Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for Toddlers: May 21

May 21, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! It looks like today, Thursday, is going to be another wet day. A quick reminder that Monday is Memorial Day. We are taking the day off, but will be back with more activity invitations on Tuesday.

Dramatic Play Invitation: Cardboard box adventure

We love how cardboard boxes can become almost anything for a young child. Today we invite you and your child to turn a box (or laundry basket or storage bin without lid) into a fire truck, or a hot air balloon, or a car, train, boat, or rocketship and go on an adventure. Your child might want to pack a bag to take along with them, or have an old calculator to use as the controls. Where will their imagination take them?

Language/Literacy extension: What To Do With a box by Jane Yolen

Art Invitation: Paint and textures

For this invitation you will need a variety of textured materials (bubble wrap, cardboard, paper, etc.), washable paint and a paintbrush as well as the usual toddler painting supplies like a wet rag towel. Tape the materials to a flat surface. If you have a larger piece of cardboard, you can tape the other things onto the cardboard. Invite your toddler to explore how it feels to paint the different textures. They may want to explore with their hands as well so they can really feel the differences.

Fine Motor Invitation: Colanders and chenille stems

This invitation comes from Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky’s wonderful book Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play with Infants and Toddlers. Turn a colander upside down on a tray or table with a collection of chenille stems (also known as pipe cleaners or fuzzy wire). Invite your child to poke the wire through the holes in the colander. This takes persistence, coordination, and builds finger muscles.

Lakewood for PreK: May 21

May 21, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! It’s going to be another rainy day today. Memorial Day is coming up on Monday and this blog will be taking the day off.

Nature/Large Motor Invitation: Flower hunt adventure

Today looks like it will be very wet. If you are not able to go outside to look for flowers, where might your child find some in the house? Are there flowers in some of the books you have? In art or photographs? Magazines, newspapers or catalogues? What kind of flowers can they see from a window?

Art/Design Invitation: Making flowers

What materials can your child use to make a flower? Blocks? Tissue Paper? Markers and paper?

This invitation asks children to think about what a flower looks like and bring that vision to life using a language of their choosing.

Fine Motor/Science Invitation: Observational flower drawing

Using a real flower or a flower your child found on their flower hunt, paper and a sharp pencil, pen, or artist’s marker, invite your child to look closely at the flower and draw what they see. This kind of scientific examination helps children see the way things are put together, how complex things are often made of simple shapes, and asks them to draw what they see. This builds observational skills and fine motor skills.

Lakewood for PreK: May 20

May 20, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! The wet weather continues today. Is it making your week feel longer or shorter? Here are three invitations for preschoolers today.

Language/Literacy Invitation: Storyteller’s workshop

Storyteller’s workshop is an opportunity to process events and thoughts through storytelling. You can record your child telling a story, or write down their words on the pages of a homemade book (several pieces of paper stapled together). Invite your child to illustrate their story.

Storytelling and illustration not only engages children with language and literacy, but are avenues for creative expression and fine-motor skill development.

Large Motor Invitation: Tell a yoga story

If you have been doing yoga at home for awhile, with yoga cards or some of the children’s yoga videos, your child will be familiar with the idea of telling a story that incorporates yoga. Today, invite them to be the yoga leader and storyteller.

This invitation gives children an opportunity to develop as leaders, storytellers, and creative thinkers.

Listening/Art Invitation: Julie’s Library with drawing prompt

We have been looking forward to Julie’s Library, a new podcast featuring Julie Andrews reading children’s books. In this episode she reads From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom. “A magical child is born with the ability to transform into many different things. But what happens when the other children don’t understand?” Invite your child to draw while they listen.

Lakewood for Middlers: May 20

May 20, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! It’s Wednesday and supposed to be rainy again. Here are three invitations from the Lakewood middler teachers for today.

Sensory Invitation: Exploring Smells
Either when you’re cooking or just for fun, invite your child to smell different spices from the cabinet. Be careful not to label any of the smells as good or bad, but instead “big” and “small” smells, “spicy” or “sweet” smells. Maybe some of the smells will tickle your child’s nose, or make them think of foods that usually have that spice in them. You can also have them compare fresh herbs and spices with their dried counterparts.

Intent: This sensory activity explores smells. This smelling activity will help them understand smells in a new way which can help with eating new foods too.

Fine Motor Invitation: Sorting drop box.
Cut slots into a cardboard box and have your child drop paper through them. If you have different color paper you can color code the slots to add a sorting variation.

Intent: This activity incorporates fine motor development by encouraging the middlers to use their hand muscles and pincer grip to pick up and drop the paper in the slots. This could also be used as a mailbox for a dramatic play activity.

Music and Movement Invitation: Sing and dance to “Sleeping Bunnies”

“See the sleeping bunnies,

Sleep ‘til nearly noon,

Let us try to wake them with a cheerful tune,

Up little bunnies and hop, hop, hop,

Up little bunnies and hop, hop, hop”

*You can alternate animals. We have done lions, unicorns, frogs, & elephants*

Intent: This activity encourages big body movements, imagination, and self-regulation.