Lakewood at Home

Lakewood for Middlers: April 14

April 14, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! We hope you made it through yesterday’s storms safely. Here are a few invitations for your middler-aged child today, or any day. We invite you to share your experiences in the comments.

Sensory Invitation: Create your own kinetic sand without sand!

The recipe we tested for this activity was two parts baking soda, one part baking powder and one part liquid dish soap. It was really interesting to watch it change from powders and soap to something sand-like to a substance like whipped cream. Our kids at home were fascinated, but said it is not much like purchased kinetic sand.

Intent: The middlers love using kinetic sand in the sensory bin at school. This is a recipe to make your own (similar) product. This allows the middlers to explore the properties of how the ‘sand’ feels and how it’s different from other sand.

Fine Motor Invitation: Build a zoo with any type of blocks and animals that you want to use.

Click the link below to see live cams of different animals at the San Diego zoo – VERY COOL!

https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/live-cams

Intent: The middlers enjoy building and incorporating animals into their play. This activity incorporates fine motor development by using their hand and arm muscles to move and balance each block and animal.

Art Invitation: Make animal prints. Create your own freehand prints (you can have your child draw what they think the prints look like, or use pictures for reference) or use toy animals and paint to make prints with their (toy animals) feet. You can extend this activity by filling a bucket or bowl with soapy water and inviting your child to wash the animal’s feet.

Intent: This is another exploration of animals. This activity allows the middlers to explore painting with non conventional materials.

Music and Movement Invitation: Since we are focused on animals today sing different songs about animals:
“Five Little Monkeys”
“Baa Baa Black Sheep”
“Old MacDonald”
“Baby Shark”

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! We also want to give the middlers an opportunity to express themselves through movement while listening to their favorite songs.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Make an obstacle course using different objects.
Ex: hoops to jump through, balls to kick, things to jump off or on to, etc.

Extension: Have your child create an obstacle course for YOU to complete 🙂

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.

Lakewood for Toddlers: April 14

April 14, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! We hope you made it safely through yesterday’s windy weather. Here are a few ideas for toddlers (or children of any age) for today.

Fine Motor Invitation: (making) Play Dough

Our favorite play dough uses the stove, but your toddler can help mix the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ones before cooking.

You can find our favorite play dough recipe here.

Cooking of any kind engages children’s curiosity and builds motor skills.

Sensory Invitation: Play Dough

Once your play dough is cool, you can invite your child to explore it using their hands, or tools like butter knives, chopsticks, or rolling pins.

This invitation is an opportunity for creative expression, fine motor skill building, and exploring a different texture.

Art Invitation: Outdoor Chalk Paint

Mixing equal parts cornstarch and water with a little food coloring creates a delightful chalk paint that children can use on natural objects. In our test, it did not wash away cleanly with just water, so you may want to do this on the grass or an old shower curtain or plastic table cloth.

Self-expression through a multitude of languages is a central tenet of the preschools and infant-toddlers centers of Reggio Emilia. At LACS teachers work to make children’s thoughts and learning in a multitude of languages visible. This begins in the toddler room where children begin to become familiar with the tools and techniques of paint and painting.

Outdoor Invitation: Neighborhood Walk (scavenger hunt)

We have all been confined to our homes and neighborhoods for several weeks now. Going on a scavenger hunt can help you and your child look at the familiar in new ways. We like this scavenger hunt from Run Wild My Child, or you can make your own.

This invitation combines cognitive skill-building with exercise, encourages children to look closely at the world around them, and builds cooperation between siblings if you ask them to work together to complete the hunt.

Lakewood for PreK: April 14

April 14, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Good morning! We hope you made it through yesterday’s stormy weather safely. Here are a few invitations for your preschooler. We invite you to share your experiences in the comments.

Fine Motor Invitation: Shadow Tracings

Tape a piece of paper down to a table or the wall and turn down the lights! Using a flashlight (the one on your phone works great!) create some shadows with your hands, toys, and other objects. Invite your child to trace or draw the shapes they see. Do the shapes drawn from shadows look different than the real thing? What does an object’s shadow look like? How about the silhouette of many objects close together? Perhaps your child would like to color the negative space around the object instead?

The intent of this activity is for the child to be able to experience the perception of an object from a different point of view, strengthen hands, and to see positive and negative space with light and dark!

Sensory Invitation: Cornstarch Sensory Play

Mixing equal parts cornstarch and water creates a substance that looks and acts like liquid but is solid in your hands. Mix in food coloring if you desire!

You might ask: What does it look like? What does it feel like when you poke it? How about when you hold it in your hands?

The intent for this is to have sensory exploration with a material that is kind of magical in terms of sensation and inspires a lot of questions and investigation!

Art Invitation: Crayons & Leaves

Collect some leaves, petals, or stems from outside and set them out with paper. Ask what can be created if the leaves are underneath the paper they draw on? Can the leaves become part of the drawing? Or perhaps they would like to draw a picture about finding the things in nature/

Movement Invitation: More fun with Shadows

Invite your child to act out a story, dance, or make big shapes with shadows. Ideas include acting out their favorite book while you read it out loud, dancing to action songs, or acting out nursery rhymes.

The intent for this is to engage in movement and storytelling in a unique way!

Outdoor Invitation: Nature Shapes

Pick a few shapes to identify like circles, squares, diamonds or hearts and try to find or create them in nature. If you can’t find a heart, maybe you could invite your child to make the shape using things from nature.

Lakewood for Middlers: April 13

April 13, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

Welcome back! It’s going to be another week of interesting spring weather. We hope you are safe after the storms and these activity invitations help get your week off to a great start.

Sensory Invitation: Let your child help cook/make a meal today. Let them mix, stir, and combine ingredients.

Intent: The middlers love doing ‘helping/teacher’ jobs. This will give them an opportunity to help with a task that they wouldn’t normally do. It also will help develop more fine motor strength by holding utensils used to cook with.

Fine Motor Invitation: Use plastic, paper, or any other cups you have to stack. “What else can you stack in your house?”

Intent: The middlers enjoy building and stacking with various types of blocks in the classroom. This activity incorporates fine motor development by using their hand muscles to move and balance each cup. It is also a wonderful way for children to explore the connecting/disconnecting and scattering schema.

Art Invitation: Explore drawing people. Draw a self portrait, or someone in your family, or a friend.

It’s wonderful if you can set your child up with a mirror, drawing utensil and paper so they can look at their own face while they draw. You can also do partner drawing with your child, or by setting this activity up for siblings.

Intent: This is the age when many children begin exploring drawing people. They often begin by drawing round shapes and then by adding in the details of the face. This activity encourages children to slow down, notice details, and engages their creative expression.

Music and Movement Invitation: Sing “Hokey Pokey” and do the dance.

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! We also want to give the middlers an opportunity to express their bodies through movement while listening to their favorite songs.

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Do some yoga today! If it’s nice out try doing it outside in the sun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XCQfYsFa3Q – a fun guided child yoga

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.