Lakewood Avenue Children's School

Preschool Ages 1-5

Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for PreK: May 6

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Good morning! You have made it to the middle of the week, Wednesday. Here are three invitations for preschoolers today.

Math/contributing activity: Sock matching!

Help your child gather all the stray socks in your house and invite them to match them into pairs with a basket or pile for those without matches (save them for later).

This invitation works on matching, one-to-one correspondence, and gives children a way to contribute to the family.

  

Art Invitation: Making sock puppets from mismatched socks

Once you have some mismatched socks, or an old or outgrown pair, invite your child to turn them into sock puppets. Markers, fabric paint, glue, embroidery floss, yarn, felt, other fabric and natural materials can be used to turn socks into puppets. What will your child create?

This invitation encourages creativity, invention, and building fine motor skills.

 

Language/Literacy Invitation: Puppet Theater Story

Your child can use the sock puppets they created, paper bag puppets, or other puppets or stuffed animals to act out a story they have imagined. If you want to extend the activity, you can work with your child to turn a larger cardboard box into a puppet theater. Your child might also appreciate having someone write down their story and read it back while they act it out with the puppets.

In this invitation, children are working with language and literacy skills and concepts, and building their creative expression skills.

Lakewood for Toddlers: May 6

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Good morning! It’s Wednesday again. Looks like it is going to be a lovely spring day! Here are some invitations for toddlers that can be offered inside or outside.

Sensory Invitation: Pouring water

This simple invitation is often fascinating for toddlers as they explore the properties of water, work on their pouring skills, and build muscle skills.

You can set this up at the kitchen sink, in the backyard, or the bathtub. Put some warm water into a bowl and set out some cups, measuring cups, and possibly a ladle or spoon.

Literacy/Dramatic Play Invitation: Reading to babies/lovies

Last week we invited children to care for baby dolls or lovies. Today we extend that invitation, wondering what books children will choose to read to their baby dolls? Will it be board books that were favorites of theirs when they were younger? Current favorites? Would they like to make a book especially for their baby?

Extension: Making a book for the baby doll. You can make a book for a baby doll with pictures of daily activities or events printed on plain paper and stapled together to make a spine. You can also offer your toddler a homemade blank book (fold 2-3 sheets of paper together and staple along the folded edge) to fill with their own illustrations.

In offering care and connection to baby dolls, children are practicing self-care, building empathy, and exploring caregiver roles. This invitation also encourages language and literacy skills as children practice narrating what they see on the page and turning pages.

Art Invitation: Play dough explorations

While clay is our favorite sculpting medium, play dough is more accessible for most families (unless you want to dig some Carolina clay from your backyard). Perhaps today your toddler would like to make a play dough picnic for their baby doll? Or use everyday objects to make prints in the dough?

Sculpting is a way to build fine motor skills, facilitate creative expression, and explore texture, shape, and design.

Lakewood for Middlers: May 6

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Good morning! It’s another Wednesday at home. It looks like the weather will be lovely today. Here are three invitations from Sarah and Caitlyn for middlers.

Art Invitation: Painting Ice Cubes. Fill a storage tub with ice cubes. Have your child paint on the ice cubes!

Watercolors or liquid watercolors are perfect for this invitation. We made our own using dried out washable markers.

Intent: This activity gives the middlers an opportunity to explore painting on different mediums instead of just paper. This promotes fine motor development, holding the paint brushes with the pincer grip.

Music and Movement Invitation: Create your own song can! During meeting at school we let the middlers pick a random song out of the ‘song can’ to sing each day. Create your own at home! Using popsicle sticks, or just scrap pieces of paper, write down a bunch of your child’s favorite songs. Let your child randomly pick out a song to sing! Let your child hold the can so you can choose a random song!

Intent: The middlers LOVE singing during meeting time and all throughout the day. We want to encourage the middlers to keep singing every day and will give examples of some of their favorite songs! This activity also uses your child’s big body and will encourage gross motor development.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Create a pouring station outside! This can be done in a storage tub, or just on the ground. In your pouring station add a mix of containers. Add water in some and keep others empty. You can add some soap or food coloring to some of the containers for some extra fun! Have your child practice pouring water from the containers into the others.

Intent: While still at school the middlers were practicing pouring their own water from a pitcher at snack time. This activity will help the middlers practice this life skill in a safe, fun, and engaging way.

Lakewood for Toddlers: May 5

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Good morning! It looks like it might be a chilly, wet Tuesday. Here are some invitations we hope will engage your toddler’s interest today.

Art/Sensory Invitation: Finger paint 

Finger paint is an amazing medium for toddlers. It’s smooth, thick texture is lovely to explore with hands and fingers. If your paint supplies are running low, here’s a recipe. Please note that while this is amazing to paint with, the paintings do not keep well. Better to snap a photo than to try and save the actual work in this climate. The paint is best just after it cools down, it will get odd and bouncy if you leave it in the jars.

Edible Finger Paint

  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 cup cold water
  • Food coloring

Jars or other containers to hold the paint

Combine sugar, cornstarch and water in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring frequently, over medium heat until the mixture becomes fairly clear and thickens. Pour into 3-4 containers and stir different colors of food coloring into each. Allow to cool before offering it to your toddler.

This paint is perfect for smooth surfaces such as finger paint paper. It will also work on thicker paper or a plastic shower curtain liner or vinyl tablecloth. 

 

Building Invitation: Stacking things

We are revisiting this invitation wondering what else toddlers might find to stack and what kinds of towers they will make. Do you have any paper cups and plates? Clean, child-safe recyclables? What about natural materials like pine cones to balance on the top?

Revising stacking asks children to share how their ideas and thinking have changed over time. This invitation also calls for fine and large motor control.

 

Large Motor Invitation: Bean bag toss into empty frames or chalk targets

You can use bean bags for this invitation, or balled up socks. Create a target or two using empty photo frames (remove the glass as well), painter’s tape, or sidewalk chalk. Invite your child to toss the bean bags into the frames. They may have ideas about how far away they would like to be, or a different way to arrange the targets.

This invitation uses children’s arm muscles, refining aim and tossing skills.