Good morning! It looks like it is going to be a lovely spring Thursday. Here are three ideas for busy toddlers today.
Outdoor/Large Motor Invitation: Sound Adventure: What can you hear?
Invite your child to find a comfortable place to sit near an open window, or to go on a walk around your yard or neighborhood. Ask them to walk or sit quietly so they can listen. What will they notice? What will you, the adult, notice when things are quiet?
We hope this invitation helps you and your toddler to take a moment to listen to and connect with the world.
Music Invitation: Making music with found objects
Now that you have had a quiet moment, invite your toddler to find something with which they can make music. Would they like to use an empty oatmeal carton as a drum? That metal pie plate might make a noise like cymbals. Wooden spoons are excellent drumsticks. This is probably a good activity to do outside.
Making music in this way calls for innovation and invention. It is a mode of creative expression and uses small and large motor skills.
Art Invitation: Colored pencil or crayon dot drumming
The toddlers at LACS often notice that when they use crayons to make dots on their paper, it makes a drumming sound. This works best with thicker crayons or blunt colored pencils which are less likely to break. Offer the materials to your child and draw their attention to the sounds the crayons are making as they use them to draw lines or dots on the paper.
We are wondering what might change in the toddler’s mark making if they are thinking about the sounds as well as the marks they are making.
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