Table Time
Activity: Make a sound Jar
Materials:
Clear mason jars or tupperware containers
Buttons
Cotton balls
Different small items that make various noises
Skill Check
Experiment with pitch, frequency, loudness and visual differences.
Growing My Skills
Place jars at a safe distance from child (at least 3). Fill jars with 3 different items. Shake each jars and ask questions about what they hear.
What will it sound like? Is it loud or soft? Does it make a sound?
Allow them to explore safe objects from inside the jar if possible.
Ask follow up questions or allow them to tell you their thoughts.
Floortime Play
Activity: Elmo Slide Dance
Materials:
Your body
A dancing buddy
Optional: Add colored scarves, dish towels or bandanas in hand
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spending time together in a playful, imaginative way. There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending.
Growing My Skills
Assist child in carrying out each step of the “Elmo Slide.” Use high affect movement and sound effects to make movements more exciting.
Adding scarves or a small hand towel will allow your child to extend movements and create creative dance moves to the song.
If your child requires motor assistance to complete a dance step, complete dance move sitting or using the prop instead!
Relaxation Time
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to utilize calming music as an everyday relaxation tool.
Growing My Skills
Looking at a kid-centric visual interpretation of a classical music rendition will expose your child to a different type of music
Comment on “what the music sounds like” or ask your child to label one aspect they saw within this video.
Creative Time
Activity: Dancing Wands
Materials:
Ribbon or a plastic table cloth
Rings (plastic lid, small paper plate, jelly bracelet, etc.)
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is for your child to use fine motor skills to assemble a dancing ring. They can also work on counting and color identification.
Growing My Skills
1. assemble ribbon in order of your choosing
2. Fold each ribbon in half
3. Loop ribbon around the ring and pull tight
5. Dance!
Movement Time
Activity: Superman Pose
Materials:
Yoga mat or towel
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to use our back and neck muscles, which helps develop our strength for activities such as sitting upright while doing table-top work.
Growing My Skills
If your child is having a hard time holding Superman Pose, try having them just lift their arms OR legs off the ground first, rather than doing both at the same time. They can also place a block or books to support their arms up!
If they can hold Superman pose, increase the challenge by having them hold it longer. First 3 seconds, then 5, then 10, etc.
Try popping bubbles with hands while in Superman pose.
Mealtime
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to increase your child’s tolerance, exploration, and consumption of different textured fruits.
Growing My Skills
Listen to “Apples and Bananas” song together.
Present each food, whole and in peel, to the child.
Allow your child to explore the food by looking, touching, or smelling while you describe the color, shape, texture of each food.
Prompt your child, or provide full model support, to open the banana and describe the fruit (smell, shape, color, taste).
You may cut the apple into slices and also utilize the same language building ideas of describing the fruit.
As your child demonstrates comfort, you can begin modeling licking/kissing/biting the food, while singing the song.
If your child demonstrates discomfort, that is OK! Exploring by touch or smell is a great way to build upon exploration of new/non-preferred foods.
Language Time
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to provide opportunity for your child to increase use, expand, and improve understanding of language through imagination and movement.
Expanding Skills
Read “There’s an Alligator Under My Bed” with your child (Depending on your child’s language skills, adjust the way in which you read the book – read the words, make up your own narrative, use simple words/phrases to describe what you see).
Talk about how alligators move, and imitate utilizing big arm movements as “chomping”.
Allow your child to comment on the pictures, imitate the movement, provide own movement ideas.
