February 28, 2013

What is a color game my toddler can play with that will teach him about rainbows?

I’ve made several color games for Smiley Man now and they have been awesome, but I really wanted to make something for him that was a little more self-directed. I wanted to have something he could play with even if I wasn’t sitting right there showing him what to do. I remembered this awesome easy craft clay that I made with Little Bear several months ago, and I knew just what to do to adapt it to a toddler color game.

First I made some of this easy craft clay. When you are done making it, the bottom of your pan will be coated in clay stuff and you will be worried that it will never come out. It will come out, I promise. ;)

Once the clay was finished, we rolled out a few thin “snakes” and put them on top of this rainbow template to make sure they had the right size and shape. You have to be careful with the size of your snakes. You want them big enough that they will be able to hold up to toddler use, but you want them thin enough that they don’t take forever to dry. If they are too thick it will take them a week or more to dry completely. I know this from experience. :(

Once the clay has dried completely (it will still take a day or two) get out some paint and have your toddler help paint the pieces the correct colors of the rainbow. We used watercolor paint and they worked beautifully. Be sure to talk about the different colors and explain that the colors always go in that order. You can also look up images of rainbows on the internet and show your toddler that rainbows always have the same colors in the same order. If you are lucky, you will have a real rainbow you can show your toddler.

After all the painting is done, let the paint dry completely. This will probably take another day or so. Once the paint is all dry, you can take the pieces off of the template and they are now a rainbow puzzle.  I have done this twice and the first time the pieces dried beautifully with no cracks. As you can see, there were lots of cracks this time, but it’s a puzzle, right? The cracks just make it more puzzle-like. I printed another copy of the rainbow template onto cardstock and I painted it the colors of the rainbow, then I laminated it. I have Smiley Man put the pieces onto the rainbow template.

Smiley Man really likes this rainbow puzzle. They have held up pretty well to his use, but I do have to watch and make sure the pieces don’t go into his mouth. :)

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

February 21, 2013

What is an activity with bubbles that will help my child learn about colors?

This color game was definitely one of Smiley Man’s favorites. He didn’t have to guess the right color, or sort, or anything. We just explored colors and had fun with them. Luckily, this is still a great way for teaching your toddler colors.

I started by pouring some bubble solution (from the dollar store) into each of three small containers. You could do this activity in the container the bubbles come in, but I wanted the colors to be easier to see. Next, I put a few drops of food coloring into each container. I think I dropped in about 5 drops per container. We just did red, yellow, and blue this day, but I think we’ll do this activity again with orange, green, and purple.

I sat down with Smiley Man and Little Bear at their preschool table and gave each of them a white piece of paper. Then, I showed them how they could blow bubbles onto their paper and it would make color on their paper. Both of my kids were totally fascinated by this phenomenon.

Little Bear loves blowing the bubbles and making a bunch of colors on the paper. Then, he wanted to make a paper with only blue bubbles.

Smiley Man needed my help holding the bubble wand because he kept putting the bubble wand in his mouth. :( Yucky. As long as I held the bubble wand though, Smiley did great. His favorite part was popping the bubbles on the paper and then seeing the color appear.

My kiddos loved this game and it was a really great way to learn the colors. Both my preschooler and my toddler were able to just enjoy colors and have fun with them. Plus, Smiley Man is really starting to get his colors down. His favorite color is definitely blue. I see a blue-themed 2 year old birthday party in our future. :)

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

February 7, 2013

What is a color game or activity I can play with my toddler to teach him colors?

This color game is about as easy as it gets. Get a bag (a grocery bag, brown paper bag, or a gift bag will all work fine) and write a color on the front with a colored marker. Explain that you will be going on a treasure hunt to find as many things as you can that are the same color as the color on the bag.  Tell your toddler that you will put any objects that you can find into the bag.

Now, go around your house and find as many things as you can that are the same color as the color on the bag.

Continue until you have a bag full of items for each color. When I played this with Smiley Man, we only did two colors a day. I am saving the bags of objects for the color game we will be playing next week. Also, I needed several small (fist size or smaller) objects for that color game so I made sure we found a bunch of those in each color. We also found some bigger objects for each color just to make things more interesting.

Smiley Man loved this game and Little Bear really enjoyed helping. He felt like he was the teacher who would teach Smiley Man his colors. Another benefit of this color activity was that it provided lots of gross motor movement. Since the weather here is terrible, gross motor activities are highly sought after. If you want more ways to teach your toddler colors, check out our other toddler color games.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

February 4, 2013

What are some Valentine’s Day tot trays I can do with my child?

Smiley Man is loving these tot trays so much! He really likes that he does his own school work. I really like that he is engaged while Little Bear is doing his preschool stuff. My biggest problem is explaining to Smiley Man that he can only do his trays during school time. :) Even Little Bear likes to do some of Smiley’s tot trays. The tot trays for the next two weeks are Valentine’s Day themed.

Here are the tot school trays in more detail:

Sweep small hearts into a big heart

Use the mini broom and dustpan (dollar store) to sweep the small plastic hearts (also dollar store!) into the heart made from masking tape.

Valentine’s Stamps and Paper

Play with Valentine’s stamps using stamp pad and paper.

Matching Stickers

One sheet has 2 rows of stickers. Smiley Man draws a line to the matches. The second sheet just has stickers and there are some stickers on the tray. Smiley Man gets a sticker from the bag and puts it next to the same sticker on the paper.

Styrofoam and Toothpicks

A heart shape is drawn on the sytrofoam and Smiley Man uses the toothpicks to cover the heart shape.

Counting Hearts

There are three clear cups on the tray. Each cup has a number attached to the front of it (1, 2, 3). There are 6 heart picks (dollar store) on the tray. Smiley Man puts the correct number of hearts into each cup. I started this tray with only 1 cup, and then added the second cup after a day or two. I haven’t actually added the third cup yet. I’ll add it when I think Smiley is ready.

Color Game 5 and Color Game 6

Each color game is only on the tray for one week. The rest of the activities are on the trays for two weeks. That means I go through two color games, but only one of all the other activities. Here is Color Game 5 and Color Game 6.

Valentine’s Day Tot Book

I read this book at least once during the time that these trays are out. If Smiley man uses this tray while I am working with Little Bear, he can color the pictures or just look at the pictures as he turns the pages. I do not in any way expect Smiley Man to learn how to read by looking at this book. This book is simply for exposure to words and letters and concepts of print. I usually make these books in black and white, but since the book is about the color red, I decided to make a color version, too. We used the black and white version.

Printables

Color Hearts, Pompom Magnet page

Featured Toy

Shape Sorter

Themed Books

Do You Want to Be My Friend?, Officer Buckle and Gloria, Valentine Friends, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse . These books have a theme of love and/or friendship. They are not necessarily Valentine’s Day books. Here are a few Valentine’s books if you looking for those:

• Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse!
• The Day it Rained Hearts
• The Biggest Valentine Ever
• Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink

Tissue Paper Hearts

Cut out a black heart outline. Place it on a piece of contact paper. Be sure that the contact paper has the sticky side up. Put small pieces of tissue paper next to the heart outline. These can be very small pieces so no tearing or cutting is required, or you can have bigger pieces so your toddler has to cut or tear the pieces before putting them on the contact paper. Your child will put pieces of tissue paper on the sticky side of the contact paper. When the masterpiece is finished, cover the tissue paper side with another sheet of contact paper. Cut off the extra contact paper before displaying the heart. Make as many as desired.

Tearing Paper

On the tray are a few different pieces of construction (red and pink) in different sizes. Smiley Man tears the paper to his heart’s content. This one is always a favorite!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

January 31, 2013

What is a color activity or game I can play with my toddler to teach him the colors?

I have been working on colors with Smiley Man for about a month and a half now and he is slowly starting to make some connections when it comes to color. He is still young (21 months) and I don’t expect him to know all of his colors by the time the series ends. However, all of these color games and activities have been great.

Today’s game to teach colors is pretty easy. Several months ago, I did a busy bag exchange with several moms in my neighborhood. One of the bags that I got from the exchange was a Popsicle Stick Color Matching game. To make this game you will need just a few supplies.

• Felt in different colors (or cardstock in different colors)
• Popsicle sticks
• Hot glue gun (or sewing machine)

First, cut out two rectangles from each piece of felt (or cardstock) that you have chosen to use. I just have the 6 colors of the rainbow, but feel free to make as many different colors as you want. To know what size to cut the rectangles, you can just eyeball it. It’s not that hard. ;)

Once you have two rectangles cut from each color, hot glue around three sides of one rectangle. Leave the bottom edge (a short edge) open. That is where the popsicle stick will go. Now just put the other rectangle over the glue and let it dry. You can also use a sewing machine to sew the three sides closed, but if you don’t know how to sew, hot glue will work just fine, too.

Once you have glued all of your felt into “popsicles,” get your popsicle sticks ready. You will need one popsicle stick per color. For toddlers, color the end of each popsicle stick with the color of the popsicle it will match. I just used markers to do the coloring.

If you want, you can also write the name of the color on the other side. I wrote the name of the color with that color of marker.

For preschoolers, write the name of the color using a black marker.

How to teach your toddler the colors

Hold up a popsicle stick or have your child choose a popsicle stick. Ask them the color on the end or have them guess the color. Now have your toddler find the matching “popsicle.”

Now your child can insert the popsicle stick into the correct color of “popsicle.” Pretend licking of the popsicle must occur. That is always Smiley Man’s favorite part. Continue until all popsicles are matched. I should note that putting the popsicle stick into the popsicle is not always easy for Smiley Man. Sometimes he gets the angle just right and the popsicle stick goes in without trouble. Sometimes he can’t get the popsicle stick in and then he gets frustrated. If he is having a hard time and I can tell he is getting frustrated, I’ll just put the popsicle stick in for him and we’ll move on to the next color.

How to play with preschoolers

Set the popsicle sticks and “popsicles” in front of your preschooler. Have them choose a popsicle stick and read (or at least guess based on the beginning sound) the color on it. Once they have correctly read (or guessed) the color, have them put the correct color “popsicle” on the popsicle stick. Pretend licking of the popsicle must occur. :)

Both of my kids love this game (mostly because of the pretend licking), but it is great for teaching colors. It also uses fine motor skill when the popsicle stick is inserted into the popsicle. This is a great way to teach a child colors. If you’re still wondering how to teach a toddler colors, check out all of our other color games for toddlers.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me