Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for Middlers: July 29

July 29, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s the middle of the week again. The final Wednesday in July! Here are three invitations for middlers today.

Building Invitation: Block roads and ramps

Challenge your child to build a block road across a certain part of your home, or to build a favorite street or town out of blocks. Adding loose parts can extend this invitation. Children may also want to make buildings out of empty boxes. Are there hills along this road? How can your child use blocks or loose parts to construct ramps?

This invitation encourages children to work with scale, spatial awareness, and build problem-solving skills.

Fine Motor/Engineering Invitation: Paper towel tubes and pom pomsUsing blue tape or masking tape, attach a paper towel or other cardboard tubes to a door or wall. You can put some straight up and down and others at an angle, or make a maze if you are feeling ambitious. Children can put pom poms or small balls through the tubes. This invitation is a wonderful way for children to investigate concepts in physics, explore trial and error, and build motor skills.

Art/Sensory Invitation: Play dough or clay story

Invite your child to build a representation of their story from play dough or clay. They may interpret this in different ways; making a different sculpture for each page, creating the world of their story and acting it out, or something completely new. You can ask if you can take photos or a video of the story so they can reflect on it later.

Lakewood for PreK: July 28

July 28, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Here are three invitations for preschoolers for the last Tuesday in July.

Sensory Invitation: Cornstarch and colored water

This invitation works well in a large dish tub or storage bin. You will need a container of cornstarch, water, two or three clean empty bottles (ketchup bottles or similar are perfect), and food coloring. Pour around ½ cup water into each bottle and add a few drops of food coloring. Make each bottle a different color. Put the tops back on and invite your child to squeeze the water into the bin of cornstarch and see what happens. Depending on the amount of cornstarch you have, you may need to refill the water bottles. Invite your child to stir the mixture and explore non-Newtonian fluids, transformation, and color theory.

Dramatic Play Invitation: Use any size cardboard box to build a house for your child or their lovies. They can use markers or crayons to decorate the house however they want.

Intent: This activity gives the middlers an opportunity to explore different creative options while making something they can have for personal use.

Art/Sensory Invitation: Playdough 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. 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.

Lakewood for Middlers: July 28

July 28, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Here are three invitations for middlers for the last Tuesday in July!

Sensory Invitation: Wash muddy cars, balls, etc. in a container with soapy water. You can even make a shower for your toys by cutting holes in the bottom of a cup and pouring water into it.

Intent: We use sensory activities for the middlers to explore their five senses. This activity will allow for the middlers to enjoy multiple sensory experiences such as touch, hearing, and sight.

Building Invitation: Block building with additional loose parts

Building with blocks is an important learning language for young children. It also allows them to explore connecting and disconnecting schema, create imaginary worlds, and tinker with architecture and design. After so many weeks at home, it might be time to add something new to your children’s block collection. You can offer a variety of things to inspire young builders like cotton balls, small dry sticks, shells or empty cardboard boxes. Small LED candles are also a beautiful addition. You can also invite your child to create block people to live in their creations. Have them draw people (or animals or monsters or trees) on paperboard or thick paper, cut them out, and tape them to small blocks so they stand up. You can also use binder clips to support block people if you have those. To make them more sturdy, cover them on both sides with clear packing tape before attaching to the blocks.

Large Motor/Outdoor Invitation: Neighborhood Animal Yoga

Begin this invitation by asking your child what kinds of animals live in your neighborhood. Then see what yoga poses they know, or can create so their bodies look/feel like those animals. In our neighborhood in Durham we see dogs, cats, birds, snakes, spiders, worms, raccoons, and occasionally deer or a fox. Your child might also want to be a balancing tree, a flower unfurling, or a unicorn! You can take photos or have your child draw their own yoga cards to use over and over again.

This invitation connects children to their environment using their imaginations. It also builds balance, flexibility and strength.

Lakewood for Toddlers: July 28

July 28, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Here are three invitations for your toddler on the last Tuesday in July.

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?

Motor Invitation: Transporting blocks with spoons

Transportation schema work is very important for many young children. They often carry bags, buckets and baskets full of a variety of objects from one place to another. Transportation is the exploration in this work. Today you can challenge your toddler to transport blocks (or another set of small objects) from one place to another using a large spoon. You can set all the objects on a chair with a spoon, and set a basket or mark off a square on the other side of the room. Invite your child to use the spoon to move the blocks.

Fine Motor Invitation: Sticker Lines. Draw a couple of different lines (zig-zag, loopy, squiggley, etc.) and have your child put stickers on top. This could be done on the wall, floor, or even outside!

Variation: If you do not have stickers they could trace with paint or different color markers.