Blog: Toddlers

Can you believe it’s the last day of April? Whether you are just joining us or have been using these invitations all month, we are so glad you are here. Below you will find three ideas for toddlers to explore on what looks like it will be a wet and possibly stormy day.

Sensory Invitation: Sensory bin with tubes and scoops

If you have not yet set up a sensory bin for your toddler, today is a great day for that. You can use an empty storage bin, a dish tub, or a cardboard box. You can set the bin on a low table or kitchen/dining chair so your child can stand and work (you can also set it on the floor, but it is likely your child will climb into the bin). For younger toddlers, it is often a good idea to set the sensory bin on a sheet, shower curtain, or tablecloth to make cleaning up easier. You can fill the bin with a variety of things: grass seed, birdseed, crinkled paper grass, sand, water (not in a cardboard box), leaves, etc. 

Today we are wondering what toddlers will do with something that pours like sand or seeds, paper towel tubes, and scoops. Will they use the tubes to move the sand? Will they use them to make circles by stamping them into the sand? Will they use the seeds to make the tubes stand up like towers and fill them?

Sensory bins can be very soothing for children (and adults) to work in. They are also an opportunity to explore the properties of the physical world, experiment with gravity and cause and effect.

 

Building Invitation: Blocks with additional loose parts (cotton balls, sticks, etc.)

Blocks are a wonderful way for toddlers to explore different schema while building their design skills, hand-eye coordination and other motor skills. After so many weeks at home, it might be time to offer something new with your blocks. This could be as simple as some mason jar rings, paper towel tubes, or cotton balls, You could also add things from nature like sweet gum balls, leaves, or small sticks. What might your toddler do with these additional materials?

 

Art Invitation: Messing about with tape

We have been following the work of several inspirational programs across the globe during this crisis. One invitation we wanted to share with local toddlers is “Messing About with Tape” from Boulder Journey School. All you need is some tape (masking tape or painter’s tape is ideal because it peels cleanly off most surfaces).

It’s Wednesday! It looks like it is going to be warm again today. Feel free to take these invitations outside.

Sensory/Science Invitation: Making granola

Toddlers are often very interested in what is happening in the kitchen. The toddlers at Lakewood spend a lot of time working with the pretend food and dishes in the classroom as they explore what it might be like to cook and serve food. This granola recipe is very flexible and easy to adjust to suit your taste. It’s simple enough that it can be made with a lot of help from little hands.

 

Simple Maple Granola

• 5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• ½ cup flaked coconut
• ½ cup wheat germ (optional)
• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 250-degrees F. In a really large bowl, combine oats, coconut, wheat germ, sunflower seeds and salt. Give your child a large spoon and invite them to mix everything together. It is okay if some of the dry ingredients fly out of the bowl.

In another large bowl, mix together the maple syrup, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Pour this mixture into the bowl of oats and stir until everything is mixed together.

Pour the mixture onto a rimmed cookie sheet and bake 2 hours at 250-degrees.

Allow to cool before storing in a tightly sealed container. You can add dried fruit after it is cooled.

 

Dramatic Play Invitation: Setting the table

For this invitation you will need some unbreakable dishes (leftover party or picnic supplies work well) and a blanket to use as a picnic blanket or an empty table or countertop. Invite your toddler to set the table for themselves and perhaps a sibling or stuffed animal. When they have organized things to suit themselves, you can offer them a snack or lunch on the dishes they have set out.

This invitation is a way for toddlers to practice helpful household skills, acting out actions they see in everyday life. It is also an exploration of one-to-one correspondence, an early math skill.

 

Outdoor/Sensory Invitation: Backyard texture search

You can offer this invitation inside your home if you do not have access to outdoor space. Challenge your child to find as many different textures as they can around the space. Can they find something:

• Soft
• Rough
• Squishy
• Smooth
• Thin
• Prickly

This invitation gives children vocabulary to match with what they are feeling with their fingers. It also encourages children to explore the world in a different way using a sense other than sight.

Good morning! It looks like it is going to be a beautiful spring day in Durham. Here are a few invitations for your toddler this morning.

Science Invitation: Shadow explorations

Where is the light making shadows in your home today? Open the blinds or curtains and let the light shine in. Your toddler can explore the light and shadows using their hands and body, pieces of fabric, or other small things that make shadows. You can also create a shadow theater with a flashlight and a blank section of wall in a darker space.

In exploring light and shadow, children are investigating the properties of both. If the light changes, what happens to their shadow? Why do shadows move? In what ways are they different from reflections in mirrors?

 

Art Invitation: Mark making with crayons or pastels

This invitation can stand alone, or be an interesting extension of the shadow exploration above. For either you will need some paper and crayons or child-safe pastels and perhaps some tape to hold the paper down. If you have a space in your home with bright, shadow-forming light, you can tape the paper there, or put the paper on a clipboard and set it in that area. Invite your child to see what happens to their marks in the light versus the shadow. They might also want to draw lines around the shadow or the light on their paper.

This invitation moves mark making into the dynamic realm of light and shadow. It is an opportunity for scientific exploration, creative expression, and fine motor development.

 

Outdoor/Large Motor Invitation: Ball and bucket toss and carry

Round up a bunch of balls (or make some from crumpled paper) and a bucket or basket. Invite your child to explore the materials. They may throw or kick the balls far and wide, throw them into the bucket, place them carefully in the bucket and then dump them out, or something else entirely.

Moving balls in and out of a container is an opportunity to explore scattering, transporting, and collecting. It also uses large muscles.

Welcome to another week of Lakewood at Home. While we would rather be at school, we are delighted to be sharing these invitations for toddlers with you.

Art/Sensory Invitation: Play dough and stones

This invitation can be offered with any kind of play dough, moon dough, cloud dough, or clay dug from your backyard (remove any live critters first), and clean rocks or stones that are too large to be choking hazards. Set up the sculpting medium on a tray with a bowl of stones and ask your child what they can do with them. They might like to make a nest as though the stones were eggs, or simply poke the stones into the dough. You might also offer a rolling pin for flattening the dough.

Sculpting with different media builds fine motor skills and coordination while providing a space for three-dimensional creative expression. 

 

Dramatic Play Invitation: Caring for babies

“What we offer to others, we also offer to ourselves” – Dr. Becky Bailey, founder of Conscious Discipline

If your child does not have a baby doll, they can use a stuffed animal, or you can make a doll out of a couple of socks following this video tutorial, or one of the adorable sock softies from this blog. Your child might want to make a bed for their baby out of a cardboard box, take their baby for a walk around the house/yard/neighborhood, or feed them with a small spoon. 

Toddlers are often drawn to caring for baby dolls: carrying them, covering them with blankets, giving the bottles. These care routines allow toddlers to try out things they see adults doing, and builds empathy.

 

Large Motor Invitation: Yoga with baby dolls/stuffed animals

You can extend the dramatic play activity by inviting your child to bring their baby doll to yoga time. It looks like the weather will be perfect for doing yoga outside today as well. Can your toddler help their baby doll do some yoga poses? 

Yoga builds strength, flexibility and coordination while connecting young children to their bodies.