Lakewood at Home

Good morning! Here are three invitations for preschoolers on a hot Tuesday in July.

Cooking Invitation: Making basil sauce for pasta

You can make this simple pasta sauce using a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Your child can work with you peeling the garlic, washing and measuring the basil, grinding things in the mortar and pestle.

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup packed basil leaves
• ⅓ cup olive oil or more as needed
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese (or parmesan)
• Kosher salt as needed

Mortar and pestle method: Combine garlic and basil leaves in the mortar and pestle and grind until smooth-ish. Slowly add the olive oil and continue to blend. Add cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Serve on pasta or rice.

Food processor method: Combine everything in a food processor, pulse until blended. Serve on pasta or rice.

For a more mild sauce, you can use spinach in place of half the basil.

Language Invitation: Recipe creation

This offering is related to the cooking invitation, but can be offered on its own as well. Invite your child to create their own recipe. They can do this with ingredients in the kitchen, dictate a recipe to you, or draw/write on their own. This is an opportunity for creative expression, exploring mark making, and also a way for adults to learn more about how children think about cooking and recipes. 

Science/Connecting Invitation: How is your tree today? What do you notice about its bark?

Today we hope your child has an opportunity to revisit the tree they befriended last week. On this visit, we are wondering what your child might notice about their tree friend’s bark. Is it smooth, is it rough? Is it peeling off like crepe myrtles do this time of year? Perhaps they will notice some ants taking a walk on the bark. Your child might also be interested in making a bark rubbing using a crayon and a piece of paper. 

Good morning! We hope you had a lovely weekend with time for rest and renewal. Here are three invitations for preschoolers for a hot Monday in July.

Large/Fine Motor Invitation: Durham County Library indoor obstacle course

We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Durham County Library’s Summer Reading program is happening now. As part of that program, they are posting virtual storytimes and other informative and fun content on their Youtube channel. We really liked their idea for an indoor obstacle course that involves not only physical, but cognitive challenges as well! What obstacles will you and your child come up with? You could have block stacking, sorting, writing or drawing, or other “obstacles.”

Science Invitation: Return to light and shadow work

Throughout this time we have offered different invitations for investigating light and shadow. In these last weeks we are returning to some of our earlier offerings, as we often do at school, wondering how the children’s thinking has changed since they first encountered these materials and ideas. 

Shadow Tracing: 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!

Art Invitation: Paint and string

This invitation is also a sensory exploration! Offer your child a selection of paints and a place to mix them (the lid from a yogurt container works well) along with paper and a few pieces of string around 6” long. Invite them to dip the string in the paint and use it to make designs on the paper.