Color recognition
- Gather your materials. We used a baby food freezer tray but an ice cube tray, or egg carton among other things would work well. Also scissors and a color of foam ( can you tell I bought a big thing of foam a few weeks ago?) or construction paper for each section. A backyard, beach, park…
- Cut your foam/paper into pieces small enough to line the bottom of the tray/carton. For younger kids choose colors that you kn0w they have a chance of finding a match. You don’t want it to be too easy , but too much of a challenge just frustrates everyone. If a child is frustrated they won’t learn, our goal is to challenge and learn!
- Head outside – my son couldn’t wait to get outside so as you can see he’s as per usual in his pjs!
- Start finding things to match. Start off by choosing a color with your child and both go looking, if they have a hard time finding a match find one, and go to it but don’t announce you have found it. Say something like “Hey Bug I think there is a match over here, can you find it” narrow down the are for them, if they still can’t pick up the object and have them match it in the tray.
- Continue working together or if they want to work all alone, watch your child explore and make connections, that is exciting and fun too!
- After you have made all your matches, talk about what you have found- how it feels what it does ( rock lines a path for us to walk on, a flower provides pollen for bees etc…).
Books!
Pinching Pom Poms
- Gather your materials. You will need a divided chip and dip platter or individual bowls. Some scrap paper that matches your pom poms, some tape and ice tongs.
- Cut the paper into pieces that fit into the platters sections, leave the middle blank, it will be the starting point for the pom poms.
- Place the pom poms into the middle
- Start matching, if the tongs are frustrating them , have them do it with their hands.
Easter Egg Match
- Gather your materials. You will need some cheap Easter eggs, a bowl for the eggs to start out in, one container for each egg( mine are old blueberry containers) and matching paper for each color of egg.
- Cut the paper so they line the bottom of the small containers.
- Invite your child to come to the table and start matching.
- Praise and celebrate their success !
Toss & Match
- Gather your materials. You will need some colored bean bags, and some colored construction paper. You could also use laundry baskets with colored towels in them for a target or anything that is obviously the same color.
- Start tossing the bean bags to the target.
Toddlers will probably walk up naturally but older children can be challenged to throw the bean bag from a distance, just pop some painters tape on the carpet for them to stay behind.
- Start with just a few colors for little guys and work up to many for older children.
Months ago I saw a similar project over at Teaching Tiny Tots and made a mental note to try it, my son’s fine motor skills were good but not quite ready yet, the other day he was making a clothes pin bite things and I knew it was time! Here is how we did it.
- Gather your materials. I used 2 of each color paint chip ( 8 in all) , 4 clothes pins, 1 strip of cardboard ( side of a cereal box) and some double stick tape. I am far too impatient for glue.
- Cut your paint chips to fit onto the cardboard.
- Tape them down well.
- Using the 2nd paint chip cut a small strips to go on the top of the clothes pins.
- Tape them down.
- Start playing !
Books
“Brown Bear Brown Bear” by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle is a classic, it is genius in it’s 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.
- Gather your materials. You will need 3 pieces of white paper, a marker, some construction paper ( any color but use the same color for all of it), some small containers, double stick tape or glue , paint and scissors.
- Start by drawing 3 mittens on 3 separate pieces of paper.
- If you have an older child who needs more of a challenge you can do a hat and scarf as well, but little guys may get confused on whether to match the item or the color , so start small if you aren’t sure.
- Have your child paint the mittens, one color for each page.
- My son was hard to convince to use only one color, so I had an extra page for him to use all of them on after he did the mittens.
- Let dry and cut out.
- Using double stick tape or glue use construction paper as a backing. This will make them sturdier so they last while being played with!
- Using the small containers match your mittens!
by Jan Brett is visually impeccable, each page is so full of details that you will find yourself staring at them long after you have read the words. The story is about a little boy who looses a mitten and what happens next. It’s a sweet retelling of a Ukrainian folk tale but the detailed and layered illustrations really steal the show!
Goodnight Moon
- Gather your materials. You will need some clear or white glass or plastic containers. Food coloring, water , a turkey baster and a thick place mat or towel under the jars.
- Start by letting your child get accustomed to using the turkey baster to transfer the water from one container to another. They do make child size turkey basters and sell them at educational stores like Lakeshore learning but I am just using a regular old one.
- Next add blue and red to two of the jars and have clear water in the third. Ask about the colors and if your child is old enough, ask them to make a prediction about what will happen if you mix the colors.
- Continue with as many color combinations as they want.
My son had a blast making green and we re did this experiment 4 or 5 times.
- If they are getting frustrated with how slow the turkey baster is encourage them to pour the water into the other jars.
- The fun can keep going as long as they are interested, our experiment lasted about 30 minutes which was about 15 minutes longer than I expected!
” A Rainbow Of My Own” by Don Freeman is a charming story about wanting a rainbow, you may notice that the colors are out of order but I have always used that as a teaching tool in my classes.
” Little Blue and Little Yellow” by Leo Lioniis a profound book with underlying commentary about race relations while the surface story is about little blobs of color who when squished together turn into one green blob!
