Green is Good!
Thank you so much for all of you who completed the reader survey, something I am going to try to incorporate more often by request are crafts that can be done by a wide range of ages. This green g is simple, and a 18 month old just showing interest in letters could easily explore with paint, crayons and markers, but an older child could make work of it as well. I was pleasantly surprised by how much my son loved this project. My husband and I made dinner while my little artist explored every green marker and paint we had!
- Gather your materials. You will need some white and green paper,glue, scissors, a huge assortment of green markers, glitter glue, paint- everything you have ! If you are doing this with a younger child limit as you see fit! You can’t mess this project up.
- Write a g on your white paper- we are doing lowercase but it will work great with an uppercase as well.
- Start making it green! We started with do a dot art dobbers.
- Next up roller paints.
- Marker time!
- Last but not least glitter ( my son’s nails still have it embedded on them despite a bath!).
- Let dry, cut out and glue onto the green paper.
Color Books
Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle is a fun interactive book about colors and the color wheel. Kids will love the “trick” on each page. The trick being that if you stare at a color for long enough then stare at a blank page the complementary color will appear! This book is great, but not for a group, a class will disintegrate into “Let me!!” and “My turn!” quickly so this is really is best read one on one!
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle is a classic, it is genius in its simplicity. So often we think things have to have fancy bells and whistles to keep toddlers and preschoolers interested and this book proves us wrong yet again. I haven’t met a child who hasn’t responded well to this book about colors and animals!
Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a clever book each page offers a sneak peek at what it next, which my son thought was genius and I have to agree. Soon my son was making his own predictions about what object would be revealed when we turned the page. The book offered so many chances for me to step in and ask my son questions about what we were reading without stalling the momentum of the book.
Kristina says
This is probably a dumb question, but I can’t tell from the picture- what type of paint did your son use for this project (for rolling and dobbing :))? I have tried finding something similar, but don’t know the brand… and the one I bought didn’t work well.
Thanks! I love all your letter crafts and need to start doing them with my little guy.
admin says
I got both at Micheal’s! I am working on a supply list with links to the products. Should be up later this week 🙂
Nan says
You can use Bingo dotters! You can get them in all kinds of colors at stores like Wal-Mart.
Jennifer says
I really need to start doing these crafts with my son. At 19 months he is really developing an interest in coloring. He also loves letters. He can’t identify any yet, but he knows that they are letters and loves pointing out signs and trying to tell me which letters are in them 🙂
.-= Jennifer´s last blog ..Keep the doctor away =-.
Kristyn says
I have a question – I heard that it’s best to start with capital letters. Is that true? And why? And when do you start with the lowercase – when they’ve been introduced to all of the uppercase first? Thank you! Your blog has helped with the daily routine with me and my son so much!
.-= Kristyn´s last blog ..3 things that have changed my (dietary) life =-.
admin says
There is different opinions about which to start first. When teaching to read/phonics, lowercase are vital to know, since they are reading and sounding out letters that are 95% lowercase. If you are starting letters early I say go for it any way you want. Ideally teaching both together. My son picked up his letters very early through alphabet books and has been fine doing Upper than lower which is the way most toddlers end up learning them. We did upper first because he picked them up, then started purposefully doing lower when he started showing interesti in phonics. Now that he is asking to spell we focus on lower more than upper.
I hope that helps!
Jennifer says
If you don’t mind me posing a question here, at what age did your son start learning his letters? My son is 19 months old now and has been very interested in letters for a couple months. He has a teddy bear that sings the ABC song, and a toy computer that will say the letters he types (it also does phonics). He tries very hard to mimick the ABC song. He loves finding letters, and usually tells me they are “E’s” “O’s” or “D’s”. We read at least four children’s books every day, although we don’t have any about the alphabet. I never know whether I should be formally teaching him, or just letting him be a toddler. I don’t want to overdo it, but I don’t want to short-change him either. I feel kind of clueless, since I have no teaching background.
admin says
I would gather some alphabet books and start reading those with your son. If he likes letters he’ll love them but it’s not pushing anything on him, it’s just enjoying some books that he is interested in. I started letter of the week projects with my son at this age because after a week of some alphabet books he knew his letters. I had no intention of starting formally teaching him any letters until he was 2, but I followed his interests. If your son was into diggers you wouldn’t think twice about reading digger books. Just don’t drill him, playing with letters like other toys is perfect for this age, don’t worry about “right and wrong” either just model, praise and play.
Jennifer says
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond, and you were very helpful. I think I will look up some alphabet books at the library, and kind of let him set the pace.