Colors: Black and White

Theme Of The Day: The Colors Black and White

Age: 22 months

Notes: Little M&M is due to arrive in three weeks, and so our tot school activities will gradually become fewer. Just three things today, but Honey Pot really enjoyed each one. And I think they were very successful in showing her the difference between these two colors, as she had been getting them confused!

Bah Bah Black/White Sheep

This is a classic nursery rhyme that we have read many times in Honey Pot's Mother Goose book. I think it was nice for her to hear it in song, as she sang it all day long afterward. I printed this clip art from the Internet, matted them to cardstock and then glued a craft stick onto each one. As I held up the black sheep, I sang:

Bah, Bah, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Three bags full.

One for my master,

One for my dame,

And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

Bah, bah, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Three bags full.

Then I would hold up the white one and sing the same song, replacing the word "black" with "white." Honey Pot loved hearing and singing along to the songs, as well as playing with the sheep as toys. So as we played, I tried to insert their color names into their dialogue. IE: "Hello, black sheep!"

Which Is Black/White?

I created these sets in Photoshop Elements. It is getting harder to think of images that I haven't yet used, but I managed! Honey Pot and I went over these a couple of times today, and each time she seemed to get the answer right more and more. I'm so pleased that she considers this more of a game than a quiz, because it definitely is effective in teaching her colors.

Sheep Craft

The idea and free printable for this craft came from All Kids Network. I asked Honey Pot if she wanted to do a craft. When she saw the glue, she grabbed it with a nod and hurried to her craft table. This girl loves glue! Without any instruction, she squeezed glue out onto the sheep's body.

Then I encouraged her to place the cotton balls onto the glue, and push them down.

We added the head, facial features and legs.

(See Daddy's hands! He had off work today, so he got to help!)

And here is the final product! Honey Pot was so proud of her artwork, as always! We pointed out which parts of the sheep were white, and which were black.

And for once when I asked her to pose for the picture, I got a not-so-cheesy smile out of her. Hooray!

Color: Orange

Theme of the Day: The Color Orange

Age: 21 months

Which Is Orange? and Color Walk

Instead of creating new color sets, I gathered the ones I already had on hand from other color days. This is a color that Honey Pot is not too familiar with, and so she had a difficult time with these at first. Despite sometimes getting the answer wrong, she is always so excited to do this activity. As usual, we followed with a color walk around the house, where she pointed out to me other items that are orange. (I don’t have any pictures though!) Again, this is definitely a color we need to return to!

Do-A-Dot Art

I printed off this fun printable from one of my go-to sites, Making Learning Fun. And with Honey Pot's newest art supply, washable dot markers, she went at it. “Dot, dot, dot!”

Snow Paint

I found this fun idea at a blog called Really Quite Lucky. I combined water, food coloring and a small dab of paint in a spray bottle. Then, before the snow from last week completely melted away, we headed outside to paint it. Honey Pot took an interest in it initially, but being outside in the snow is just too much fun! So she gave it a few squirts then spent the rest of our time outside just walking around blissfully. Of course, as soon as we came inside she begged for the squirt bottle! Perhaps when we have more snow, I’ll gather some up in a bucket for some indoor fun…some very supervised and towel-laid indoor fun. :)

Orange with Lunch

Quite impromptu, I decided to emphasize the color orange in Honey Pot's lunch today. I gave her an orange plate, and served oranges and Cheetos with her sandwich. Had I planned this in advance, I may have given her grilled cheese (with orange cheese) or colored her bread orange, as I have seen on Pinterest!

Fruit Loop Necklace

Honey Pot and I sat down at the table with a plate full of Fruit Loops. I asked her to pull out all of the orange ones for me. After I showed her one or two, she was able to help me. But she was very busy eating all of the ones that weren’t orange! Then I strung the orange Fruit Loops onto an orange thread, and tied it into a necklace for her. She thought it was a fun way to eat them! Note we also dressed in orange today!

Color: Purple

Theme of the Day: The Color Purple

Age: 21 months

Which is Purple?

I created these in Photoshop Elements as usual. I try to use a wide variety of pictures each week of things Honey Pot is familiar with. The images printed the purple a little darker than I would have liked, which may have made it harder to identify. But after showing her the first one, she did very well with the others. We returned to it a couple more times throughout the day - her idea, not mine! I'm so pleased that she enjoys these so much!

Color Walk

Honey Pot always asks for more after completing our "Which Is __?" activity. So on color days it segues nicely into our color walk. I've noticed that if I point to something purple and ask, "What color is this?" that she doesn't answer correctly. However if I have a group of items and say, "Which is purple?" she points to the right one every time. She's done this with other colors too.

Minnie Mouse helped point out the purple items too!

Harold and the Purple Crayon

A classic story! But unfortunately, we don't own the book...yet. I did come across this video version online though, created in 1959 and directed by David Piel. It was a cute little cartoon, and had Honey Pot giggling in certain spots. (Note: I do not own the rights to this video!)

Monochromatic Picture

After watching Harold and the Purple Crayon, Honey Pot created her own purple picture. I supplied her with a piece of paper, marker, colored pencil, crayon and glitter glue - all in purple. Then I let her create away! She had difficulty squeezing the glitter glue; but other than that, she really enjoyed each instrument. She enjoyed them so much actually, that she asked for more. She helped herself to more markers and colored pencils. The rest of the picture didn't stay monochromatic I'm afraid, LOL.

Water Beads

We finished our purple day with a sensory bin that I have been super excited to try, after seeing all the hoopla about it on Pinterest. The original blog I spotted it on is Play At Home Mom, where the blogger even experiments with them over a light table for an amazing effect. First, the teeny tiny beads need to hydrate in about 1.5-2 quarts of water for 4-6 hours. By the end of that time, they will have absorbed much of the water and become much bigger in size.

I wasn't sure how messy these would be, so I set a towel out beneath it and put Honey Pot's smock on her. She marched on the towel while I drained the excess water from the beads and brought them over. (Note we also dressed in purple today!)

We identified the color of the beads, which she kept calling "grapes," and then she put her hand in it hesitantly. I urged her to dig in with both hands, and when she did, there was no turning back!

I described its properties to her: squishy, slippery, wet. Sometimes they would bounce out of the bin, which made her laugh. I may or may not have lost a bead or two down the heater vent...like I said, they are slippery little things!

Then she touched one to her foot and added another property: "brr cold!"

I brought over a spoon and bowl from her play kitchen, so she could practice scooping and dumping if she wished. She did. She liked pretending to eat her "grapes."

I had heard that standing in these beads is a must. But before I was able to help her into them, she dipped her foot in on her own!

What she liked the very most was standing up in the bin, and squishing her feet into the beads. I must admit, they feel pretty awesome. I definitely look forward to doing this activity again.

I mean, doesn't this look relaxing? I wouldn't mind doing this myself...

Color: Green

Theme of the Day: The Color Green

Age: 21 months

Which is Green? - Picture

This is the usual start to our theme of the day. I created the sets of images in Photoshop Elements. Today we did one of the colors that I wasn't sure that she knew. But she surprised me and correctly identified all of the green pictures without me first showing her what the color looks like. Then, as usual with this game, she asked for more!

Which Is Green? - Toys

We didn't do an official Color Walk today, but something very similar. We started by sifting through the food bin that goes with her play kitchen, looking for green foods. She pulled out a couple by herself; and with my help, we found all of the green foods that we could.

Then throughout the morning, as we played in her room and came across colorful toys, I asked her, "Which of these is green?" She answered correctly every time! Here are the groups I was able to snap pictures of:

"Now look at this! What do you see? Spots as..." I read.

"GREEN!" she shouted.

"...as green could be!"

Pom Pom Sorting

We did this activity last week as well. She enjoyed it so much that I had to return to it with her new pair of plastic tongs. She was so good at handling the tongs, and loved them! ($1 for a pack of 4 at the Dollar store!) This time the activity required very little explanation. She sorted the yellow, green and blue pom poms perfectly! I am so proud of my little sweet pea!

Mess-Free Finger-Painting

Ah, thank you, Pinterest, for leading me to this fun craft! We haven't had any major messes...yet...but it was so nice to have the paint contained in a bag. And it provided a whole different level of fun than regular finger-painting. I squeezed a small bit of yellow and blue paint into a Ziploc, sealed it up, and taped it to the table. Then Honey Pot began squishing her fingers into it!

She said she was drawing an "A"...but the one you see here is mine. Her's was just a squiggle...

Then Honey Pot moved the paint around with her fingers, eventually mixing it together to make our color of the day: green!

Of course the piggy and the big bad wolf (who are actually great friends, regardless of what you've read in the story) had to spin in circles on the paint. "Whooooa, I dizzyyyy. Ow."

And then she drove her truck around on it too!

Green Gumball Punch Art

This was a fun craft to end the day! The idea and free printable came from here. I used a paper punch to cut out green circle "gumballs" for Honey Pot to glue onto the gumball machine. She correctly identified the color of the circles, and picked up the glue. I'm pretty sure she has never seen a gumball machine, but she got the hang of this really fast. I didn't have to place a single one for her; and for the most part, she kept the glue exactly where she was supposed to.

Green Bath

I have no photos of this, but we dropped one blue and two yellow fizzy tablets into Honey Pot's bath tonight for a bright green bath! She loves these!