A Plan for Art and Action - week 3

We had so much fun last week. We ended up changing our kitchen time to activities more green for St. Patrick's Day - like green jello jigglers, green macaroni and cheese, etc.

Now that the weather is getting nicer outside, it is easier to get in some good gross motor exercise. We didn't do very well on the fine motor skills last week; my son gets very impatient with these activities because he can't do them very well yet.

My son is very excited about Brown Bear right now. For speech, we played different games around this book. I found a used Brown Bear Board Game; it is missing the instructions, so we don't know how to play the actual game but we used it to play Go-Fish and made up our own version of the game.

We also had fun with the Dinosaur song, but he had no interest in the Bear Hunt. I'm going to get a copy of the specific song they use at school; maybe that will be more familiar and more comfortable.


Gross motor development:

• Sand Box play - encourage pushing, pulling and lifting of sand filled trucks, buckets, etc.
  


• Balance on One Foot – I have a great idea for adding some variety to this. I'm going to fill some empty bottles with colored water and have him place one foot on the bottle. It gives a little more balance, while providing a game-feel to the activity.
  


• Jumping – we always love jumping.

Fine motor development:

• Lacing Beads
  


• Cutting with scissors – cutting paper, play dough, anything with a fun texture.
  

Speech development:

• "Going on a Bear Hunt" – We are going to try again using the song from school.
  


• Music and Dancing – As long as he is excited about these songs we'll keep using them. “We Are The Dinosaurs” and “The Airplane Song” from Whaddaya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner will be our primary songs. This activity is great for speech and gross motor skills.

Arts and Crafts:

• Easter Decorations - not sure exactly what we will do yet, but maybe something we can hang in the window.
  

Kitchen Fun:

• Blueberry Muffins - we are going to try these again; one of these days we will make muffins.

Enjoy your week of art and action.