January 10, 2013

What is a fishing game I can play with my toddler that will help with color recognition?

Colored Fishies! Okay, I know that this idea has been around forever, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? ;) This idea isn’t new, but I did add a fun little poem to help with color practice and to turn it into more of a game.

To play this color game, you will need the following materials:

• Colored fishies and colored “sand” mounds printable
• Fishing pole
• Paper bag (decorated as a boat, if desired)
• Blue poster board, blanket, or large sheet of blue paper to represent water (optional)

To make the fishies and their colored sand mounds: print off these color fishies. If you don’t have a color printer, you can just cut fish shapes and circles out of colored construction paper or cardstock. If you want the fishies and sand mounds to be a bit more durable, cover them with contact paper or laminate them. Next, put 1-2 paperclips on each fish or staple each fish 2-3 times.

To make the fishing pole, start with a plain pencil. Tie some yarn to the eraser end of the pencil. Make the “fishing line” as long as you want it, then cut the yarn. Get two small magnetic squares with a sticky back. Place the two magnetic squares on the very end of the yarn, with the sticky backs touching each other.

Now that your materials are ready, it’s time to play the game. We start by putting all of the “sand” mounds on a blue poster board so it looks like they are in the ocean. Then, we put the fishies in the ocean in random place. The fishies should not be on their sand mounds yet.

Next, have your child get ready with the paper bag next to him and with the fishing pole in his hand. Tell your child that he is going to try to catch some fishies and if he catches any, he can put them in the “boat” (paper bag).

Have your child point to the fish that he will try to catch with his fishing pole. Say this little poem:

A yellow (or whatever color your child chose) fish went out to play
He (or she) saw a hook and swam away.
Will the hook catch the fish?

Now have your child move the fishing pole around to try to catch the fish, while you try to swim the fish back to the “sand” mound.

If your child catches the fish say:
The yellow fish says, “Oh no!”
And into the boat he will go.

If you get the fish back to the sand mound before your child catches it say:

The yellow fish is safe and sound,
He sits upon his sandy mound.

Continue this game with all of the colored fishies until they are either in the paper bag or on the “sand” mound. If you want, count the number of fishies that your child caught.

Next, switch places and have your child try to get the fishies back to their home before you catch them with the fishing pole.

This game is wonderful because you name the color of the fish two times during the rhyme. It is also great because your child has to color match when he is trying to put the fish on its sandy mound. If the fish goes on the wrong sand mound, he is not safe.

You could also use these fishies to play the traditional fishing game. To do this, put all of the fishies in the paper bag (or a box or a plastic tray, etc.). Have your child fish. When he catches a fish on the fishing pole, have him name the color of the fish. If he gets it right, he can put the fish to the side. If he gets it wrong, tell him the correct name and have him put it back in the paper bag. Continue until all the fishies are gone.

Be sure to check out all of my other color games for toddlers! This is just one in a series of twelve that I will be doing!

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 4, 2013

What is a pre k activity or a toddler activity that uses pattern blocks templates?

I recently made these snowflake pattern blocks templates as part of a new “school” system I am going to do with Smiley Man. Since Smiley Man is still pretty young (20 months), I don’t think he will be able to use these pattern blocks templates the “regular” way. However, he loves to play with pattern blocks and he likes having a template to put the pieces on.

I did make these templates specifically for Smiley Man, but they also make a great pre k activity. Little Bear loves working with pattern blocks templates and so do most preschoolers. I decided I should let Little Bear try them out and I am really glad that I did.

I have been teaching Little Bear that every snowflake is unique. He didn’t believe that could be true, so I was able to pull out these snowflake pattern blocks templates at just the right time. I showed him how they all have the shape of snowflakes, but they all look different. He was fascinated.

Since Little Bear loved these snowflake pattern blocks templates so much, I decided to do a few extension activities with them. First, I had him make one of the snowflakes on a template by looking at the template and putting the pieces on a table, rather than straight onto the pattern blocks template.

Then, I had him trace all of the individual pieces. I showed him that he just made his own template for pattern blocks. He thought that was really cool.

Next, I had him make his own unique snowflake. We talked about how it had to have 6 points. Little Bear was really excited about this and enjoyed making his own snowflake.

Once he made a snowflake that he liked, he traced all the pieces. Then, he gave me the new snowflake pattern blocks template that he made and I had to put the pattern blocks on in the right place.

Finally, Little Bear colored the new pattern blocks template. He loved these extension activities. I think there will be more pattern block activities for us in the future. I am so glad these pattern blocks templates turned out to be such a fabulous pre k activity. I know Smiley Man will also love playing with these templates when it is his turn, but I am glad that I let Little Bear play with them and I am extra glad that we found so many extension activities. These snowflake pattern blocks templates are sure to bring your toddler and your preschooler lots of fun.

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

December 13, 2012

What is a color game that I can play with my toddler?

As I’ve been inventing new color games for toddlers, I thought of I Spy books. Little Bear loves those I Spy books and he loves playing I Spy, too. I assumed Smiley Man probably would also love the concept of I Spy, so I decided to find a way to make it more his level. I came up with I Spy Color Cards.

There are 8 different cards with several colored pictures on each. Each card has objects that are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and brown. I printed these with color ink and then laminated them for durability.

To play, pick up one card and hold it in front of your toddler. Say “I spy something yellow (or any of the colors that are on the card). If your toddler doesn’t know his colors yet, start to describe other things about the object you are looking at. For example: “It is something that we eat. It has a peel that you have to take off before you eat it. We have some on our counter.” Continue until your child can point to the object that you were describing.

If your child knows his colors really well, then change the game up a little. Instead describe the object without saying the color. For example: “It is shaped like a ball. It has a string attached to it. You can see the light shining on it.” When your child knows what it is, have him point to the object and say what it is using the color. For example: “blue balloon.”

This color game for toddlers is still just a teeny bit hard for Smiley Man. I have to basically say what each object is before he can point to it. Still, he is getting used to hearing the names of the colors and is getting used to objects being described by their color. It won’t be long now before this color game is just right for Smiley.

Check out the other games we’ve been doing to learn colors:

• Part 1 — Pom Poms in an Egg Carton

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

December 6, 2012

What is a color game for toddlers that will help my child learn colors?

Smiley Man is just getting to the age now where I feel like I need to start teaching him a few things. He is almost 2 and isn’t old enough to learn letters or numbers. However, he is the perfect age to start learning colors. Of course, just holding up color cards and naming them is not only incredibly boring, but also pretty ineffective. So I came up with this fun color game for toddlers that Smiley Man can play.

I started with an empty egg carton. I got some washable paint and painted the inside of each hole with a different color. Actually I used 6 colors, so there are two holes of each color.

Next, I got 12 pompoms that corresponded with each color. I used red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black. I used black instead of orange for two reasons. 1- I didn’t have any orange paint left, 2- I didn’t have any orange pompoms. I had black paint and black pompoms so I used those.

So how can you use this awesome color game for toddlers? I play this with Smiley Man two different ways.

Name the Color:

All the pompoms are in the egg carton and in the correct holes. Smiley picks up one pompom and I name the color. When Smiley Man gets older, I will expect him to say the color. As he picks out the pompoms one by one, he puts them into a pile.

Color Match:

All the pompoms go in a pile (or are already in a pile if you just played Name the Color). Smiley picks them out one by one and puts them in the hole with the same color. He gets a high five if he does it right!

The thing that I love the absolute most about this game is that all the pieces fit inside the egg carton and that the egg carton can close. It is pretty easy to keep all the pieces together, too because there are only 12 pompoms. This color game for toddlers is compact, easy to put together, and is extremely inexpensive.

Once Easter comes around, we’ll be getting some Easter eggs and Smiley Man can play these same games, but with Easter eggs rather than pompoms. I’m also excited about getting the Easter eggs because we’ll probably get some eggs that are pastel. This means the colors won’t be the same hue like the paint and the pompoms are. This will teach Smiley Man that there are several shades of each color. So far, Smiley loves this color game. Stay tuned for even more color games for toddlers.

Take a look at our other color games too!

• Part 2 – I Spy Color Cards

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