Learning about Red!

I decided to make red our next Color of the Week!

Here is what we did:

Red Discovery Bin

I filled a large bin with several red things from around the house. Mostly toys, but a few other surprises as well. I wanted a variety of textures for her to explore, and opportunities for play along the way! As she plays with the items we talk not only about the color, but about what she's doing as well. It's a great way to build her vocabulary!

First she climbed onto the table and started playing with the various building materials: wooden blocks, Magna-Tiles, etc.

Then she hopped onto the couch nearby, and reached back into the bin to play with her apple lacing toy.

Then she went over to the window to play with the Squigz and water blocks.

We kept the bin in her room for the entire week, and she returned to it several times. I told her this was a bow, so naturally she tried to put it on her head like the other bows she is familiar with. 😂

She took apart the Lego Duplo car, and drove it around her room.

And then she found the red cups in the bin, so we played a game she enjoyed during her Snow Theme a couple weeks ago. I hid a red ball under one of the cups, moved it just once or twice, and asked her "Where's the red ball?"

She loved looking for it!

And here she is another day, exploring a squishy Santa toy from the bin. So much to do!

Red Sticky Paper Collage

For her next activity, I collected assorted red items from my craft collection: cut-up straws, pipe cleaners, feathers, foam pieces cut into shapes, sequins, tissue paper squares, beads, pieces of ribbon, and pom-poms!

Then I taped a large piece of Con-Tact paper, sticky-side-out, onto her wall. First she went for the pile of tissue paper squares. Several of them were sort of stuck together, so she took her time separating them for a bit, and placing them onto the paper.

Then she put her foot onto the sticky paper, as she continued to place the next items! She loved pulling it off and putting it back, so sticky!

Some of the items were a bit heavy, so I later brought the paper over to her activity table for further play. This is where it really exploded into a big, beautiful red mess! We talked all about the shapes she was placing, and even played a "Where's the ___" game with them. She loves the search!

She also attempted to place the pipe cleaner pieces into the cut-up straws, a super fine motor activity!

Exploring Red Magnets

Another activity we did this week was explore how magnets work!

She used the wand to pick them all up off of the table.

Then she started to put them into the cups, and shake them around. Such a fun sound!

And a wonderful toddler activity: pouring! She dumped them out onto the table, watched them scatter, and then did it all over again.

When she got bored, she pulled out her (coincidentally) red ladybug star projector toy. We closed the blinds, turned on the stars, and watched them illuminate her room in red! I snapped a pic when she sat back down to play with the magnets some more. What a different, and fun way to play!

Red Bird Craft

For Sweet E's craft this week she made a red bird. We often see one out her bedroom window, sitting among all the bare branches nearby. So I thought it'd be perfect! I provided her with a piece of red foam that I cut into a bird shape, as well as some red feathers and glue. I also prepared the legs and beak and googly eye for her to glue on.

I smeared the glue all over the red bird, and before I could lift my phone to take a picture, she grabbed the pile of feathers and put them onto the glue all at once! 😂 So next I squeezed the glue out for her to place the eye, beak and legs.

It was a quick craft, but came out super cute!

Color Review #1 - Sorting Red/Blue Letters

I like to include a review each week, with the colors we've already covered. So we started with some simple sorting. I thought this would be a great way to start exposing her to letters, while we focused on our colors!

With some help, she soon placed all the letters into the circles of the same color.

Color Review #2 - Ball Pit Balls

As our final activity this week, we pulled out balls from the ball pit and placed them into a muffin pan. It's such a perfect fit! First I asked if she could find a red ball, several times. And she gathered a fair few!

She moved them about from hole to hole. Then, I asked her to find a blue ball!

We kept going with both colors until we filled the whole tray!

Such fun! See you next week!

Learning about Blue!

I bought Sweet E this wonderful book for Christmas and it has become one of her favorites! 

So I felt it was appropriate to begin our color themes, one third and final time. We started with blue!

Blue Discovery Bin

I filled a large bin with several blue things from around the house. Mostly toys, but a few other surprises as well. I wanted a variety of textures for her to explore, and opportunities for play along the way!

She began by connecting the blue Magna-Tiles together! Always a fun activity!

Then she went for some blocks.

Here's a surprise item: a toothbrush holder. She loved the popping sound it made when it was pulled apart! So she spent several minutes playing with this.

A car made out of Lego Duplos was a favorite discovery as well. She loved taking it apart, and going, "Vrrrroom." 

Next she hopped up onto the couch, reached back in, and found some soft pipe cleaners.

And a ball pit ball (more of those coming at the end of this week)!

Next it was onto the table (what a silly girl!) to play with the barrel of monkeys!

We left the bin in her room for the week, and she returned to it again and again. And every time we read her Colors book and came to the blue page, she would gesture toward the bin of blue items!

Blue Pom Pom Transfer

I gathered our blue pom poms and a spoon from her play kitchen.

She actually found this activity before I was ready to give it to her, and started transferring pom poms without any prompting from me. Of course, she did it while standing on her chair!

And since she was using a play kitchen spoon, she pretended to eat the pom poms.

I thought this would be a one-and-done activity, since it's not too exciting (to me), but she brought this over to her couch and did it again, and several other times throughout the week. Who knew!

Blue Playdough + Blue Manipulatives

This week, Sweet E helped me prepare our batch of playdough, by stirring the pot before I set it on the stove.

Then when it was finished, we went up to her activity table to play! I set it out with several blue manipulatives including star beads, gems, cut up straws and pipe cleaners, silicone cupcake liners and a couple of simple cookie cutters.

She sat on the table and got right to work, squishing and smooshing to her heart's content.

Then she sat down on a chair and we made some pretend cupcakes! Here she is blowing out the candle!

Her favorite way to play with playdough is to hide beads inside, and then look for them.

This gestures says, "Where are the star beads?"

  

A wonderful blue mess.

We brought it out again later in the week, and played the same games. Cupcakes...

Hiding beads...

But she also discovered a new way to play: placing the pipe cleaner into the straw. Great fine motor work, and she kept at it for a while!

Tissue Paper + Glue - Fish Craft

This was Sweet E's first time using a glue stick, and she liked it! Here is what we used:

I showed her how to dab the glue onto the paper and place a tissue paper square onto it, then she gave it a try!

Then she stood on her chair to keep the momentum going!

And then climbed onto the couch and bent over to continue!

And finally, she sat upon the table to help me glue the eye on.

LOL. She has a funny method to doing activities, but I think she really enjoys them. Here's her completed fish. I've added it to the growing artwork wall in her room.

Blue Bath

We finished the week with a blue bath! We threw a bath tablet into the water along with the bubbles, several blue ball pit balls and a few other blue bath toys as well. She always loves bath time!