Learning my Colors Activities

 There are so many simple ways to teach kids their colors and they are naturally drawn to learning about them, so this makes for a simple skill to work on with young toddlers.  I am constantly naming colors in our daily activities for Lucy and I recall doing this with Lena too.  But, after a while, it gets monotonous and I start to wonder if I am tuned out!  So, I found a few very simple activities to get Lucy some practice; Lena loves these too, even though she already knows her colors.  All of these activities have secondary skills, too...a big bonus for Lena.

Color Pipes 
a simple homemade toy that works on colors & fine motor skills

The Simple Steps

1. Collect various color pipe cleaners & coordinating markers, an old oatmeal container (or something similar), a hole punch, and reinforcements. 
2. Punch holes in lid of oatmeal container.
3. Color reinforcement and put on lid.

Link to Color Pipes Activity 

 Our Homemade Color Pipes Toy

I had different shades of green, blue and purple pipe cleaners and I included them all to increase the difficulty for Lena.

Rainbow Painting 

easy prep, great results, worked great as a dual activity for my 18 month old and my three year old.  It was nice to have one activity for both girls with no adaptations.

The Simple Steps

1. Prep - Using markers, color a rainbow on a paper towel 
2. Provide a water dish and paintbrush and let your child paint to her heart's content
3. Enjoy the magic of watching the markers bleed

note:  this seems like it wouldn't be too messy because there are no real paints, BUT the markers do stain hand and I put down our craft tablecloth (thank goodness because the paper towel gets soaked and the marker bleeds on the other side too)  But, this was worth the minimal effort, my girls enjoyed this and "painted" for about 10 minutes

Link to Paper Towel Rainbow Paintings 

You can get a good idea of what the paper towel looked like BEFORE the "painting" commences

Before...I did this one slightly different than the one above...they both turned out well

Lucy and Lena painting rainbows together

A good look at the results and a smile that shows the joy of seeing a rainbow!

Serious Work!

Color Puzzles

I have a puzzle set with  color and texture matching that the girls love, we do this a lot.  I no longer have the box, so I just did a quick search on amazon.  Here it is: Puzzle on Amazon

the girls working together

searching for the right piece

telling mommy the colors




Color Board and Pins
another homemade goodie for color fun and a fine motor skill   

Get Creative - Watercolor Painting


super simple and a great skill to develop

We use kids' cups with lids from restaurants to minimize spillage...Bonus - a fine motor skill to get the paintbrush in the cup!



Color Coded


Lena absolutely loves to color these pages from 1+1+1=1.  They can be  utilized in conjunction with a letter of the week program for tots.  They are simply a repeated picture with a color word (printed in color or highlighted by Mom before beginning) on each picture - a tot-friendly version of a color by number.

Lena works diligently whenever she receives one of these pages...the simple stuff!



Color Sorting Cups
Get out a set of colored cups, I use my egg dying cups and gather some colored items, like erasers, plastic ice cubes, pink pirate coins, etc.  I just keep this set together with our tot tray items for easy set-up & clean-up.  The Dollar Store is great place to pick up cheap manipulatives for hands-on fun.

super simple and a great skill to develop





Egg Carton Colors


super simple, just get out your leftover plastic eggs and color the bottom of an egg carton

Model how to match the eggs to the colors and let the kiddos enjoy...but don't be surprised if they start opening every empty egg to check for treats inside

Lent & Easter Activities

 Alms Giving Activity 

This Lent activity calls for some mommy crafting of the "poster" and box but Lena and she woke up from her afternoon nap while I was finishing it up, so she was really very interested and excite about getting a chance to touch the box and the pennies...but she was most eager to help me with the glitter letters.  The timing worked out well because I was able to chat with her about the meaning of ALMS GIVING...no easy concept for a healthy three year old in a sheltered, comfortable home.   I choose the charity St. Baldrick's and explained that the pennies were for other children, that sometimes kids get really sick, not just a cough and runny nose and that by putting a penny a day in our "lent box" we would be helping the kids.  We also talked about Jesus and that helping others is one of the ways He has taught us to live.  We do this each day after our daily calendar & weather routine and we always revisit why we are putting the pennies in the box...for Jesus and the kids - sometimes we leave it at that and other days Lena delves into more details and questions...after all, her word of the month is "WHY?"
   Link to St. Baldrick's - Kristen's Krusade

Princess Math - Sure to Score!

I found a great counting and matching activity here:  Matching Activity at Fun & Engaging Toddler Activities.  Since I have two little princesses, I easily switched this up so it would peak Lena's interest and hopefully hold it longer.  The counting component will be great for Lena to work on her one to one correspondence while the matching set will be simple for her, it will be perfect for Lucy to begin this concept.  I plan to use it not only individually with the girls but also as a collaborative activity for them to complete together (with me...the referee!).



Here is the Princess & Fairy PDF file with all of the parts you will need.  I am printing on cardstock and laminating to make it last longer, but plain paper will do, also.


Note:  the file for the first set of numbers (1-5) can be found here:  1-5 pdf


So, we just tried this yesterday and Lena was very excited about Princess Math...even though she had no idea what Math is!  So, she did the matching with ease and then we worked together to do the counting so I could help her with the one to one correspondence.  After I modeled the process for her, she did numbers 1-5 on her own (I let her pick which princess to use for each number since each has a set of 10).  She started on the second folder but lost interest in counting so we will try it again another time.  All in all, it was a success and I think she will like it again in the future especially since it allows for some freedom of choice with which princess to use.

the finished product

Matching the fairies

Working on one to one correspondence

Lena worked from right to left when completing #4, making me more aware that we need to do some left to right progression activities

the Shapes Directory

Shape Viewers - think shapes on a stick, getting ready to assemble for Lucy!

Shape Tracers
Lena completed this with minimal help.  She already knows her shapes so this activity was more practice tracing than shape work.  We use white board crayons on lots of laminated things...she loves to choose the color and we are working on the correct grip...BE A PENCIL PINCHER!

the Number Directory

                                                                Do-A-Dot Counting Cards

I finally broke down and ordered the EXPENSIVE do-a-dot markers; I have seen numerous activities using these markers so I am hoping both Lena & Lucy will get a lot of use out of them!  I have two new activities for Lena this week using these markers, one of them is the counting strips shown in the link above.  I am modifying this activity slightly to allow Lena to make her own flashcard set using card stock.










Number Cards and One to One Counting with PomPoms

Lena loved doing this activity, she needs help because she gets frustrated about the pom poms not staying put.  I have toyed with the idea of put velcro dots on the cards and the pom poms but I only have tan, which will cover the colors on the cards.   I also printed the blank cards and she can use the do-a-dot markers on these (laminated first so we can reuse over and over).

the Color Directory

Color Matching from 1+1+1=1 

Printable color puzzle with color words and lots of vocabulary to chat about!

 

Color Matching Easter Style

Going to make this for Lucy, but I know Lena will love it too!

Kids' Personal Care & Cosmetic Pantry

Ever since Lena was a few weeks old, I started researching the products we used daily, like soap, baby wipes, diapers, lotions, sunscreens and even the cosmetics my husband and I were using.  I was absolutely floored by the amount of chemicals that are hormone disruptors and carcinogens in not only  everyday toiletry items and cosmetics but also baby products.  I was angry that the general public is mostly unaware and thus began my slightly crunchy approach to life!  I have since found Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Website (here's the link:  Skin Deep).  It is a guide to cosmetics and personal care items that details every ingredient, what it is and its toxicity level.  I have found it transformed my shopping - it is difficult to sort through products and find reasonably priced alternatives, so I do the best I can and try to purchase a lot of products online in bulk to get the best deal.

Link to Skin Deep's Printable Shopper's Guide to Cosmetics 

(similar to their Produce Guide, which I will post a link to later when I blog on food...my favorite:)

Hand Sanitizer

I will eventually update this with a list of products that we use, but for now, the jump start for this post is a homemade hand sanitizer that my sister-in-law Christine, a crunchy convert, made for my girls.  Lena & Lucy both suck on their fingers so I struggled with locating a great on the go hand cleaning method when soap and water were not at our immediate disposal.  All of the mainstream brands of wipes and sanitizers have alcohol in them, so they are not an option for us.  Here is the link shared by Christine to make your own hand sanitizer:  

How to Make Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Fine Motor Skills Activities

Using Scissors / Cutting

Kumon Workbooks - Lena loves these simple cutting pages mostly because it's fun to cut things, but she does like the pictures and the little gadgets they make when completed.  She is currently using training scissors (the kind with the little tab that push the scissor back to the open position).

If you don't have any of these workbooks (my sister-in-law gave these to me) you can certainly make these sheets yourself.  Below are some links of home made cutting worksheets.

Scissor Worksheet & Toddler Made Puzzle 
Cutting Skills Printables 
Printable Scissor Skills

Another Option:  Cutting Paint Strips - Grab some sample paint strips from your local hardware store and allow you child to practice cutting on the lines!

She needed a lot of help with this one, it is still difficult for her to turn the paper to stay on the lines.

 

Lacing Beads

a gift from my sister-in-law for Lena at Christmas, she and Lucy love these.  They like to lace them, stack them or we even do patterns with them on occasion.

Spring Science Activities

Bird Feeder

This Christmas, my husband picked up a plain wooden bird feeder from Michaels that Lena and I painted together and then we put it aside...until Spring.  I set it on the counter last night to peek her interest when she came down for breakfast this morning...voila!  We chatted about it through our morning routine as we waited for the temperature to climb from low 40's into the 50's then we went out on the deck, wild bird seed in hand, to fill the bird feeder and hang it up.  On the bag, it listed the types of birds the seed would attract, so I read the list to Lena and I have plans to print off picture cards and laminate them so Lena can identify the birds we see at the feeder.

Serious Painting

We loved working together...Thanks Daddy!

All Finished...and Showing it Off!

Exploring what this bird seed is all about

Pouring it in all by herself!

Very happy & proud of the finished product...now let's see some birdies!

 Indoor Grass Farm

Link to 1-100th Acre Farm 

Luckily, we just reseeded our yard this weekend.  So, I reserved a small cup of seed for myself and one for my friend who found this activity. (Thanks, Shelly!)  So, I have all of the materials on the ready, we'll be trying this sometime in the next week or so...I'll be sure to post a timeline of pictures to show how it works out!

Step One:  Playing with the drainage stones

Step Two/Three:  Spreading the topsoil & seed

Step four:  Water!