Sunday, July 31, 2016

Colors All Around Us


Dear Friends,

As we prepare our preschoolers for "Back to School" let's review colors this week. There are colors all around us and using these activities will teach our children to recognize and appreciate the beautiful hues we have close by. Check out these projects and if you enjoy them, please share this page with a friend.

Until next week,
Happy Parenting :)


Colors make our world beautiful in many ways, through nature, food, clothing, crayons—the list is endless. It’s important to emphasize colors in our daily lives as they stimulate a child’s imagination and delight their sense of sight.

There are plenty of activities designed to help children become aware of the many colors that surround them. Here are a few ways to teach colors to children:

  • Use the seasons to help teach your child about colors—green in spring, white in winter, orange in fall, blue in summer and so on. Make drawings emphasizing the colors of each season.

  • The use of toy blocks, cards, paints, and crayons can help your child develop color skills and learn to name them.

  • Talk a walk outdoors (or even in the house) and look for a particular color. Say blue for example, and then ask if a toy is blue, or is the car parked out front blue?

  • Choose a day of the week and make it “color day”. Make projects, wear clothing, cook foods and read books about that color.

  • Hot glue crayons to a strip of tag board. Then provide a second set of crayons and invite the children to match the colors.  
                                                             
  • Read a good book involving colors. Some favorites are:

          The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle
          Colors (Slide ‘n Seek) by Chuck Murphy
          Colors (Children’s Collection Board Books) by Anne Geddes

Color Match
Pick up free paint chip cards from your local paint store. Choose cards in shades of red, yellow and blue. At home, cut each rectangular chip apart. Spread these across the table and have the children match each hue.

Paint and Sniff
When painting a picture with poster paints, add a few drops of baking extracts to give these paints a flavor (scent). Painting with scents is a fun and sensory experience for children!
Strawberry Extract = Red
Lemon Extract = Yellow
Peppermint Extract = Green
Orange Extract = Orange
Chocolate Extract = Brown
Anise (Licorice) Extract = Black

Color Wands
Dance to the beat of music waving colorful streamers in the air. Use toilet or paper towel tubes for the wands. The children can paint the cardboard tubes and then enhance them with crayons, markers or stickers. Next, attach crepe paper streamers to the wand with a stapler. For a variation, add ribbons and/or colorful strips of cloth.

Color Hokey-Pokey
Have colored circle stickers in four colors. These are easily found in office or craft stores. Every child gets a sticker on each hand and each foot (having one of each color on each body part). Play Color Hokey-Pokey by singing, “Put your blue dot in, put your blue dot out, put your blue dot in and shake it all about. You do the Color Pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about. BLUE!” Continue playing with the other colors.

NOTE: This article has been published in several regional parenting magazines across the country, including Parent Guide News and Metro Parent (SE Michigan).
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons   
Crayon photo by Tania Cowling, all rights reserved

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