Hello everyone! It was nice to touch base with all of you last week. I am looking forward to our phone conferences this week. Ms. Stephanie and I had a lot of fun doing a few videos for the children… We hope they enjoy them as well! This week our theme is “The Great Outdoors”. The following activities can all be done outside (weather permitting), and involve varying degrees of messiness.
Literacy-
–Place your child’s books in a basket. Take it outdoors and read on a picnic blanket under a tree.
–Find the book “The Listening Walk” by Paul Showers on YouTube.
Fine motor skills-
–Water spray activity: Give your child a spray bottle of water (great for strengthening small hand muscles). Use sidewalk chalk to write letters (or #s or shapes) on various things around your yard. Call out the name of a letter (or # or shape) and have your child spray it until it disappears.
–Water the flower. Same idea as the previous game, except you or your child can draw flowers that you will water.
Pre-writing-
–Go outdoors and collect a basket full of nature items. Write your child’s name on the sidewalk with chalk. Have your child lay the nature materials on the lines of their name, thus “writing” their name!
Math-
–Measure mother nature! Take a ruler or tape measure outside and measure things that you find. Help your child “record” your findings!
–Collect some rocks. Can you stack and count them? Place them in order small to large?
Gross motor skills:
–Set up an obstacle course:
Incorporate these actions:
Stop/start
Throw/bounce a ball
Run/kick
Hop, run, jump
Balance/stand on one foot
So…..hop into hula hoops
Kick a ball between cones
Jump over empty planters
Weave around empty buckets
Run, stop, start, run ,etc.
–Balloon tennis
Make paddles by coloring a paper plate and stapling on a popsicle stick as a handle. Blow up a balloon and have fun!
–Ride your bike to numbers (1-10) that are written on the sidewalk. Call out the number as you ride over it!
–“Paint” your outdoor toys and furniture using a bucket of water “paint” and an old household paintbrush.
–Take a listening walk and record what you hear! (Bird, dog, car, person, etc.)
–Garden ABC hunt- Hide foam letters in your yard. Have your child name the letter that they find!
Art:
–Paint the rocks you collected.
–Cotton ball painting-. Tape a large piece of paper onto a wall, fence, or large outdoor toy. Use washable paint and mix it 1part paint, 1 part water. Place each color in a shallow pie tin. Get cotton balls and have your child dip the cotton in a color and throw it at the paper! What fun! This activity has a sensory component (soft, squishy, flinging motion), gross motor (throwing), fine motor (pinching), sound (when it hits). You should wind up with a large masterpiece!!
Sensory:
–Find any fun silicone molds that you have. In a bowl mix 1 1/2 boxes of baking soda and 1/3 cup water. It should be a paste. Fill the molds and freeze. Pop out the shapes. Fill a variety of cups with white vinegar and food color (1color per cup). Grab some tongs, and an eye dropper . Place everything in a bin and have your child squeeze the colored vinegar on the baking soda shapes. It’s science and sensory. They will LOVE this activity!
–Excavation sensory bin-. Fill ice trays with small abc beads and water. Freeze.
Make a bin of the bead ice cubes. Add cups half filled with salt and water. Add a variety of tools (tongs, wooden child hammer, etc.). Try to get the beads out of the ice.
I hope that the weather is beautiful and that you can spend a lot of time in the great outdoors! Have fun and stay safe!
❤️Ms. Dawn