Thursday, December 13, 2007

MORE Ways to Explore Colors Together

Let's talk Colors!
So many of you responded to my recent post about ways to play with color, I thought I would share a couple more ideas with you!
Often children are drawn to colorful toys and activities and then when we ask them to tell the names of the colors, they hesitate and sometimes will say something they recall about colors; for example, "An apple is red." or "Grass is green." they will make these statements with pride over remembering a factual piece of info. Of course apples are not always red, nor is the grass always green..but that's a conversation for another day. To help young children learn the names of the colors they love, here are a few more color recognition games you can make and use in addition to Montessori's color tabs.

Sort it OUT!
Do you have a color die? Great fun can come from adding one of these to your classroom or home. The possibilities are endless! The Color Sort Game is tons of fun for small groups and Circle time too. Gather many small items that a one color enough for each of the colors on the color die, then roll!
The way to play:
The children take turns rolling the color die and collect from the basket the many different items the color they role, until the basket is empty. Everybody wins! This is a fun way to evaluate the students' color recognition skills and learn about the things that interest them as individuals. For example: From the items that are white, did they choose the ghost, the baseball or the bottle of milk? Also this game can be played by many or few, very young to school-age, and if you update the items regularly, it will be chosen again and again.
As you can see many different conversation opportunities can arise from this easy and fun color game. Make one today. [If you do not have a color die, make one or for added fun place crayons the color of the items you have collected in a cloth bag, when a child takes a turn the reach into the bag and pull out a crayon and match the object to the crayon color. Have fun!
Eat Your Colors!
Prepare a colorful snack with your children. Let them pick out healthy foods that are the colors they know: EX: Red:cherry tomatoes Orange: Orange slices, Yellow: bananas, Green: grapes, Blue: Blueberries.
Color Collections:
Take a nature walk and collect items of various colors (remember to take only things that have fallen) Add to the nature collection items such as buttons, bits of paper, bolts, yarn. Ask your children to build a rainbow with the items and display them in a shoe box or use in a sculpture.
Choose a Color for a Day:
Let your children choose a color for the day, pull a crayon from a bag or roll the color die. Focus on that particular color for the day. Let's say it's RED.
Make red playdough, finger paint with red paint, place lots of red clothes in your dress-up area, read the story “Little Red Riding Hood” or the “Little Red Hen”, make red paper chains, make a "Red Collage" materials could include such items as; red pictures cut from magazines, red buttons, red ribbon pieces, red flower petals, red tissue paper squares, red paper hearts, red straw pieces, red poms, etc. (you get the idea)

Most of all enjoy one another.
PEACE~~MM

4 comments:

Marianne said...

I just discovered your blog and it's great! Thanks for the inspiration!

plaidshoes said...

Where do you get a color die? What a fun way to work on colors. I have noticed with my 3 y/o (in the classroom) he really enjoys any color matching work - especially if he gets to find colors throughout the room!

mb said...

you make it all seem so easy...and doable. i love your ideas and i want you to know i use them with my kiddies...

much peace
mb

Jennifer Howard said...

Dear MB,
Thanks for your comment! You made my day. It is my hope my ideas are doable and that you do them with your children, thank you so much for saying so. Making it look Easy..is easy I guess. But we all know as parents, it's not.
Take care
~~MM

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