Tag Archive for: paint

Puffy Paint Letter Cards: Montessori Sandpaper Letters Alternative

13 Comments/ in Fun Activites at Home, Preschool Activities, Preschool and Teaching Ideas / by Kirstylee

January 16, 2013

What is an alternative to sandpaper Montessori letters that will help with learning the letters?

It seems like there is a huge Montessori movement right now and honestly, it’s for a good reason. Plenty of Montessori materials and ideas are extremely helpful for young children. A very popular material is a set of sandpaper Montessori letters. Sandpaper letters are great because they give a tactile experience to learning the letters.

My only problem with Montessori letters is the expense. They are awesome and I wish I had $35 to spend just on sandpaper letters, but I don’t. So, naturally, I looked around for an alternative because learning the letters is hugely important to a child’s success in school. I found a great idea to make letters with puffy paint.

Puffy Paint Letter Cards, Replace Montessori Sandpaper Letters -- Moms Have Questions Too

This idea appealed to me greatly because the recipe for puffy paint only includes flour, salt, water, and food coloring. Woohoo! You can’t get cheaper than that. Check out the puffy paint letter tutorial from Train Up a Child Learn as We Go for more specific instructions.

As much as I loved this idea, I did change it up a tiny bit. First off, I do not have an artist’s hand. My handwriting is not terrible, but creating beautiful letters by hand the first time is definitely not something I trusted myself to do. I’m also a little OCD so the letters did indeed have to be beautifully perfect. Little Bear is just learning the letters after all. I want the example letters to be perfect. Luckily, I found a simple solution to this problem. I made a simple printable template for puffy paint letter cards. I printed the template on cardstock and then just squeezed the paint over the letters until they were completely covered. Now my letters were all the same size and formed perfectly straight.

Puffy Paint Letter Cards, Replace Montessori Sandpaper Letters -- Moms Have Questions Too

I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted my vowels a different color or not. The vowels are a different color in the tutorial, but I haven’t introduced the concept of vowels to Little Bear yet. I ultimately decided that now is as good a time as any to teach the concept of vowels and I made the vowels red and consonants blue.

Puffy Paint Letter Cards, Replace Montessori Sandpaper Letters -- Moms Have Questions Too

Once the puffy paint letters were all dry, I cut out the squares and they were ready to use. This was a very simple process to get an alternative for sandpaper Montessori letters. I actually made this set of letters a few months ago and honestly, they really do help with learning the letters. Little Bear loves the feel of the letters and enjoys going over each one multiple times. I love that he is learning the letters and doesn’t even realize it. ;)

These puffy paint letter cards have held up very well to frequent use. Little Bear is learning the letters with ease. He has been able to recognize them for years now, but his letter formation is getting much better. Check for a post coming up for more ways to practice letter formation.

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

Color Games for Toddlers Part 1

2 Comments/ in Fun Activites at Home, Toddler Activities / by Kirstylee

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.

Color Games for Toddlers -- Moms Have Questions Too

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!