get moving - goddardschool.com library/goddard... · get messy is a section designed for your child...

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SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANS

TODDLER

GET MOVING

GODDARD AT HOME: SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANS 2

SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET MOVING

Get Moving activities are designed to either engage your child’s full body in a physical activity to start the day with a jump, OR to start the day planning for play, a critical area of development in organizational thinking.

ACTIVITY Prepare for a slam dunk! Grab a laundry basket, empty trash can or box and set it up in a clear, safe space. Select a variety of socks - both from you and your child - and create sock balls of different sizes.

For older toddlers, mix up the socks and lay them out individually. Invite your little one to match the socks before creating your balls. Once you have them, practice your basketball skills by tossing the socks into the basket!

LEARNING SKILLS Gross Motor Skills

Materials Laundry basket, trash can or box, socks

Get moving

ACTIVITY Work out to “Eye of the Tiger.” Encourage your little one to try to do jumping jacks (or simply jump up and down), pushups, toe touches, arm circles, etc. Your toddler will follow along best if you show him or her how to move.

Wear headbands and tall socks if you have them.

LEARNING SKILLS Music and Movement

Materials Music player, headbands (optional), tall socks (optional)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEjgPh4SEmU



ACTIVITY Practice long jumping. How far can your little one jump? For a younger toddler, feel free to practice big steps or jumping as high as he or she can.


Materials N/A

ACTIVITY Gather a few smaller balls (tennis balls, golf balls or any bouncy balls you have on hand) and a deep mixing spoon. Place a ball into the spoon and encourage your little one to carefully walk without dropping it. How fast can you go? Try speeding up your pace and challenging your little one.

Be sure to cheer on your child. For an older toddler, you can create a simple course and ask him or her to walk between two points as quickly as he or she can.


Materials Variety of balls, mixing spoon



ACTIVITY Let’s cheer on our favorite teams and each other! Talk with your little one about good sportsmanship and supporting those playing the game.

Demonstrate and practice with your little one some cheer moves such as running or marching in place with hands on hips, kicking your legs up and down or holding your arms above your head while jumping. Cup your hands around your mouth and shout, “Hip hip hooray!” or “Go, team, go!”

Older toddlers can lead the game and show you what moves to do or what to shout and cheer.

For a fun twist, play some drumline music from the Music City Drumline while you cheer.


Materials Music player (optional)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPyx1Aeh1co

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TODDLER

GET MESSY


SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET MESSY

Get Messy is a section designed for your child to engage in sensory play. Sensory play allows learners to make sense of the world around them by taking in as much information as possible from an experience by using as many intake receptors as possible on their bodies. It allows information to absorb better and with more meaning.

ACTIVITY Fill a large bowl or bucket with water and have your little one place several plastic animals or other waterproof toys into the water.

Count the items as they “jump” in the bucket. Use a fishing net or a kitchen colander to fish for the items that are swimming in the water.

LEARNING SKILLS Cognitive and Mathematics

Materials Bowl or bucket, water, plastic animals or toys, net or colander

Get mESSY

ACTIVITY Make homemade bubbles with your child outside.

Mix three cups of water, 1/2 cup of dish soap and 1 teaspoon of glycerin (or corn syrup) in a shallow dish or wide-mouth bin. Let your child stir with a large spoon.

You can use a bubble wand with the solution or create different-shaped bubble wands with pipe cleaners.

Do the bubbles take the shape of the wands? What happens when you run with the bubbly wand in your hand?

LEARNING SKILLS Creativity and Discovery

Materials Bin or dish, dish soap, water, glycerin or corn syrup, pipe cleaners or bubble wand



ACTIVITY Fill a small round dish with water and freeze it overnight. Pop it out the next day and you will have your own ice hockey puck! Use pool noodles, plastic golf clubs or even brooms to push the “puck” back and forth with your little one on the concrete.

Watch as your puck gets smaller and melts in the outside warmth. Remove the puck before it gets to be choking-hazard size.

LEARNING SKILLS Science and Nature

Materials Round dish, water, pool noodles, plastic golf clubs or brooms

ACTIVITY Create a pond by taking a shallow container outside and filling it with a couple of inches of water. Encourage your child to pull grass, sticks or leaves from the yard and put them in the container of water. The more the better. Now you have a pretend pond!

Have your child explore the “pond” with cups or spoons. Talk about what floats and what doesn’t.

While your child can do this activity independently once it’s set up, stay close and supervise.


Materials Shallow container, water, items from nature, cups or spoons (optional)



ACTIVITY During outside time, fill a container with a few inches of water and have your little one dunk a large ball such as a soccer ball, basketball or football in the water. Encourage your child to explore the splashes the balls make.

He or she can also roll the ball around the ground and watch the pattern the ball makes when wet.

Feel free to show your child that a smaller ball makes a smaller splash and print and a larger ball makes a larger splash and print.

Talk about how the water prints evaporate when the sun comes out to dry them.


Materials Shallow container for water, water, balls

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GET FOCUSED


SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET FOCUSED

ACTIVITY Gather a few empty single-use plastic water bottles or plastic cups. Have your little one help you count out however many you decide to use (one, two, three, four, five) and set them up on the floor in a line, in a group or stacked on top of each other – follow your child’s lead! Using any ball, roll it across the floor toward your “pins” and knock them down.

Count how many got knocked over, pick the pins back up and do it again!

Once you’ve spent some time enjoying this activity with your toddler, feel free to encourage your child to play independently.


Materials Single-use plastic water bottles or cups, ball

Get FocusedGet Focused is a time of day devoted to learning a specific skill. It is a time that is best for children to engage independently or with their parent to fully concentrate and build new skills through hands-on lessons.



ACTIVITY Have your little one help choose an appropriate outfit for what you’re about to do. Ask him or her what you might need and make a game out of gathering the appropriate items. Perhaps a bathing suit, hat, sunglasses, water shoes and a towel for waterplay or shorts, T-shirt, socks, sneakers, hat and sunglasses for outdoor play.

Encourage your child to try and get dressed on his or her own, providing help as needed and praising effort with words such as “You got your legs into the shorts. Now pull them up – you can do it!”

LEARNING SKILLS Social-Emotional Learning

Materials Choices of outfit, etc.

ACTIVITY Practice jumping over a jump rope. For a younger toddler, feel free to keep the jump rope still on the ground and encourage your little one to jump over it. For an older toddler, try slowly spinning the jump rope on the ground in a circle and encouraging him or her to jump as it’s moving.

Offer encouragement if it gets stuck on your child’s feet and slow it down if it seems too fast. The goal is to have a good time while practicing jumping.


Materials Jump rope



ACTIVITY Have your little one help you make a racetrack with painter’s tape. You can apply it to linoleum, carpet or even on concrete outside. Have your little one help you design it and then have them use toy cars or animals to pretend to race.

You can race each other to see who wins or you can explore sequencing by talking about what car or animal is in first, second, third, etc.



Materials Painter’s tape, toy cars or animals

ACTIVITY Have your little one help you collect various sizes and types of balls from around the house. Then sit down with your little one and have him or her help you notice the differences between the different balls. You can sort them by size, bounciness, color, etc.

Use descriptive words such as small, medium, large, bouncy, hard, soft, rough, smooth and squishy.

If you don’t have any balls in your house, feel free to do the same activity with any other type of material or toys that have variety.


Materials Variety of balls

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GET OUTSIDE


SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET OUTSIDE

ACTIVITY Play a freeze game to get some wiggles out. Put on a favorite child-friendly song and encourage your little one to dance, wiggle, jump, etc. until you say “FREEZE!” and pause the song. Then start the song again and have your child keep going. Do it over and over until he or she tires out.

Feel free to change the movement to keep your child’s attention.


Materials Music player

Get OutsideGet Outside is a time of day designed to do just that—get outside and explore. Exploring offers children new ways to relate to their world and engage in physical activities and inquiry-based learning.

ACTIVITY Find a cardboard box that is big enough to be used as a soccer goal. Set it on its side and take turns kicking a ball into the box to score a goal.

Make it easier by getting closer to the goal and make it more difficult by getting farther away.

Use encouraging words with your toddler by saying phrases such as “You did it! You scored a goal!” and “So close! It went a little to the left. Try again!”



Materials Ball, cardboard box



ACTIVITY Create a pattern of simple exercises for you and your child – two jumping jacks, three toe touches, four reach-for-the-skies and repeat. Once you are warmed up, play a simple game of cat-and-mouse, chasing your child around the yard.


Materials N/A

ACTIVITY Let’s play a game of catch! Use your bubbles to play catch by trying to hold them in your hands. If you have a baseball mitt, put it on and get out there on the diamond!

Feel free to use oven mitts or any other gloves or mittens you have.


Materials Bubbles, baseball mitt or another mitten or glove (optional)



ACTIVITY Set up two buckets or containers, one smaller and one larger, several feet apart from each other. Fill the larger container with a few inches of water. Give your little one a cup and encourage him or her to scoop water from the larger container and walk it over and dump it into the smaller container.

Count each trip and see how many cups of water it takes to move the water from one bucket to another one. Does it all fit?

To make it more challenging, feel free to use two cups at a time, one for each hand, or put holes in the cup so a bit of water leaks out as your child walks to encourage him or her to go faster!

While your child can do this activity independently once it’s set up, stay close and supervise.


Materials Two buckets or containers of different sizes, cup, water

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TODDLER

GET RELAXED


SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET RELAXED

ACTIVITY Find a quiet corner or space either inside or out and lead your little one in some stretches.

Hold your arms above your head and reach skyward, bend down and touch your toes, twist your trunk from side to side or roll your head back and forth to stretch your neck.

Consider playing inspirational sports-themed music while you stretch such as the Chariots of Fire theme song or the Rudy theme song.


Materials Music player (optional)

Get RElaxedGet Relaxed is a time of day to unwind and do something low-key. This allows your child to take a brain-break and rest their bodies so that they can enjoy more active play after they relax or take a rest.

ACTIVITY Find a textured ball to roll on your child’s back while he or she settles down for rest time. If you don’t have a textured ball, feel free to use any ball.

While helping your little one settle down, talk about his or her favorite part of the day so far and how he or she is currently feeling. Is your child happy, sad, tired? Share how you are feeling as well.

LEARNING SKILLS Social-Emotional Learning

Materials Textured ball



ACTIVITY Prepare for rest by practicing the runner’s lunge yoga pose as shown on Namaste Kid. After your little one does the lunge, encourage him or her to stand up tall and take deep breaths, then lunge again. Repeat several times, taking deep breaths between each lunge. Talk about how it feels to have your body stretch and relax.


Materials Yoga pose

ACTIVITY Snuggle up with your little one and read a rest- or nap-themed book. If you don’t have one, feel free to follow along with A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na.

Talk about the animals in the book and how rest makes their bodies feel better.

LEARNING SKILLS Language and Literacy

Materials Rest- or nap-themed book or read-aloud

https://www.namastekid.com/teaching-tools/runners-lunge/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOd7MaQpC20



ACTIVITY As you settle down with your little one, cuddle up with him or her and connect using this fingerplay.

Here’s a little ball. (Make a little ball with your thumb and index finger or a fist.)

And here’s a bigger ball. (Make a bigger ball using both hands.)

And a great big ball, I see. (Make a ball by holding your arms up over your head and grasping your hands.)

Shall we count them? Are you ready? One, two, three! (Count to three with your fingers.)

For an older toddler, feel free to count as high as your child can!


Materials Fingerplay lyrics

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GET CREATIVE


SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET CREATIVE

ACTIVITY Take a couple of plain T-shirts and have your little one help you create your own team jersey. Feel free to use markers or paint. If you’d like a more creative option, try this DIY tie-dye tutorial from Megan Plus Five.


Materials Two plain T-shirts, markers or paint (optional), website (optional)

Get CreativeGet Creative is a time of day designed for your child to have open-ended experiences with a variety of mediums. By giving them opportunities to create with no specific outcome in mind it exercises their creative thinking skills allowing them to be better communicators and problem solvers.

ACTIVITY Have your little one help you create an obstacle course using couch cushions, pillows, sheets, boxes, etc. Set up a course that encourages your little one to jump, bounce off of things, roll, crawl, etc. Give your child choices of what he or she wants the obstacle course to look like.

For a younger toddler, give him or her smaller choices such as “Should we put a pillow here or use a box for crawling?” or “Do you want to jump over or go under this pillow?”

The focus of this activity is to help your little one be creative. Once set up, encourage your little one to enjoy the fruits of his or her labor by going through the obstacle course over and over again. This will also help your child use up his or her energy!



Materials Couch cushions, pillows, sheets, boxes, etc.

https://www.meganplusfive.com/blog/how-to-tie-die-using-food-coloring



ACTIVITY Create your own balls using different materials: tin foil, plastic wrap, newspaper, drawing paper, etc. Experiment with throwing and catching the different balls, talking about which ones travel farther, are lighter or heavier, etc.

Make sure the balls you and your toddler are making are large enough to not be a choking hazard.

Feel free to encourage your little one to continue playing with the variety of balls on his or her own. You can add building blocks, toy cars or play people to deepen your toddler’s play and lengthen his or her attention span.


Materials Variety of materials such as foil, plastic wrap, newspaper, and drawing paper

ACTIVITY Let’s create and play a ring-toss game! Using paper plates, cut out the inside of each paper plate and leave a thick border for each. These will be the rings. Give your little one markers or crayons and encourage him or her to color the rings however he or she chooses.

Once your child is finished, use a roll of paper towels (the thinner the better!) as the pole where you will aim the rings.

You can make the ring-toss game easier or harder for your little one by having him or her stand closer to or farther away from the pole.


Materials Paper plates, scissors, paper-towel roll, markers or crayons



ACTIVITY Using molding dough, encourage your little one to roll out balls of varying sizes. Make big ones and small ones. When your little one smashes a ball flat, talk about how a sphere became a circle. You can call it a disc or a frisbee if you’d like.

Feel free to make a homemade batch of molding dough using this recipe from All Recipes.


Materials Molding dough

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/240641/salt-dough/

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/240641/salt-dough/

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TODDLER

GET CONNECTED


SUMMER LEARNING SUMMER LEARNING FUN WEEKLY PLANSTODDLER • GET CONNECTED

ACTIVITY Find a large, open, safe space outside either in the grass or on your driveway or sidewalk. Designate a starting and finishing point by either identifying easy objects (such as a tree or play structure) or by using chalk to draw lines.

Have a race with your little one! Begin with “On your mark, get set, go!” and dash between your start and finish lines. Don’t forget to limber up and stretch your muscles before and after, and to compliment each other by saying, “Great race! You were really fast!”

For a fun twist, consider how the spirit of the race can support transitions and needs throughout the day, e.g., racing to the bathroom to brush teeth, put on pajamas or clean up.


Materials Chalk (optional)

Get ConnectedGet Connected is a time of day to connect with family members or loved ones in a variety of ways. Social and emotional connections are imperative to all learning. If a child does not feel secure and connected, they cannot engage appropriately and cannot learn effectively. So, have fun with these ideas for both virtual and personal connections!



ACTIVITY Sit on the floor with your little one and roll a ball back and forth with him or her. Use descriptive words to describe what you two are doing such as “That ball went fast!” “It’s your turn to roll the ball. Now It’s my turn!” “The ball ran into your foot!”

Be sure to talk about how much you enjoy rolling the ball back and forth with your little one.


Materials Ball

ACTIVITY Find a cozy space and snuggle together. Talk with your little one about his or her favorite sports activities and how it feels while playing.

Read a favorite sports-themed book, or follow this read-aloud for Maisy’s Sports Day by Lucy Cousins.


Materials Sports-themed book or read-aloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dguBluyAC7Y



ACTIVITY Talk with your little one about the baseball tradition of singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the game, and how the entire stadium joins in on it. Put on your favorite ball cap and get ready to sing!

Take me out to the ball game Take me out with the crowd Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks I don’t care if I never get back! For it’s root, root, root for the home team If they don’t win it’s a shame For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out At the old ball game!

Try singing along to this song with your favorite sports lover in your family. Video chat is a great way to connect if you are not together!


Materials Music player or lyrics, video-chat device

ACTIVITY Arrange two dining room or kitchen chairs so the seats are facing each other. Drape a sheet or towel over the seats to create a tennis court with a net.

Stand on one side of the net with your little one on the other and lob the ball back and forth. Show your little one the different types of tennis strokes he or she might use including overhand, underhand or sideways and encourage practicing different ways to play.


Materials Chairs, sheet or towel, ball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyMsHnlhIs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyMsHnlhIs

get moving - goddardschool.com library/goddard... · get messy is a section designed for your child...

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