Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for Toddlers: April 22

April 22, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday, the middle of another week. The weather looks like it will be lovely in Durham today, we hope you and your toddler have a chance to go outside, or at least open a window. Here are three invitations that might inspire your toddler today.

Fine Motor/Engineering Invitation: Paper towel tubes and pom poms

Using blue tape or masking tape, attach 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 Invitation: Markers and paper

A simple invitation like mark-making on paper with washable markers provides freedom for creative expression and experimentation. You can make the invitation fresh by changing the size, color or texture of the paper, or limiting the colors of markers to warm, cool, or primaries.

Outdoor/Sensory Invitation: Water play

It will probably be a little cool today for a full-body water play experience, but the weather is perfect for a dishpan or bowl with a couple of inches of warm water, some scoops or spoons, and a bottle. You can add a small amount of baby shampoo to the water if your child likes to explore making foam and bubbles.

Sensory invitations like this are a way for toddlers to investigate many concepts, build small motor skills, and find joy in exploration.

Lakewood for Middlers: April 21

April 21, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Here are some invitations that we hope will interest your middler this Tuesday.

Sensory Invitation: Create shadow puppets on the wall using a flashlight or lamp in a dark room. What different shapes can you make? What does your shadow look like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz8wP2RYy64&feature=youtu.be – How To Make Shadow Puppets

Intent: This explores the middlers interpretation of light and dark. This also allows them to practice developing fine motor skills by creating different shapes with their fingers.

Fine Motor Invitation: Use any blocks that you want to build a house, tower, building, etc. When you’re finished knock it over to make a big crashing noise! You can also use loose parts or other objects to build your towers. How high can you build it before it falls?

Intent: The middlers enjoy building in the middler room and on the playground. This activity incorporates fine motor development by using their hand muscles to move and balance each block where they want it to go.

Art Invitation: Rainbow Tree! Find a small to medium sized, interesting looking branch. If possibly, find a bucket or pot to ‘plant’ the branch in. You want the branch to be able to stand up in the pot. Get out some paint! Have your child use different colors to paint the branches and create their rainbow tree.

** If you do not have a pot to put the branch in you can still paint it! Lay the branch out on the ground outside or on some newspaper to paint! (for an easy no-mess clean up). You can hang the branch from a string if you do not have a pot **

Intent: This is an opportunity for the middlers to practice painting on different materials other than paper. This will help develop the pincer grip, holding the paintbrush. This is another opportunity for mixing colors and experimenting with painting in different ways.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Gather five buckets or bowls and put the numbers 1-5 on them. Search for nature items outside such as leaves, sticks, rocks, etc. Put one nature item in the bucket/bowl with the number one. Put two nature items in the bucket/bowl with the number two on it. Etc.

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 muscles to enhance gross motor development. This activity also includes cognitive development by incorporating counting and number recognition.

Lakewood for Toddlers: April 21

April 21, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Here are some ideas for your toddler today.

Fine Motor/Sensory Invitation: Filling and dumping bottles

Filling and dumping are related schema that toddlers are eager to build on. Today, we suggest getting out some bottles with narrow necks (empty water bottles are perfect) and some items that fit through the neck. Craft sticks, pom poms, unsharpened pencils, and cotton swabs work well. Invite your child to see how many they can fit in the bottle, then dump it when it is full.

This invitation encourages children to use fine motor skills while building cognitive skills, persistence, and the joy of discovery.

Music/Movement Invitation: Sound shakers

Many toddlers enjoy exploring the world of sound, and investigating different ways to make sounds with a variety of things. For this invitation you can use the same bottles and materials as the first invitation, or something different. Look around your house and see what you can find that might make noise in a bottle. You can also make shakers using buttons, beads, or small rocks. Stay close to your child if they are still putting small things in their nose or mouth. When there are some objects in the bottles, put the lids on, and turn on some music with a steady beat!

You can also do this activity by taping over the ends of paper towel tubes. Close one end, add something that rattles, and then close the other end.

This invitation extends the filling and dumping invitation and brings in sound and music as well as creative expression.

Large Motor Invitation: Climbing over pillows and cushions

Pull the cushions off the couch, the pillows off the bed and create a soft obstacle course for your toddler! They can work with you to create caves, mountains, etc. When they are done with the course, have them help put everything away.

Creating an obstacle course requires planning, testing, and experimentation. Moving the cushions and pillows requires strength and coordination as does completing the course.

Lakewood for PreK: April 21

April 21, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! Here are some invitations that might intrigue your preschooler this Tuesday.

Fine Motor Invitation: Connecting clothespins and craft sticks

The preschool class at LACS has been doing a lot of work around connecting this year. They explored the possibilities of tape, string, and in March were beginning to investigate the potential of clothespins. Clothespins and craft sticks (also known as Popsicle sticks), offer many exciting possibilities for building and connecting. You could also offer binder clips and small pieces of cardboard.

This invitation is an opportunity to further explore the schema of connecting and disconnecting, builds problem solving skills and fine motor skills.

Art Invitation: Ephemeral nature collage

This invitation can be as simple as setting out an empty picture frame or drawing a rectangle with sidewalk chalk and inviting your child to collect a few small objects from nature and make a design in the frame. You can discuss how the collage will be ephemeral, meaning it won’t last. Suggest they make a drawing or you take a picture if they would like to remember their work.

This invitation builds connection to nature, encourages creative expression, and is an opportunity for children to explore texture, pattern and design.

Language and Literacy Invitation: Connect with our own Durham County Library librarians for online storytime! Today we suggest When the Wind Stops by Charlotte Zolotow. This lovely story about cycles of days and seasons might inspire some circular art projects, nature investigations, or other activities.