Good morning! We hope you made it through yesterday’s stormy weather safely. Here are a few invitations for your preschooler. We invite you to share your experiences in the comments.
Fine Motor Invitation: Shadow Tracings
Tape a piece of paper down to a table or the wall and turn down the lights! Using a flashlight (the one on your phone works great!) create some shadows with your hands, toys, and other objects. Invite your child to trace or draw the shapes they see. Do the shapes drawn from shadows look different than the real thing? What does an object’s shadow look like? How about the silhouette of many objects close together? Perhaps your child would like to color the negative space around the object instead?
The intent of this activity is for the child to be able to experience the perception of an object from a different point of view, strengthen hands, and to see positive and negative space with light and dark!
Sensory Invitation: Cornstarch Sensory Play
Mixing equal parts cornstarch and water creates a substance that looks and acts like liquid but is solid in your hands. Mix in food coloring if you desire!
You might ask: What does it look like? What does it feel like when you poke it? How about when you hold it in your hands?
The intent for this is to have sensory exploration with a material that is kind of magical in terms of sensation and inspires a lot of questions and investigation!
Art Invitation: Crayons & Leaves
Collect some leaves, petals, or stems from outside and set them out with paper. Ask what can be created if the leaves are underneath the paper they draw on? Can the leaves become part of the drawing? Or perhaps they would like to draw a picture about finding the things in nature/
Movement Invitation: More fun with Shadows
Invite your child to act out a story, dance, or make big shapes with shadows. Ideas include acting out their favorite book while you read it out loud, dancing to action songs, or acting out nursery rhymes.
The intent for this is to engage in movement and storytelling in a unique way!
Outdoor Invitation: Nature Shapes
Pick a few shapes to identify like circles, squares, diamonds or hearts and try to find or create them in nature. If you can’t find a heart, maybe you could invite your child to make the shape using things from nature.
