It looks like it is going to be another beautiful spring day today. We hope these invitations from our toddler teachers are helpful when you are considering what to do with your young one(s) today.
Fine Motor Invitation: Crayons and paper
Crayons are an excellent first mark making tool for young children. Using them builds muscles because of the extra force required to make marks on paper compared with markers. They can also be used different ways; the tips make fine lines, and the sides color wide swaths. Children also find it very interesting to peel the paper off of crayons.
Sensory Invitation: Taste Test
For a sensory invitation we thought it would be interesting for the toddlers to explore different foods with similar colors during snack or lunch. Orange cheddar cheese, carrot sticks, and orange segments, for example, are similar in color, but very different in taste and texture. You can ask questions like, “How do the carrots taste, and how does the orange feel?”
Music Invitation: I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas
This fun, playful song ties in with the taste-test invitation, or can be sung on its own. Toddlers enjoy the silly words that ensue when you change out the vowels in the lyrics.
Art Invitation: Ice Painting
This invitation can be done in two ways.
- Freeze cubes of colored water (food coloring or diluted child-safe paint), and set them out with thick paper on a tray or outside. You can freeze craft sticks into the water by covering the tray with foil and poking the sticks through the foil.
- Set out plain ice cubes (or a larger block of ice) and small containers of colored water and paint brushes. It’s best to do this outside or in a large tray or dish pan.
This invitation gives children an opportunity to explore ice, water and color in different ways.
Outdoor Invitation: Catching Bubbles
Bubbles are endlessly fascinating to the toddlers at LACS. If your bubble solution stash is running low, consider making some. We tested several recipes and found a mixture of 1 1/2 cups water, 1/4 cup dish soap and 1 Tablespoon corn syrup worked well. If you do not have corn syrup, you can use 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup dish soap and 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir either mixture slowly until combined. You can use bubble wands you already have, make some from chenille stems (pipe cleaners), or make some giant bubble wands. We made ours using nuts instead of washers and pushpins to hold the yarn on the end of the sticks.
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