Lakewood at Home

Play Dough Recipes

April 8, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

At LACS we offer children a variety of materials for sculpting; wire, clay and play dough to name a few. There are many play dough recipes available on the internet. We recently tested a no-cook recipe from PBS Kids which is interesting to make with children, but the texture is a little gritty and it is less pliable than most cooked or commercial versions. This is our favorite cooked recipe, fine-tuned by the parents and teachers at Resurrection UMC PMO around 2010.

Cooked Play Dough

1 ½ cups flour (bread flour works best)

¾ cup salt

1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar

1 ½ cups cold water

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil (not olive oil)

4-5 drops food coloring (optional)

Combine flour, salt and cream of tartar in a pot. Stir to mix. Pour in water and oil and stir until very few lumps remain. Turn the burner on to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes difficult to stir and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool. Knead until smooth. Store in a sealed container.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium saucepan.

Add oil and water.

Stir until very few lumps remain.

Turn the burner on to medium and cook until the mixture forms a dough and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Allow to cool before kneading briefly and passing it to your child to explore.

Lakewood for PreK: April 8

April 8, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday! Today the weather will be pretty warm in the afternoon, so it might be a nice day for some water play. Here are some ideas for invitations for preschool aged children.

Fine Motor Invitation: Cut patterns with scissors

Invite your child to use scissors by first drawing patterns on paper then cutting on the lines they make. Children can also spend a long time cutting out shapes from old magazines, newspapers, and advertising circulars. You can recycle the pieces, or save them for collage work. Ask what kind of patterns they would like to make: zig zag, swirls, a mix of both?

The intent for this is that this is a pretty simple way to work fine motor muscles, and have fun drawing patterns. We have observed preschoolers love our wacky scissors that cut patterns into paper in our art area.

Soap & Water

Invite your child to play with dish soap or baby soap and water in the sink, in a bin or outside. Ask your child what items you can use to make bubbles? Could it be a stick, your hands, or a spoon? Hand crank egg beaters and whisks are also interesting ways to make bubbles. Perhaps your child would like to add plastic toys to pretend play with.

In the past we have put soap, water and plastic toys into our sensory bin and preschoolers have “washed” the animals with sponges to take care of them!

Outdoor/Movement Invitation: Springtime animal watch/move like an animal

What animal’s do you see outside? Can you walk like that animal? Make noises like that animal?

This invitation connects children with the natural world in a very physical way. Being in and connecting with nature increases levels of seratonin, dopamine and endorphins.

Lakewood for Middlers: April 8

April 8, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday! It looks like the temperature in Durham is going to peak around 86 degrees today. It might be a good day to do some water play in the afternoon. Here are some invitations to consider setting up inside or outside.

Sensory Invitation: Create a sensory bottle.
There are so many ways to create sensory bottles. They can be made with wet or dry materials. Here are some examples:

https://teachingmama.org/how-to-make-a-sensory-bottle/

Intent: This is an exciting activity that can create soothing sensory bottles. This allows for a complete activity beginning to finish that the middlers can accomplish. It is also something that they can come back to and explore at any time.

Fine Motor Invitation: Painting with Q-tips or any other similar object you have in your house.

Intent: Continuing to explore alternate methods of painting materials to enhance fine motor development.

Art Invitation: Draw your house using any art material you want (markers, crayons, paint, etc.) We like to invite children to use fine line drawing markers or pens for observational drawings like this. You could also invite children to use loose parts or blocks to create houses.
“What shapes did you use to draw your house?”
“Is anyone inside your house?”
“What colors did you use?”

Intent: We want the middlers to explore how different shapes can be used together to create different objects. This allows for middlers to practice shape recognition and drawing different shapes. Practice using the pincer grip while drawing and see how many different shapes each middler can draw!

Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Create a hopscotch board with chalk. Practice jumping, skipping, & hopping.

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. Some of the middlers have been playing hopscotch in the classroom by using our number cards and lining them up. This activity also incorporates cognitive development by practicing counting and number recognition.

Lakewood for Toddlers: April 8

April 8, 2020 by betsy Leave a Comment

It’s Wednesday! This afternoon is going to be warm again, a wonderful time to invite your child to cool off with some water play outside, in the kitchen sink, or the bathtub. Here are some other ideas for invitations for toddlers.

Fine Motor Invitation: Float/Sink Water Play

This invitation is easy to set up, a non-breakable container of water and some items that can get wet, and interesting for children of many ages. For toddlers, the activity may become more about which object makes the biggest splash, or how something can be a boat or a fish.

Intent: Exploring physics in this open-ended way is very appealing to young children. It is an opportunity for investigating how things work, different properties, and cause and effect.

Art and Sensory Invitation: Outdoor Finger painting

Young children’s approach to finger paint can very from tentative touches and finger prints to full-body experimentation. Make sure the paint you offer is child-safe and washable. You can make your own finger paint using cornstarch and water, just be aware that most food coloring can stain. A large piece of cardboard is the perfect outdoor canvas for finger paint which you can offer in a clean yogurt container or metal pie tin.

Intent: This activity offers lots of scope for creative expression, fine (and possibly large) motor development, and an interesting sensory experience.

Music Invitation: Little Bird, Little Bird, Fly Through My Window

Our favorite version of this song is that performed by Elizabeth Mitchell. Lyrics and a video of her singing can be found here.

This is a wonderful time to be outside and listen to the birds with your child. You may even see some through your window.

Intent: This song connects us to nature and the larger natural community. Singing promotes speech and language development and singing together connects us to one another.

Outdoor Invitation: Vehicle Wash

In warm weather, water play invitations can help children cool off and engage them for long periods. For this invitation you will want a vehicle or two of any size (parent involvement required generally increases with the size of the vehicle), some soapy water, and brushes, sponges or rags for washing as well as a hose for rinsing larger vehicles like ride on toys or actual family cars.

Intent: This second water exploration is an opportunity for fine and large motor development, exploring opposites, and an opportunity for children to be helpers.