Home Enrichment
Dear Menotomy Families,
Menotomy Preschool Staff have created a list of enrichment activities for you to do at home with your children if you choose.(Click here to view this list as a googledoc.). These activities may not tie in with your child's specific classroom current themes however, these are preschool appropriate activities.
"TIME TO COME IN BEAR"
by Kim St. Lawrence (from YouTube)
A Children's Story about Social Distancing
GENERAL STRATEGIES AND TIPS
- Use stories, pictures, and/or props to help talk to your child about staying home during this extended school closure. Here's a sample "My Coronavirus Social Story" that you might find helpful!
- Establish a family routine by involving your child. Create a predictable schedule with opportunities for structured and unstructured time. See a cheat sheet with a sample family routine here or you can choose to mimic an MPS preschool day with this sample MPS schedule. You can chunk in 20-30 minute increments and/or choose to focus on one activity a day (a reading day, then a math day, etc.) whichever works for your family!
- Set your child up for a good day by offering choices, offering 3-minute warnings before a transition and the like. For a cheat sheet, here’s a handy infographic for parents!
- Play “school” or run a simple “circle time” with your child at a consistent time of the day (also see our sample visuals)
- Take time to play outside (play with chalk, bubbles, balls, or just run around
- Share the MPS Song with your family (to the tune of “If You're Happy and You Know it”)
- We are kind, we are safe, and we are engaged. At MPS! / We are kind, we are safe, and we are engaged. At MPS! / When we’re kind we play together, / When we’re safe we have calm bodies, /When we’re engaged we listen and participate! AT MPS!
- Use this song to talk about and create your own family’s expectations. Use a piece of paper to write and draw them up. Use pictures to enhance your child’s understanding- they can be clip art on line or just a hand drawing but make sure whatever symbol you decide stays consistent. Use our MPS expectations posters as your reference or create your own.
STRATEGIES AND IDEAS BY CONTENT AREA
ARTS & CRAFTS / SENSORY
- Mess-free sensory bags - put paint, shampoo, glue, or shaving cream in a ziploc bag and have students play with it at the table or use it to practice writing with their finger
- Make your own sensory bin - fill with dry beans, corn, rice, pasta and/or any materials you have at home that provide a sensory experience. Switch out tools your child can use to explore - measuring cups, tupperware, tongs, small rakes, cooking/baking utensils, or your child's choice!
- Paint in the tub, easy clean-up! Use watered down paint and paint the side of the tub
- “Paint” outdoor space with water- using a paint brush and bucket of water, paint a fence/tree/chair/wall outside (much like we do during recess at MPS!)
- Paint with trucks (or other appealing toys) - lay out paper on the table or floor and a small amount of paint. Have child pick two trucks to drive through the paint and see the fun tracks.
- Provide your child with open art opportunities. The process can be just as valuable as the outcome. All you need is a surface and a tool or prop. Newspaper on the floor and trace your body, paint or color odd shaped items (e.g. boxes, to-go trays), rip up left over scrapbook materials and use a glue stick to make a collage. The sky is the limit!
- Go on a leaf/acorn/pinecone hunt and use materials found outside to paint with instead of a paint brush
- Using wrapping paper, child scissors & tape- have the child cut and wrap one of their toys to give to a parent or sibling as a gift. They could decorate the paper with markers and stickers too
- Free printables and ideas can be found on https://www.dltk-teach.com/
- Playdough, Flubber, and Oobleck can be great sensory play ideas that also work on fine motor skills. Fine motor/sensory play recipes attached here.
COOKING
- Use pretzel sticks to make letters
- Counting with cheerios/goldfish
- Practice sorting snack by color/count how many of each
- Paint stamping with food (apples, celery)
FINE MOTOR
- Playdough, Flubber, and Oobleck for fine motor skills. Involve your child in the process of making them. Sample fine motor/sensory play recipes are attached here.
- Scissors and cut-up magazines/newspapers
- Colander sewing - take a long piece of yarn, string, dental floss, etc. and have children “sew” a spider web, or see if they can cross back and forth enough times to hold different sized items without them falling through the holes.
- Go for a walk outside, and pick up leaves, pieces of grass, etc. Put a piece of paper over them and make tracings. This can be done in crayon or pencil
- Fill the bottom of the kitchen sink with water, and let your child “wash the dishes”!
- Use some shaving cream on the table for sweet-smelling finger painting. Add in sugar or salt to change the sensory experience.
- Hide small items in silly putty: small beads, kernels of corn, pieces of rice, etc. See if your child can find the “treasures” while acting like a pirate searching for buried treasure
GROSS MOTOR
- Suggestions to ride bike, play ball at playground, go to park, activities that do not require close public contact, or can be done in the yard or in a park away from crowds
- Set-up an obstacle course indoors or outdoors; use everyday items: pillows, stuffed animals of every size, pots and pans as buckets for targets, tape or rope for balance walking, jumping
- Play movement songs and have a dance party, add variations like freeze dance or musical chairs
- Need a shake break? Try animal actions or wind down by doing yoga poses to meditative music and modeling rhythmic breathing exercises
- More activities to promote development in children can be found on the Choose PT website.
- Occupational and Physical Therapy home program activities can also be found by visiting the Inspired Treehouse website.
LANGUAGE
Receptive Language
- Follow single step directions within the house (i.e. “Put your shoes beside the door” “Put your clothes in the hamper” “Put your cup in the refrigerator”
- Help with laundry: sort by color or family member; match socks, while adults fold (fine motor too)
- Find 5 objects in the house that you can use to write/color; Find 5 things that you can wear; Find 5 little objects; Find 5 blue objects; Find 5 circles
- Play “I Spy” (i.e. I Spy something on the living room wall, with numbers, that tells us the time)
- Cook together - work on direction following (i.e. pour in the water), sequencing (i.e. first pour then stir), quantity concepts (i.e. 1 egg), and action words (stir, pour, spread) (can be fine motor too)
- Set the dinner table - work on direction following and spatial concepts (i.e. place the fork beside the plate (this can be fine motor too); put the cup above the plate; put the napkin under the fork)
Expressive Language
- Vocabulary builders - use specific labels for actions (walking, running, crawling) descriptors (wet/dry, big/small, fast/slow) colors, shapes, and size
- Expansion - If your child produces one, two or three words, expand upon their utterances by adding an additional word. (i.e. If your child says ‘milk’ model, “I want milk” or ‘I see dog’ model, “I see a big dog”)
- Use true words - If your child uses the diminutive form of words, such as ‘piggie’ ‘duckie’ model the word in its true form ‘pig’ and ‘duck’
- Play ‘I Spy’ and have your child provide the descriptors/clues
- WH Question fun - What, Where, Who, When (and for students heading to Kindergarten Why) - focus on one question word a day and formulate questions throughout all parts of your day from breakfast through dinner and bath
- Explain a sequence - Have your child provide you directions to make their lunch, it is okay to provide gentle reminders throughout (First, get the bread; Then, spread the peanut butter; Next, spread the jelly; Last put the bread together)
- Sing Songs such as Old McDonald, If You are Happy and You Know It and change the words
- Old McDonald (Old McDonald had a fruit stand and name fruit; Old McDonald had a zoo, name zoo animals)
- If You are Happy and you Know It….close your eyes, open your mouth, touch your shoulders, jump up and down, turn around, etc.
Speech Production
- Use a dice and the number your child rolls (i.e. 4) is the number of times they practice a target word (cat, cat, cat, cat) or sound (K, K, K, K).
- Go through your home library and pull out books that contain your child’s target sound
- Remind your child to “watch my mouth” to increase attention to visual production cues
Pragmatic Language
- Encourage cooperative play, such as working together to create a block tower or lego structure, attaching the language “My turn...your turn”
- Play ‘Follow the Leader’ - encourage your child to follow another’s plan by taking turns being the leader and the follower
LITERACY/READING
- Before reading, look at the book cover illustration with your child and ask “What do you think this book is going to be about?”
- Read with your child - ask questions about the story, characters and setting. For example, read a few pages and ask, ‘What do you think will happen next?’; at the conclusion of the story ask, ‘Who was your favorite character?’
- For example, try this "Book Nook" for Good Night Moon
- 1. After reading the book look through the bedroom pictures and ask your child to “Point to the mittens”, “Point to the fireplace”, and “Point to the picture of the cow jumping over the moon”
- 2. Ask your child to label what’s in their room? Are there any things that are the same or different?
- 3. What/Who would they say goodnight to before going to bed in their room?
- 4. Play “I Spy” in the book and then play it around your house.
- Or this "Book Nook" for Pete the Cat – I Love My White Shoes
- 1. After reading the book ask your child what is their favorite color shoes from the story?
- 2. Sequence the color of the shoes changing. What color are your shoes and you can sing the song.
- 3. Watch the video of the author reading the story and sing along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_z6zGQVyM
- 4. Cut out feet shapes in paper (use different color paper if you have them or just color them) and creating a walking obstacle course.
- 5. Use the cut out feet and play “Simon Says”, example “Simon says step on the white feet”, taking turns who gives the directions.
- For example, try this "Book Nook" for Good Night Moon
- Find creative ways to read (in a fort, with a flashlight in the dark, to your stuffed animals)
- After reading, give your child some paper (scrap paper works fine) and coloring/simple collage materials. Provide simple writing prompts like "Show me what you liked/remembered about the story?" When they finish, follow-up by asking "tell me about your picture" and write down their words. This helps them learn how to create or respond to stories and see their own words written on paper!
- Play “Alphabet Safari” (look around the house for letters)
- Go on a Letter or Shape Hunt (inside or outside: what letters / shapes can you find?)
- Play a game of brainstorming words beginning with sounds
- The Lively Letters app is available for half price during the month of March and can be found here.
MATH/NUMBERS
- Numeral board game (like Candy Land or Trouble) to reinforce one-to-one correspondence and counting (also good for turn taking-social skills)
- When completing simple chores together with your child, solve simple “math problems” as you go (e.g. “This recipe says we need two eggs. How many eggs should we take from the container?” or “We need to set the table for the whole family. How many forks do we need?”)
- Sort manipulatives/toys/art materials by color or category (vehicles, blocks, buttons)
- Play “I spy” in your home, in the car, on a walk for shapes, numbers, etc.
- Make shapes with straws or popsicle sticks
- Create patterns with beads or any other manipulative
- Look around the house for items and use their attributes to compare and contrast them (e.g. “Which one is longer/shorter? Do you see another one that looks the same?”
- Make a mistake out loud, for instance, call a square a triangle and see if your child corrects you. Count 1, 2, 4, 5 and see if your child corrects you. Make it silly!
- Count while playing (ie, “I have 3 blocks, let’s count your blocks!”)
- Cut out different shapes and create a shape collage while talking about the shapes
- Make a pattern with your food, toys, clothing, or anything of interest to your child. Describe the core pattern together (e.g. “cracker, cracker, cheese… cracker, cracker, cheese” then ask, “what comes next?)
- Wear/point out patterns on clothing - stripes are great for this! (e.g.“You have a pattern on your shirt - red, blue and red, blue and red, blue”)
- Count EVERYTHING! How many pretzels are in your bowl? How many bananas are in the bunch? How many shoes are beside the door? How many balls are in the garage?
- Take it a step further by creating math problems together (e.g. “I see we have 5 goldfish each! If I eat one, how much do I have left? If you eat two, who has more goldfish left?”)
- Make a counting jar and change the items every few days (e.g. buttons, coins, cotton balls)
- Go on a treasure hunt - take a piece of string and have your children find something in the house that is the same length
MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
- Visit Ms. Liz’s (our MPS Music teacher) very own website! http://www.antelopedance.com/
- Visit Go Noodle on Youtube for a collection of fun (often silly) movement songs for kids (https://www.youtube.com/user/GoNoodleGames/featured)
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL
- Practice emotional literacy by helping narrate or label facial expressions and body cues that you’re noticing from your child (e.g.“I can see that you have a smile on your face. You look really happy!” or “I can hear you grunting, you sound really frustrated”)
- Practice self-regulation skills such as belly breathing when feeling strong emotions in playful ways such as role-play with stuffed animals (e.g. “Teddy is learning how to wait his turn to play with the red car just like you! Let’s teach him to take a belly breath/countdown!”)
- Or try the Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame app (free)
- Use a timer or counting down when practicing turn-taking, waiting for an appealing activity or preparing for transitions to promote self-regulation and flexibility
- An interactive way to try breathing exercises is with the free Breathe app Kids
- Belly breathing video (Sesame street) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mZbzDOpylA
- For customizable visuals/ activity schedules/ token boards (geared for children with ASD) check out http://l.ead.me/bbTE3n?trackSharing=1
- A free Resource Library available to parents contains premade social stories and easy visuals for download and use at home
- Check out these Book Nooks for select books on building social-emotional concepts and skills
INTERNET/ONLINE RESOURCES
- ABCya (abcya.com) - fun and high-quality online games in different content areas for preschool-age kids
- Antelope Dance (http://www.antelopedance.com/) - our MPS music teacher’s website
- Boardmaker (goboardmaker.com/pages/activities-to-go) - Free to-go activities and visuals by boardmaker ready for download, or sign up for a free trial for 30 days
- Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame (Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame app) - a game created by Sesame Street to help teach self-regulation skills (e.g. belly breathing) and problem-solving
- Choose PT (choosept.com/children/activities) - Activities to promote development in children
- Circle Time (circletimefun.com) - {CODE: homefun1} - This website provides videos of read alouds, circle time, yoga/mindfulness, singalongs, & cooking lessons.
- Easter Seals (http://l.ead.me/bbTE3n?trackSharing=1) - includes a School Closure Toolkit and customizable visuals/ activity schedules/ token boards (geared for children with ASD)
- Family Education (https://www.familyeducation.com/) - Resource hub for families across a variety of topics as well as family-friendly activities including play dough recipes and more
- Go Noodle on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/GoNoodleGames/featured) - a collection of fun movement songs for children
- The Inspired Treehouse (theinspiredtreehouse.com) - Occupational and Physical Therapy Home Program Activities
- Libby by Overdrive (Libby app) - provides free audiobooks and digital books. In order to access books you just need to login with your local library card.
- Lively Letters (Lively Letters app) - the app version of our phonics curriculum, available for half price during the month of March
- Making Learning Fun (http://makinglearningfun.com/) - contains a multitude of free craft ideas, activity pages, and book extension activities to classic picture books
- The OT Toolbox (theottoolbox.com) is a great website that gives many ideas that may be highlighted on IEPs; fine motor skills (strength and coordination), visual motor integration, visual perception. It also gives sensory play ideas.
- Scholastic Learn at Home (scholastic.com/learnathome) - home learning activities created by Scholastic for the school closures broken down by day
- TRUCE (truceteachers.org) - has simple “family play plans” and other activities to try with children outside of screen time
VISUALS
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Here are some circle time visuals to use at home. Printable version in google doc available. (Visuals are from Boardmaker)