Homemade Dough

One popular material around our school is Play-dough!! The children think of endless ways to squish, sculpt and mold the dough. They love to add in cookie cutters, pom poms, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, rolling pins and more to their dough! 

You can make this dough at home with just a few simple ingredients. Children can participate in the stirring and mixing, but should be supervised around the boiling water. Adding food coloring or Kool-Aid to your dough can change the color and scent! 

Here is our basic recipe:

Recipe:

• 2 cups plain all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1- 1.5 cups of boiling water (add slowly until it feels right)
• 1 packet Kool-Aid (optional)

Instructions:

• Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar, kool-aid and oil into the mixing bowl.
• Stir dry ingredients together.
• Add water slowly to the dry ingredients ( I typically use 1 1/4 cup water)
• Keep stirring- dough will be sticky!
• Let cool for a few moments and then knead with your hands vigorously!
• Set the dough aside until it cools completely and then enjoy!

Namaste

Why Yoga?

Sure, yoga sounds cool but how does it benefit the children? What can a one year old gain from practicing yoga? What are they doing in that yoga room?

Yoga has benefits for both mind and body. Here are just a few things that we can gain from our practice:

• Learning how to control, maneuver, and isolate our body parts
• Gaining awareness of our breath
• Practicing balance and building muscle strength
• Learning how our bodies fit within our own location and space (spatial awareness) 
• Trying an enjoyable way to engage in physical activity
• Following directions
• Finding peace and strength within ourselves

Children enter the yoga room to find a beautiful space dedicated to their practice with yoga mats, a yoga chime and a warm, friendly greeting from their instructor. Our yoga instructor, Ms T.J, teaches yoga through animal poses, songs, and  dances. We are grateful to have Ms. T.J guide us in our yoga practice!

"There's something special about being with these littlest yogis.  Their whole world is about feeling good…having clean diapers and full tummies, playing with toys and activities that please them and receiving care from loving people.  These wonderful "feel goods" come from their external world.  Yoga gives them a safe place to explore finding that "feel good" from within…exploring movement, feeling the calming affects of a purposeful breath and connecting with their power of self-regulation. Our practice focuses on creating a positive, peaceful space for them to recognize the "feel good" of being who they are.  They are amazing and they share such great energy.  Although they come to the yoga room just once a week, I know this is a space that all the  teachers hold in their classrooms as well." -Ms. T.J 

A peaceful resting pose after practicing yoga

Express Yourself!

As a preschool staff, we value opportunities for creative self expression. Children find themselves using puppets, wearing dress up clothes, and singing songs all throughout their day. Another way children can express themselves is through visual art.

Art is an important part of our curriculum, where children can "express and represent what they observe, think, imagine and feel through two- and three- dimensional art". (Highscope) This is why you'll often see teachers labeling, and writing captions on children's art work. Their art has significant meaning to them and they often tell us stories or words as they are creating!

At the Grosse Pointe Public Schools Child Development and Preschool Program, art experiences begin with our infants and grow throughout the years. Art may begin with one tiny stroke of a paint brush, or simply by observing others who are engaged in art activities. Visual art experiences develop themselves into drawings of self, sculptures made of play-dough, collages of various materials and paintings with each stroke carefully placed. As art experiences grow, the skills behind them also grow. Children learn about color, texture, mixing, gluing, building, attention to detail, and how to carry out their own ideas.

We hope you find opportunities to creatively express yourself each and every day!

Welcome!

Welcome to our Child Development and Preschool Blog! We hope this blog will serve as a way to communicate school news, happenings and information on early learning topics. 

Tomorrow, our program will be participating in the Preschool Fair at the Library. The Fair will be held in the basement of the Woods Branch from 6:00-8:00pm. It is a great event to learn more about the schools in our community. We look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks for checking out our blog!