The Lesson Planning Mommy – Color My World

July 16, 2012

Red, orange, yellow, green, and blue – don’t forget the purple too!
Rainbow colors for me and you!

This week is filled with fun and yummy activities all about colors!  Learn an easy way to explain primary and secondary colors to your kids, with the help of the book, Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll-Walsh, vanilla pudding, and food coloring!
Monday:

What We’re Reading

Planting a Rainbow

Lois Ehlert (Author)

 

 

Activity: Rainbow Rice Sensory Garden

http://shareandremember.blogspot.com/2011/06/rainbow-rice-garden-sensory-play.html

Being a teacher, I have colored lots of rice and pasta in my day.  This is by far the easiest recipe I have found for creating this kind of sensory garden.

What you Need:

  • Dry Rice
  • Liquid food coloring
  • Rubbing alcohol
  • Gallon Size Ziploc Bags
  • Cookie Sheets
  • Large bin
  • Fake flowers
  • Garden tools
  • Sand buckets
  • Sand toys

Directions:

  1. Measure rice (4 cups) and put it in a gallon size Ziploc bag
  2. Add 2T of food coloring and 3T of rubbing alcohol
  3. Mix together in the bag – GREAT activity for the kids!
  4. Spread the rice out on a cookie sheet to dry

 

Activity/Snack: Fruit Loop Necklaces & Bracelets

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/fruit-loops-activity

This activity is awesome because it’s not only a snack, but also an activity that helps your little ones with their fine motor skills through sorting!

What You Need:

  • Fruit Loops cereal
  • Bowls
  • String, ribbon or yarn
  • Muffin Tin for each kiddo

Directions:

  1. Put the some cereal in a bowl
  2. Ask your kiddos to “sort” the fruit loops into different colors in cups of the muffin tin
  3. Ask a few compare and contrast questions while they are sorting
    1. Who can find the smallest Fruit Loop?
    2. Who can find a broken green Fruit Loop?
    3. Are there more purple or blue fruit loops?
    4. Which muffin tin has the most?  Which has the least?
    5. Make some patterns and have your child predict what color will come next: 2 purple, 2 green, 2_____
    6. Invite them to make their own patterns.

 

Tuesday:

Activity: Make A Circle Rainbow

This is a very simple, but bright and cheery activity!  It’s a good one to help reinforce colors as well as to gain practice with using scissors.

What You Need:

  • Scissors
  • Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple construction paper
  • Glue stick
  • Print out of circle rainbow template (below)

Directions:

  1. Print out circle rainbow.
  2. Starting with red, trace the circle template onto red construction paper and cut out
  3. Cut the orange line on the rainbow template
  4. Trace the orange rainbow template onto orange construction paper
  5. Glue the orange circle onto the red circle
  6. Follow steps 1-3 for all six colors

 

Wednesday

What We’re Reading

Mouse Paint

Ellen Stoll Walsh (Author)

 

 

 

Activity/Snack: Painting with pudding!

I LOVE this activity and so do my kids!  It’s an easy way to explain primary and secondary colors, using vanilla pudding, food coloring, and Ellen Stoll-Walsh’s book, Mouse Paint.

Directions:

  1. Mix red, blue, and yellow food coloring into vanilla pudding
  2. Place a glob of each on a plate with a spoon
  3. Talk with your kiddos about “primary” colors
  4. Invite them to make their own “secondary” colors
    1. Yellow & blue make green
    2. Red & yellow make orange
    3. Blue & red make purple

 

Activity: Beach Ball Games!

A great way to review colors with your little one while having fun, is to toss around a beach ball, while naming the colors that your child’s hand touches.  This is a great game for color recognition as well as hand-eye-coordination!  For older kids, grab a sharpie marker and write numbers and sight words on the ball!

 

Thursday:

What We’re Reading

Elmer

David McKee (Author, Illustrator)

 

 

Activity: Color Books

Making your very own color book is so much fun!  These are so easy to make and your kids will be so proud of them when they are finished.

What You Need:

  • 4 pieces of white computer paper
  • Crayons or markers
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Ribbon or yarn
  • Stickers, scraps of paper, scrap ribbon, newspaper, magazines

Directions:

  1. Fold all four pieces of white paper in half and cut apart
  2. Use the hole punch to make two holes at the top each page
  3. Use ribbon or yarn to tie the tops of pages together
  4. Ask your children to decorate the cover of their color book
  5. Invite your children to rummage through stickers, scrapes of paper, ribbon, newspapers, and magazines to make a page for each color

 

Friday:

Activity: Bath Tub Paint!

Want to make bath time even more fun?  Make your own bath paint!  You can paint the walls and even yourself!  This is a great opportunity to work on fine motor skills, shapes, colors, numbers and letters with your kiddo.  You could even work together to tell or retell a story with pictures.  All you need are a few household items.

What You Need:

  • 1 muffin tin
  • Shaving cream
  • Food coloring
  • Paint brushes
  • Your imagination!

Directions:

  1. Mix the shaving cream and food coloring together
  2. Pour into the muffin tins
  3. Grab a paintbrush and let your imagination run wild