Colors Review

Honey Pot is 2 years and 2 months old

Little M&M is 4 months old

Note: We were a little pressed for time this week, and so I decided to postpone the theme I had in mind. Our local story time group just began themed readings, and this week’s theme was colors. So we made it our theme too! In addition to reading multiple books about colors, these are the activities we did.

Nature Color Hunt

We began with this wonderful scavenger hunt that I discovered from No Time For Flashcards. I created a chart with some colors that I knew she could find in our front yard, and stuck it onto her little clipboard.

Then I sent her out with the chart and a pencil, and she was ready to go!

She identified the first color as “geen” and began a search for it. She chose (with a wee bit of help) the grass. Instead of having her check off the box, I decided last minute to tell her to draw grass in the box beside the green. She seemed to enjoy this method.

Then she took off in search of another color. Unfortunately we don’t have any pretty and colorful flowers in our yard, so our colors were pretty limited. “Pink!” she shouts. Though I doubted it, I asked where she saw pink. Lo and behold, Honey Pot discovered the only pink weed in the yard!

So I told her to draw it at the bottom, and that I’d add it in later. We continued along in our hunt. We found: a gray rock, a blue sky and a yellow leaf.

Then it became time to search for our final color. We hadn’t yet covered brown individually, so I wasn’t sure if she knew this one. But I had faith in her that she could match it to the tree trunks or some dirt. But what does she stumble upon at the exact moment that she is in search of something brown? A DEER!

The timing was impeccable. I asked her what color the deer was, and she said, “It’s brown!” So this hunt was a tremendous success! Here is the final chart, with her pencil drawings.

Spaghetti Sensory Bin

This idea is all over Pinterest. Honey Pot has so been enjoying her sensory bins recently that I just had to give it a try. I boiled 2 pounds of spaghetti noodles in four different pots, and added food coloring to each one. You wouldn’t guess it by looking, but I did red, purple, yellow and blue. I like the way they came out anyway though. First she added some water to moisten them up a bit, as they had to sit awhile to cool.

Then she identified the colors.

And then she dug in!

She enjoyed scooping and sliding her arms into the slippery noodles.

And then she asked to put her feet in it which, as I’ve said before, indicates a super successful sensory experience in my opinion!

Then we had a short lesson on sharing, as Little M&M took his turn in the bin.

He wasn’t really fazed by it.

Then it was Honey Pot’s turn again. She. Had. A. Blast.

We pulled it out again the following afternoon for more fun!

Colors File Folder Game

I had been meaning to put some of these together for Honey Pot for a while. Then I stumbled upon File Folder Fun, a site with so many wonderful (and free!) printables. So I chose the ice cream colors. Yes, ice cream is a symbol of summer, but here’s a fun fact: July is National Ice Cream month! I didn’t bother with the laminating because I wasn’t sure how successful it would be.

I was so pleasantly surprised, when not only did she understand it and participate well, but also, she actually enjoyed it!

She matched the ice cream cones quite well, and took special care to line them up better at the end when she had finished!

It was a great colors review! We have some exciting themes in the works, so be sure to come visit us again soon! We'll be exploring the five senses, and later, pirates!

Letter: I

The Letter I

Honey Pot is 2 years and 2 months old

Leap Frog Fridge Phonics

We started our letter of the week as we always do – by listening to Scout’s little jingle about the letter I and how it sounds. Throughout the week while standing beside the fridge, I’d often ask her to find the letter I amidst a group of letters. She does extremely well with it this way! But if I show her a letter ‘I’ and ask her to tell me what letter it is, she says ‘T’. So I feel as though she knows the letter, but cannot vocalize it quite yet. It’s all about how you ask it!

My “i” Book

Last week as I was at the library picking up my cloud-themed books, I came across a series of alphabet books. I decided to borrow this one to see how they were. We left it out in the living room and read it a few times throughout the week.

It certainly wasn’t a favorite, but it was nice because it allowed us to hear words beginning with ‘I’ over and over, such as this page:

Placing Stickers

I bought these stickers for Honey Pot during her potty training weekend. It was a huge set of over 1000 of them, so I knew I’d have a lot of extra for tot school stuff. When I saw her layering them on top of one another on her potty train, I decided we’d try some fine motor skills. This printable came from Homeschool Creations, and is meant for those Do-A-Dot markers (which we also love). I shrunk it down a bit in Photoshop Elements so that it’d be better suited for her stickers. We discussed what the pictures were, and the letter I.

Then she started placing them into the circles.

I like to let Honey Pot take each “lesson” where she pleases, to make it more fun than work, so I knew the stickers would stray from the circles. What I didn’t know is that she’d make little eyes on the inchworm!

And here is the final product.

Play Dough Fun

Usually for our letter themes we use our alphabet cookie cutters. But this week I wanted to try something new. I keep seeing play dough mats on Pinterest, and wanted to give one a try. So I printed out this cute one from Homeschool Creations.

Yes, I know they are meant to be laminated…and I had every intention of doing so. But after I had already planned out the week, I decided that I’d like to eventually make my own play dough mats. Not wanting to waste the laminating pockets on a page so temporary, I just let Honey Pot use it as is.

First, I made a new batch of homemade play dough. (So in love with this recipe right now.)

 

Then we squished some play dough onto the letters.

 

And I showed her how to roll the play dough into worms, and we placed them over the inchworm.

Here’s the final product! Cannot wait to make up some of my own play dough mats for more fun (and easier laminated clean-up!) in the future!

 

Ice Painting

I found this idea on Pinterest multiple times, originally from Share and Remember. They use liquid watercolors, and I’ve seen it done with food coloring as well. But I used good ol’ paint! I put a squirt of each color into an ice cube tray and filled each section with water. Then, halfway through freezing them, I stuck in a wooden craft spoon. Meanwhile, on a heavy sheet of paper that ice wouldn’t melt through, I drew a big letter ‘I’. Then I set Honey Pot out on the deck with them. She had a lot of fun “painting” with the ice cubes!

Note Little M&M hung out with me while his sister did some ice painting!

And a last minute wardrobe change...she needed her smock - it was a bit messy!

And of course it was very important to move the ice cubes from one section of the tray to another…over and over again.

 

As she explored the cold, melting cubes, her hands became covered in paint. So she decided to use her hands too!

Two at once!

Here is the result:

When she had finished her letter I artwork, I grabbed a bin of water and let her swirl the remaining ice cubes in it. She watched the water change color and the ice cubes melt. And she played with this for a good twenty minutes, I’d say!

Then we came inside for a beverage on this hot, hot day. What did we have? Well, ice water, of course! Actually, it was her idea, not mine!