attached to paper.

Large Motor/Outdoor Invitation: Sponge toss/throw

This invitation will work with a kitchen sponge, but a bath sponge or clean car wash sponge would work even better. Set up a bucket of cool water and the sponge outside and invite your child to dip the sponge in the water and toss it at a target. A small basketball hoop, hula hoop, another bucket, cooperative older sibling or parent will work. You can play catch with the sponge as well. This invitation builds tossing/throwing skills.

Good morning! For caregivers this morning we wanted to offer this post on myths by Jodi Wert of Wert Knowing and her ImagiNATION blog series. Many staff at Lakewood have had the honor of working with Jodi in the past and have found her insights valuable. Here are three invitations for preschoolers as well.

Fine Motor Invitation: Shadow Puppets

After doing quite a few informal investigations of light and shadow, we are curious about what your child will think of shadow puppets. To make shadow puppets, you will need a darker space, a light source like a flashlight, and your child’s hands.

Sesame Studios has a simple video how-to for making shadow puppets. 

Your child might also be inspired by this short video of shadow puppets using paper cut-outs from Paperhand Puppet Intervention.

Building/Science Invitation: Trucks and ramps

All three classes have been engaged in explorations of slope, acceleration, velocity, and gravity through ramps. Today we are curious about what would happen if you invite your child to add a second layer to the ramps like a highway overpass. Would they like to sketch their design before building? How can they document their work or have you document it? 

Art Invitation: Tape and paper

Invite your child to create something with paper and tape. You can provide plain tape or colored tape or a variety of different types of tape. Offer the tape with child scissors and paper and see what your child can create.

This invitation offers a place for creative expression, working on connecting schema, and promotes planning and motor development.

Welcome to another week of Lakewood at Home for preschoolers. We are so glad you are joining us. In light of current events, we wanted to share a couple of resources you may find helpful. The first is an article on teaching and learning about race from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and the second is a resource page from Teaching Tolerance. Both of these organizations have wonderful resources for families.

Here are three invitations you might want to offer your child today.

Art Invitation: Exploring contrast

Black and white exist in stark contrast to one another. They evoke light and shadow as well. This morning we are curious about what children will do if offered a variety of art materials in these two colors. What stories will they tell with these colors? How can these colors interact?

This invitation supports creative expression and builds motor skills.

Fine Motor/Building Invitation: Block building with animals

This morning you might consider inviting your child to build something with blocks for a specific stuffed animal or for a group of toy animals. You could offer some pieces of fabric as well. What will your child create? A bed? A home? A migration machine?

Blocks are a rich medium for showing children’s thinking and exploration. It is also a way to show their understanding of form, symmetry, and balance.

Fine Motor Invitation: Weaving with fuzzy wire (pipe cleaners)

Some of the work children in the preschool room were doing before the school building closed was with connecting and weaving. Today we are curious about how children might sculpt and connect using fuzzy wire (pipe cleaners). They might weave them together, or use tape to connect them. What will their imaginations find to create using these materials?

Middler teachers Sarah and Caitlyn suggest offering a similar invitation for slightly younger children today.