It’s the mid-point of the week and the middle of the month today! Here are a few invitations for busy 2’s and young 3’s.
Sensory Invitation: Create your own fort/cozy corner. Bring in pillows, lovies, and soft toys. Experiment with how dark or light you can make it. Use flashlights to play with the light. Make shadows with the light.
Intent: This invites young children to explore with all of their senses. This activity focuses on what the child can experience through sight and feeling. Explore the differences in dark and light in the cozy corner/fort. Think about the softness of the toys. How does the soft toy feel in your child’s arms/hands?
Fine Motor Invitation: String beads onto string or pipe cleaners. If you do not have those items you could try putting rubber bands or hair ties around water bottles or similar objects.
Intent: The middlers enjoy playing with both the wooden beads and string beads in the middler classroom. This activity uses the small muscle movements to enhance fine motor development.
Art Invitation: Create your own paint brush and paint with it.
Painting with a variety of tools expands children’s ability to express themselves in this medium. It also asks children to be creative problem solvers as they create new tools and test them.
Intent: The middlers love painting and we want to give them an opportunity to explore painting with different materials. Have your child find some materials from inside or outside of the house and test out the different strokes each material makes that you paint with.
Music and Movement Invitation: Listen to calm meditation music while in your cozy corner fort. “How does the music make you feel?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhoIeqDJM6E
You could also choose other music that your child enjoys!
Intent: To explore a softer, calmer side of music and sound, to help children learn to relax.
Outdoor/Nature/Gross Motor Invitation: Work in the garden/yard. Pull up weeds, plant a seed, water plants, 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.
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