Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for PreK: May 14

May 14, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Today is Thursday and it looks like it will be lovely weather for an adventure.

Adventure Invitation: Collecting flowers and leaves for nature/science invitation

It’s Adventure Day! It looks like it will be a lovely day to go for a little walk around the yard or neighborhood. Today we are inviting your child to collect flowers such as clover or dandelions to use in another exploration.

On this adventure, children are invited to look closely at the natural world right outside their doors. What will they find? Will there be a beautiful surprise? What changes have there been since the last time they looked closely?

Nature/Science Invitation: Flowers in ice Part 1

What will happen if you freeze flowers in ice? For this invitation your child will need a non-breakable container (cake pan, clean recyclable, etc.), the flowers from their adventure, and a pitcher of water. In this example, we used pink sorrel, clover, honeysuckle, and mint leaves.

Invite them to combine the flowers and water in the container. What do the flowers do in water? What will happen when they freeze?

Put the container in the freezer to explore tomorrow.

This invitation asks children to make predictions, explore a different creative medium, and explore what floats and what sinks.

Movement Invitation: “Toe-ga”

For this invitation you will need something small like pompoms or cotton balls and a break-resistant cup. Scatter the pompoms on the floor and set the cup in the middle of them. Challenge your toddler to use their toes to pick up the pompoms and put them into the cup using their toes. This can be a whole family exercise!

This invitation builds balance and coordination as well as strengthening children’s feet. It requires concentration and focus to get the pompoms into the cup using toes.

Lakewood for PreK: May 13

May 13, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday! Looks like the weather will be warmer today, the perfect day for a gingerbread man obstacle course or a picnic snack.

Language/Literacy Invitation: The Gingerbread Man

The gingerbread man is a classic story form that has been varied in a multitude of ways. If you don’t have a favorite version at home, here is one of our very own Durham County Librarians telling the story.

Other variations on this theme can be found here, some may be available through the Durham County Library’s online resources. Which version of the story does your family enjoy?

Language/Storytelling/Art Invitation: Make your own gingerbread man story

For this invitation you can offer your child a homemade blank book (made from a few sheets of paper stapled together), a doll and some stuffed animals, felt board or magnet people, etc. Invite them to dictate and illustrate their own version of this classic story. If they are acting it out with dolls or felt board people, they may want to make props. What will your child’s version of the story be like?

Variation: Create a gingerbread person obstacle course in your home or yard. Can your child get through the course and outwit those trying to eat them?

Cooking Invitation: Making simple dough people for snack

This invitation is a very simple recipe children can almost make by themselves, especially if you measure out the ingredients. The results are not gourmet, but it is fun to catch the dough people and eat them before they can run away.

Simple Rolls

1 cup flour, plus extra for dusting the counter top
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup Greek yogurt
Edible decorations such as raisins, chopped dried apricots, nuts, coconut, sprinkles, etc.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the yogurt. Your child can mix and sculpt the dough with clean hands and pat it into shapes. You can also use cookie cutters. Place shapes on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Lakewood for Middlers: May 13

May 13, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday! The middle of the week. We are excited for a slightly warmer day today. Here are some invitations from middler teachers Sarah and Caitlyn. Enjoy!

Fine Motor Invitation: Collage with 3-D Items. Find different materials in your house for collage such as string, cardboard, buttons, craft sticks, sequins, beads, etc.

Intent: This activity incorporates fine motor development by encouraging the middlers to use their hand muscles to put glue on the paper. They can use the pincer grip to move and stick the items on the paper.

Art Invitation: Draw using stencils. If you do not have stencils you can use flat toys, blocks of different shapes, or cookie cutters.
Optional: Color in the shapes you made with the stencils.

Intent: The middlers used stencils a lot while at school. This activity uses a lot of fine motor skills as the middlers will have to hold the stencil and trace around it.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Play I Spy with your child outside, looking for interesting items and animals in nature.

Possible dialogue:
“I spy something green that moves in the wind”
“I spy something small and black that crawls on the ground”
“I spy something green that grows out of the ground”

Intent: Get outside and enjoy the nice weather and beautiful spring scenery. We want to encourage the middlers to use all of their big body and fine motor muscles to enhance gross motor development. This activity also uses perception and observation. Sit in nature and have your child observe and appreciate their surroundings.

Lakewood for Toddlers: May 13

May 13, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday! We are excited to share these invitation and hope they spark your curiosity as well as your toddler’s.

Sensory/Cooking Invitation: Exploring making rolls

Young children often want to help in the kitchen. Cooking is a fascinating process full of science and sensory experiences. This very simple recipe creates a dough that toddlers can pinch, roll, poke and pat before baking and eating.

Simple Rolls

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup Greek yogurt
Edible decorations such as raisins, chopped dried apricots, nuts, coconut, sprinkles, etc.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the yogurt. Your child can mix and sculpt the dough with clean hands and pat it into shapes. Place shapes on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Art Invitation: Crayons and paper

Did you discover any interesting papers in your house when pulling things together for Monday’s paper carpet invitation? Perhaps something that would invoke curiosity in your toddler? What would happen if you invite your child to explore different types of paper with some crayons? Do the crayons work the same on every type of paper? How does your toddler interact with the different textures?

Building Invitation: Blocks, cars, ramps

The Middlers and Preschoolers have been invited to explore ramps over the past few weeks. We’re wondering how toddlers might explore this concept at home as well. There is a long carpeted ramp in the toddler room at LACS which is used as a slide, a road for cars, and a place to experiment with what rolls. You can use a length of board, a long block, or longer piece of cardboard for this invitation. Prop one end on something and invite your toddler to see what will roll down. What will they choose? How will their theory about what will roll change as they experiment?