"The Napping House" by Audrey Wood, read by Cassie Burda
There is a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping! LCC Teacher, Cassie Burda, reads one our all time favorites, "The Napping House" by Audrey Wood.
Playing with coins!
Kids are often fascinated by money. They know it’s important, although fully understanding how it works is a bit complex for their young age. Physical money, especially coins, provides many opportunities to explore not just math, but science, dramatic play, role playing, social emotional topics, and more!
CLEAN YOUR COINS
Find your coin jar or piggy bank and dump them out. Put the coins in a big bowl with warm water and a little dish soap. With a washcloth or small scrub brush (a nail brush or old toothbrush is perfect), gently scrub the surface of each coin. Rinse them under running water and dry them on a clean towel.
OBSERVE YOUR COINS
Study your coins closely. What do you notice about them? What color/size/shape are they? What do they feel like when you rub them or squeeze them? How are the coins different or similar to each other? Look at the pictures and engravings on them. What do you see? Do you recognize any letters and numbers?
Kids can record their observations by writing and drawing, and adults can transcribe their observations and read them back later as a recall activity.
COUNT AND SORT YOUR COINS
Explore math concepts! Sort the coins into groups based on shared characteristics. Count each group. How high can you count? Stack coins to make a tower. How big can you make it before it falls down? What else could you build using coins? Make patterns with the coins, like a line of nickel-penny-nickel-penny etc. Challenge your child to continue the pattern you start, then ask them to create their own. Find a small jar or bowl and count coins as you put them in it. How many does it take to fill it up? What if you use only the biggest or smallest coins?
USE YOUR COINS FOR ART
Make pictures with the coins. I can make a smiley face, what can you make? Trace the coins to transfer your picture to paper. Add some color or glue some collage materials to the paper. Put coins under paper and try making a rubbing with the side of a crayon or a blunt pencil. This is tricky fine motor control!
A related art/sensory activity is combining coins and playdough. Coins make interesting impressions and patterns when pressed into playdough!
DRAMATIC PLAY WITH COINS
Set up a store with your kids. What are you going to sell? You could make a grocery store, a toy store, a clothing boutique, a restaurant, a hair salon, a hardware store – ask your child. Collect items from around the house and lay them out in your store display.
How much are they going to cost? You can make price tags or a menu. Role play a trip to the store, taking turns being the shopper and the seller, asking how much things cost, counting and exchanging money, bagging or packing items, etc. Don’t be afraid to get silly with it!
If your kid is into princesses/knights/other fairy tale games, a box of coins can be a great treasure. Find a shoebox or other container and turn it into a treasure chest. How will you decorate it? This kind of dramatic play is great for practicing conflict resolution.
What happens when you think $1,000,000 is WAY too expensive for two plastic apples? What if a dragon steals your treasure? What if I have ALL the silver coins and you want me to give you some? How will you negotiate these situations together?
Your child will have their own amazing ideas. Ask them how they want to play with coins and what coins are for! Is there something else they would like to do with the money?
Weaving Project with Sara Tall
"Weaving is such a versatile project. Materials can be found everywhere! The sewing scrap stash, out in the woods, the beach, even the recycling bin. All of these places hold great materials. I especially love weaving because it is so wonderful for fine motor development in children" - Sara Tall (a.k.a. Sara Maleski)
Weaving is such a versatile project. Materials can be found everywhere! The sewing scrap stash, out in the woods, the beach, even the recycling bins. All of these places hold great materials. I especially love weaving because it is so wonderful for fine motor development in children.
Here are some of the great benefits:
Hand-eye coordination
Understanding patterns and sequencing (essential for later language and numeracy development)
Skills such as naming colors and concepts such as up and down.
Weaving is a calming activity. It really promotes relaxation.
So let’s get started! Here is a list of materials to both build a simple loom and weaving materials.
You will need:
A cardboard box with a deep middle
Golf tees (10-20 or big tacks will work too)
Yarn for warp (vertical strings)
Various materials for weft (horizontal strings). I chose fabric, ribbon, and sticks but it’s totally up to you!
Mark each end of your box in increments of one inch. Keep an eye on your marks as you want them to match up vertically.
Poke your golf tees into the box on marks made at inch increments. Make a little loop and slip it over the first tee. Now wind your warp! Start with the first tee and make your way around top to bottom going around each tee. Make a little loop around your last tee (pretty snug).
Now you do to do the fun part - make your weft! Begin by weaving your first material over and under your warp strings. On your next material, go under and over. Repeat under you have filled the loom with marvelous materials!
Here is a picture of my finished weaving. My plan is to find other materials and start all over! I hope you enjoy and post pics so we can see your beautiful art!
30 Mindfulness Activities for Parents to prepare for Week #4
As we all get ready to head into week number four of "stay at home, stay safe", here are some ideas for parents. Hopefully there is one or two here that will help you prepare mentally and emotionally for the week ahead. https://www.waterford.org/resources/mindfulness-activities-for-parents/
Oh Me! Oh My! We love Angela's Burrito Pie
This simple recipe is an all time kid favorite at LCC. Check our website for Angela’s salsa recipe if you want to add something delicious to go with it.
Angela-la-la’s Burrito Pie Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
6 tortillas (more if they are smaller, more if you are cooking for more than 3-4 people)
12 oz. cheddar cheese
2 c. cooked black beans (canned or soaked or cooked)
1/4 c. salsa
Pinch of cumin, chili powder, salt free herb blend, Himalayan sea salt
Puree black beans, salsa, and spices
Spread bean dip onto 1 tortilla
Add a layer of cheese, top with another tortilla
Toast on a pancake griddle or skillet.
Flip when the bottom tortilla is crunchy (the top tortilla starts to curl up around then edges)
Cut into 6 wedges.
Enjoy with your family! Serve with your favorite crunchy vegetables, roasted carrots, salad, and/ salsa. Here is the link for Angela’s Salsa recipe: https://bit.ly/2x2QhDI
Angela uses Food for Life rice tortillas at school. Any tortilla works! We use colby jack or white cheddar cheese. Feel free to adjust the recipe according to have you have on hand.
A Scavenger Hunt with Aaron
It’s outside time! Everyone, let’s make a coat bag and head outside!
When we go out side, let’s be on the lookout for five (5) things:
a rock
something soft
something made of wood
water
something growing
Bonus: a bug! I saw a tiny grasshopper a few days ago so the little critters are starting to wake up.
Tag us on Facebook or Instagram (@leelanauchildrenscenter) if you’d like to show and describe what you found. We would love to see and share!
Rachael found something soft.
I found some water!
Eliza found something made of wood.
Awesome Athletics!
Successfully following directions is an important life skill both at school and in the home. Help your child strengthen listening skills and build verbal processing while playing a game and having some fun!
Invite your child to participate in a variety of athletic endeavors by saying something like, “I want to see your awesome athletic skills! Awesome athletes must be good listeners. Listen to my instructions and then show me your awesome athletic skills.”
Provide your child with a one-step request such as “Jump up towards the sky!” “Do two jumping jacks!” “Run around the tree.” “Hop like a bunny.” • Continue providing directions and escalating the number of steps. Switch up the directives to match your child’s interests, or to better suit your location
If this activity is difficult for your child, model the directions for them. Children process visual images much faster than they process verbal directions.
If your child is ready for a more challenging activity, add an additional step to the directions. For example, you might challenge: * Hop two times on one foot and then hop two times on the other * Run to the end of the yard and then walk backwards on your way back * Bounce the ball four times and then throw it in the air * Run to the tree, do a jumping jack and skip back
Painted Rocks with Sara M.
Today is the perfect day for rock collecting. Rocks are one of the best open-ended materials for young children. Gather many sizes for sorting and building. Collect various colors and patterns to sort and when they dry you can get a paintbrush and water to rewet. Use strong hold glue to make a 3D creation. Sara Maleski added these directions for painting rocks. Have fun and we'd love to see what you did with rocks this weekend.
Gather some rocks from the beach! I like to paint my rocks with white paint before I start with colors. Makes the designs much brighter!
Make your palette! I like to have every color out and ready. The paints shown here are acrylics. Watercolors work too, but are very light.
The image on the right is the finished product! I love to use stripes and dots. But the sky’s the limit! Rocks are a wonderful blank canvas. Be creative and have fun!
xo :) Sara Tall (: xo
"Little Cloud" by Eric Carle, read by Nora
Join LCC teacher Nora Stone while she reads “Little Cloud,” by Eric Carle. This classic celebrates the possibilities of imagination and friendship all set against the beautiful sky blue background and paint strokes of white. Follow the story with an adventure outside to search for shapes in the clouds or get out something blue to paint little cloud shapes on.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
This is a great literacy activity to add to reading the very popular Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book. Even if you do not physically own the book, you may find one of the many “read alouds” on YouTube:
Materials Needed:
Metal baking sheet
Green and brown paper
Pencil
Scissors
Tape
Magnetic letters
If you do not have some of these items, feel free to substitute as needed! If you don’t have the magnetic letters, you can make your own or if you have access to a printer you can print them out.
Directons:
Draw the palm fronds on the green paper and cut out. Then sketch the trunk of the tree on brown paper and cut out. You can also create coconuts to add to the tree (remember these don’t have to be perfect).
Tape the tree onto the cookie sheet.
Add the letters at the bottom.
Depending on the age of your kiddo, you can just place the book next to this activity somewhere in your house and simply let your kiddo explore, or you could have them place the corresponding letter on the tree as you read (or listen) to the book!
Another extension from this activity is to do a letter scavenger hunt!
Materials needed: paper and pencil
Choose a letter (or a few letters) to hunt for - the letters in your child’s name are a great place to start. Go around the house looking for examples of that letter in your environment. Possible locations could include: board game boxes, book spines, movies/CDs/records, pantry items like boxes of pasta, refrigerator items like milk, labels on appliances, bathroom items like shampoo bottles, t-shirts, welcome mats, home decor, wall calendar, stickers, shoeboxes, posters, shipping labels…the possibilities are endless. Practice writing the letter and keep a running count of how many examples you find!