Lakewood Avenue Children's School

Preschool Ages 1-5

Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for Middlers: April 28

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Good morning! We are excited for more beautiful weather today. Any of these invitations can be taken outside, or done in your home.

Sensory Invitation: Sensory Scavenger Hunt
Find something that makes a crunch sound
Find something that smells good
Find something smooth
Find something rough
Find something loud
Find something soft
Find something white
Find something with three or more colors on it

Intent: We use sensory activities for the middlers to explore their five senses. This activity will use all of their senses and allow for them to search for the different sensory experiences.

Fine Motor Invitation: Connect the dots. Using five different colors draw two dots of each color randomly on a piece of paper. Have your child connect the dots.

Intent: The middlers love using markers while drawing at the art table! This activity enhances fine motor development by using the hand muscles to correctly hold the marker and move it around to connect the dots.

Art Invitation: Crayon Resist Art
Have your child draw on a piece of paper with a white crayon (make sure your child presses firmly down so there is enough wax on the paper). When they are done, have them paint over their drawing with water colors. Whatever was drawn with the white crayon will magically appear when painted over with watercolors!

Variation: Have a parent/adult draw with the white crayon, and have the child magically expose the drawing using the water colors.

Intent: This is an art experiment for the middlers to complete start to finish. This activity helps promote fine motor development using the pincer grip.

Lakewood for PreK: April 27

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Good morning! It looks like it is going to be a lovely day in Durham. Here are three invitations for your preschool-aged child to explore today, or any day.

Art/Connection Invitation: Draw a picture for a friend 

Your child may be missing friends or relatives, a great way to connect is to draw a picture for that friend and send it to them either through the mail, or via text. Your child might be able to start a shared drawing or coloring activity with their friend. 

This invitation is similar to one we have used at Lakewood in the past to reinforce the home-school connection. In that case, children wrote to their families and we mailed the letters. We hope the act of sending love into the world will help your child continue to feel connected to friends and/or family.

 

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 construct ramps from loose parts?

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

 

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 Middlers: April 27

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Welcome back! It looks like it will be a beautiful day in Durham. We hope these invitations for 2’s and young 3’s will engage your young child today, or any day you want to offer them.

Sensory Invitation: Making Fizzy Cloud Dough
Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup baking soda, ¼ cup veg oil
Let your child play around with the mixture to see how it feels. They can shape and mold the cloud dough. When ready, start by adding just a few drops of vinegar to the mixture and watch it fizz! Experiment with how much vinegar you add to see how much the mixture will fizz!

** This may turn out to be a fairly messy experiment depending on how much vinegar you add. Please make sure to cover the surfaces you use or do this experiment outside for an easier clean up.**

Intent: This allows the middlers to watch the physical properties of the cloud dough change immediately after adding the vinegar. In one invitation they get to experience different feelings of the mixture both before and after the addition of vinegar.

Fine Motor Invitation: Sorting by colors. Use a marker to divide a big piece of paper into six sections. At the top label each section with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Sort cars, animals, blocks, etc. by color. Count how many objects you have for each color.

Intent: This activity incorporates fine motor development by using their hand muscles to pick up and place each item on the paper.This activity promotes the use of the pincer grip by grabbing some of the smaller items with their thumb and index finger. This activity also enhances cognitive development by incorporating matching and color recognition.

Art Invitation: Using your toy cars, dip the wheels in paint and create tracks with the cars. If possible use cars with different sized or shaped wheels.

Intent: We encourage the middlers to continue using art materials to express their creativity. This will allow for your child to work on a simple project (painting) with unconventional materials (the car wheels).

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Play Simon Says and include big body movements.

“Mommy/Daddy says jump up and down.”
“Mommy/Daddy says run and touch the tree.”
“Mommy/Daddy says go find a stick.”
“Mommy/Daddy says crawl on the ground.”

Variation: Have your child ask you to do the movements.

Intent: Get outside and enjoy the nice weather and beautiful spring scenery. This invitation also encourages careful listening, and following/giving directions.

Lakewood for Toddlers: April 27

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Welcome to another week of Lakewood at Home. While we would rather be at school, we are delighted to be sharing these invitations for toddlers with you.

Art/Sensory Invitation: Play dough 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 that are too large to be choking hazards. 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. 

 

Dramatic Play Invitation: Caring for babies

“What we offer to others, we also offer to ourselves” – Dr. Becky Bailey, founder of Conscious Discipline

If your child does not have a baby doll, they can use a stuffed animal, or you can make a doll out of a couple of socks following this video tutorial, or one of the adorable sock softies from this blog. Your child might want to make a bed for their baby out of a cardboard box, take their baby for a walk around the house/yard/neighborhood, or feed them with a small spoon. 

Toddlers are often drawn to caring for baby dolls: carrying them, covering them with blankets, giving the bottles. These care routines allow toddlers to try out things they see adults doing, and builds empathy.

 

Large Motor Invitation: Yoga with baby dolls/stuffed animals

You can extend the dramatic play activity by inviting your child to bring their baby doll to yoga time. It looks like the weather will be perfect for doing yoga outside today as well. Can your toddler help their baby doll do some yoga poses? 

Yoga builds strength, flexibility and coordination while connecting young children to their bodies.