Archives for June 2011

Summer Themed Obstacle Course

Through my posts, I try to provide a lot of different station activity ideas, varying the developmental and academic skills so that you can see easy ways to work with your child at home while also having fun. Since the activity ideas are presented individually, I thought I would share some photos from a recent My Obstacle Course that I did with Andrew to show how I incorporated the activities into My Obstacle Course stations.

(Please disregard the winter pants and too small shirt he is wearing. He picked it out! It was over 100 degrees but he insisted on wearing pajamas. In fact, one of the beach ball “why” questions I got to ask was, “Why do you like wearing pajamas?” He answered, “Because they are soft and I like them.” I cannot argue with that!)

P1040418 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Beach Ball Questions

P1040421 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pipe Cleaner Twisting

P1040437 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sand Bin Dig and Find with Letters Spelling "Summer"

P1040439 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Squeeze Toy FishÂ

P1040467 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Water Wheel Pouring

P1040478 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Find It! Toy

P1040481 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting Coins Using Party Tray

Please do not be misled by the photos of him and assume that he is always into doing things and working with me. That is not the case at all, which is why doing My Obstacle Courses with him makes such a difference. This structure allows me to engage with him, encourage him by meeting him at his level with things he is ready for and empowers him by giving him an opportunity to practice and build skills in a safe, loving environment.

It works for us because:

There is purpose and clear expectations with what we are doing. I can always tell if I have been too vague with a station activity because those are the times when he checks out! By putting in a little time thinking about the skills and concepts he needs, I can be clear with the activity and with him about what he is supposed to do.
There is a logical sequence of activity combined with movement. I use wooden pieces with numbers on them so he knows where to go next. He knows he is not going to be stuck sitting at the counter for an hour.
The stations are set up to focus on specific skills but do not take more than 5 minutes. This is why I emphasize doing things that are easy to set up or create, are already thematic (like calendar numbers or cutouts) or utilize things that people usually have already in their homes.

Here are the links to the station activities I have already posted on:

Posts on the activities shown above that you haven’t seen yet are coming soon!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

How Many Words Can We Make?

Scrabble or Bananagram letters are great for playing word games, the most obvious being a Scrabble type game where words are built off of other words. Another fun way to use them is to play, “How Many Words Can We Make?” This presents itself as a purely a game but is also helpful for building spelling pattern awareness and how changing one or a couple of letters can make so many different words.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: How Many Words Can We Make?

P1040206 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: How Many Words Can We Make?

I randomly choose a certain number of letters (15 seems to work well) and then look and see how many different words we can make using those letters.

Here are just some of the words we came up with using the 15 letters above:

P1040211 — Switch out some letters to make "dark."

P1040214 — Switch out some more letters to make "short."

Such a simple, yet fun way to build word building skills requiring no set up other than to choose some letters from a common game of Scrabble (or Bananagram).Â This is something that is easily portable so it can be taken along and used as a beach house/lake house/grandma’s house activity.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Packing Bubble Popping

Did you know that packing bubble sheets are great for building fine motor skills?Â I grabbed a bunch out of a package we received a few months ago and stashed it away, knowing that I would be able to use it for something (I’m kind of like a squirrel this way, seeing things and storing them knowing I’ll put them to good use someday. 🙂 ).Â Well, as I was cleaning up a closet, there it was and I began playing around. I noticed that pinching and popping the bubbles required the same muscles I was working on with Andrew for building handwriting skills.Â Try it using your thumb on the top (or bottom) and your first two fingers (pointer and middle) on the opposite side as your thumb and pinch (like you are pinching tweezers together). Something so basic to work on such an important skill!

This is a My Obstacle Course station activity to build those finger and hand muscles that was made even better by my assistant Katie who suggested using the dot stickers (garage sale kind I’ve used for patterning and “Make the Same” stations) to show the child specific bubbles to pop. While not necessary, the stickers help to provide focus as well as give a purpose.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pop the bubbles with red dots

An extension of this is to put numbers on the dots in order to help with number recognition.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pop the bubbles in order from 1-5

P1040256 — Colored dots with numbers on them

Write the numbers or letters on the sticker dots and then place them randomly on un-popped bubbles. Have the child use their pincer grip fingers to pop the bubbles in the correct order.

P1040257 — Popping the bubbles requires same pinching as pincer grasp so it helps build those muscles.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pop the bubbles in order from 1-5.

or

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Listen to the number I say and pop the bubble with that number.

P1040258 — Numbers 1-5 scattered for number recognition and number order.

This could also be done to work on:

letter recognition
letter sequencing
letters of the childâ€™s name
letters of words
odd and even numbers

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Beach Towel Reading Station

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Summer Reading

A fun way to make a reading station more inviting – set out a beach towel! So easy and basic but provides a specific location for the reading to take place, makes it a bit more fun and adds an element of pretend as you pretend to be lying on a beach somewhere, soaking in the sun and reading.

I incorporate summer themed books, either fiction or non-fiction depending on what Andrew is into.

Since this is a station activity, I would recommend choosing a short book or just reading a portion of a book.

I also suggest looking through the book and making an earlier station activity one that includes some words they may across. This could be through a word memory match or matching up a word with a clue about its meaning.

Ex. We read the Frog and Toad story “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. I had Andrew use letter beads to string together the word “cookie” as well as used the pictures from the story to make a sequencing station to help with comprehension (this could be done as a pre-reading activity to give context or afterwards as an activity to see if he understood what happened in the story.).

Choosing a word or theme from the story to string with letter beads.

These are just two basic ways to incorporate literacy skills into other station activities in addition to a reading or listening station.

Building Reading/Listening Stamina

Reading or listening stamina needs to be built just like other skills (speaking from experience here!). I have spent a good deal of time reading out loud while Andrew runs around the room. We started with small “plug-ins” where he would have to come over and point at something in the picture while I read aloud. Once I knew he could read something, we would take turns reading pages (slowly extending his time) and now he is able to read a few pages in picture books before he needs to get up and move.

While building reading and listening skills, donâ€™t be afraid to take turns or bookmark the page and end the reading/listening station on a positive note. Doing this as a My Obstacle Course station is perfect because they know it will be quick and there are other stations waiting for them when they’ve completed this one.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Water Wheel Pouring Station

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Water Wheel Pouring Station

Here is a great toy to help work on pouring skills. Andrew is still very tentative about pouring and hasn’t quite gotten the slowing down when the cup is almost full concept yet. Because of this, I tend to be very involved when he is pouring things like juice but I want him to get more opportunities to practice this skill without me being so nervous about spills. I am going to use this toy because it is super motivating for him since the wheels spin as the water goes through. I am also going to work on helping him notice how fast the wheels are spinning.

Let’s make the wheels spin fast! (Pouring quickly)

Let’s slow the wheels down! (Pouring slowly, almost dribbling it in)

P1040145 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Water Wheel Pouring Station

I would strongly recommend doing this station right at a sink, pulling a chair or stool up so the child can reach. This will help with filling the cup as well as working on pouring into the funnel without worrying about getting water all over the place.

P1040148 — Pouring water into the funnel.

While Andrew loves to be wet in the swimming pool, bath or shower, he does not like to be wet when wearing regular clothes. This being the case, I would provide him with towels to dry off right away or have an extra shirt on hand for him to change into right away. (I have to say that I personally donâ€™t enjoy having wet shirt sleeves either so I totally get it.)

Water alternative: Pouring dry sand (or salt) would work as well when used in a sand bin or on a rimmed cookie sheet to catch it. I would also suggest placing a towel underneath (perhaps a beach towel to go with the theme) to help contain it to the station area.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Find It! Toy

I was doing a “treasure hunt” around my house to see what we have to include in a summer themed My Obstacle Course. I went into Andrew’s closet to look for some summer books and my eyes fell upon the shelf where this “Find It” toy he had received from his grandma was sitting. This is a great item for car trips or lazy summer afternoons but it also makes a great, super easy (no set up required at all!) station activity.

“Find It” is a cylinder filled with colored rice sized beads that hide thematic items (kind of like a sensory bin without being able to touch). There are several different varieties that I have seen for sale in toy stores (Brilliant Sky is one I know for sure that carries them).

Twist and turn the toy to expose different items, trying to find items that are listed at the top.

I really like this toy because it includes items that are quite common as well as some items that are not as familiar, giving us an opportunity to build vocabulary.

We don’t have a lot of “sand dollars” where we live so when he comes across it and wonders what it is, I can help give it a name while pointing out some unique characteristics.

I like that the items are not too simple. I always say that intelligibility and intelligence are not the same thing and it is nice to have something for him to play with that doesn’t insult his intelligence.

When using this as a station in My Obstacle Course, I will have him either find 10 items or have him choose from the list which 10 items he will be hunting for. From there, I may have him practice writing a few of those words (maybe 3 or 4) at the next station to work on his handwriting skills. This could be done with Magnadoodle, Aquadoodle, pencil/marker/crayon and paper, dry erase markers and white board, or chalk on a chalkboard.

Note: While I haven’t done this myself, I am going to try to make my own using a tennis ball container (label removed), dried rice and some small items from Michael’s. I tried this around Christmas time with fake snow and it didn’t work very well so I’m thinking that rice or something like it might move better. I would love to know if anyone has done this already! Definitely thinking some duct tape around the cover once it’s been completed so little hands don’t open it up all over the living room! 🙂

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

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