Rainbow Craft for St. Patrick's Day

During St. Patrick’s Day on March 17^th  legends arise about tiny shoemakers living in the forest called Leprechauns. These mysterious little men are supposed to be rich and hide their gold in black pots found at the end of the rainbow. It is supposed to be good luck when you see a rainbow, so involve your child in making one that not only is a St. Patrick’s Day craft, but one that teaches about the colors of the rainbow. Teach your little learner the name “Roy G. Biv” (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) and he will never forget the order of colors in a rainbow.

Materials:

• Sky blue card stock or construction paper
• Tempera poster paints (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet)
• Black construction paper
• Shiny pennies
• Pencil
• Heavy-duty glue
• Safety scissors
• Paper plate

Directions:

Step 1 – Prepare your work area covering the table and floor with newspaper. This craft involves finger printing with paint and can get messy. You may even want your child to wear a paint smock to protect her clothing.

Step 2 – Place a dollop of paint (one of each color) onto a paper plate to look like an artist’s pallet.

Step 3 – Draw an arch on the sky blue paper large enough for a rainbow that covers two-thirds of the page.

Step 4 – Invite your child to use his pointer finger or thumb to do the printing. First, dip into the red paint and make fingerprints along the lines of the arch. Wash that finger with soap and water and then proceed with the next color that is orange. Continue this procedure one row after the other with yellow, green, blue, and violet paint until the rainbow is completed.

Step 5 – While the paint is drying, cut out a pot shape from black construction paper. Parents may need to draw the pot and the child can cut this out using safety scissors.

Step 6 – Glue the pot shape on the sky blue paper at the foot of the rainbow.

Step 7 – Search for shiny pennies and glue a few on the black pot. You will need to use very heavy-duty glue or a low-temperature glue gun to adhere the pennies.

During this craft session talk with your child about how and why rainbows appear in the sky adding a little science to this art project. A rainbow is a circular arc of colors that appears up in the sky when raindrops are illuminated by the sun.

Then tell the fictional, but symbolic story about the leprechauns and their gold. Storybooks are helpful with this task. Legend says if a leprechaun likes you, he will share this gold and other stories say you must catch the leprechaun for him to lead you to his fortune. ‘Tis the luck of the Irish – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Until next time,

Tania

Photo courtesy of Tania Cowling, all rights reserved
Permission needed to reprint this blog

The Color Yellow

Am I too late? Well, we still have those last few days of summer. There's time to enjoy some of the symbols of summer with these "yellow" activities.

Enjoy and Happy Parenting,
Tania :)

Yellow is a color synonymous of summer. It reminds many of the big, bright sun shining above, giving warmth and sending children outside to play. Yellow is the color of sunflowers so vivid and lemonade so yummy. Explore the color yellow as your children participate in these (late) summer activities.

Mr. Sun

Cut sun shapes from yellow construction paper and hide them around a room or outdoors in the yard. Have the children go on a "sun search" to find as many sun shapes as they can. Continue to search until all the suns have been found.

After the search, set up a table with crayons, markers, sequins, faux jewels or anything that shines and dazzles. The children can decorate; gluing these materials to the sun shapes they found.

Loads of Lemons

Printing-

Cut lemons in half. Place a few folded paper towels in a shallow pan to make a pad. Pour yellow tempera paint on top. Add a few drops of lemon extract (found in the spice section of your local grocery store). Have the children dip the lemon into the paint and press down onto a sheet of paper to make prints. A dark sheet of construction paper would be a great contrast to the bright yellow prints. Smell the lemon scent!!

Make Lemonade-

Exercise the hands as you and your children squeeze lemons together. The reward is a thirst quenching drink that's sure to please any child on a hot summer day!

You'll need:

1 part fresh lemon juice

1 part sugar

5 parts water

Serving pitcher

Ice

What to do:

Show children how to squeeze lemons. Encourage them to try on their own.

Take a taste of this juice; is it sweet or sour?

Invite children to mix all the ingredients in a pitcher and stir well.

Pour the drink into cups of ice.

Questions to ask about this experience: "What color is lemonade? What fruit gives us the juice? How does lemonade taste? Sweet? Sour? Are there other fruits we could squeeze to get their juice?"

Make Sunflowers

Have each child paint a small paper plate yellow (mix a small amount of white school glue in the paint). Lay pieces of yellow tissue paper in the wet paint (to give it a petal appearance). When this process is dried, give the children sunflower seeds to glue in the center of the plate. Staple two giant green construction paper leaves at the bottom. These flowers make great summer decorations!

Teaching colors does not have to be about worksheets and printed pages. Since play is a child's learning tool, use fun activities and projects to embed these skills into a child's mind for life.

Photo courtesy of morgue file 

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

Y is for Yellow Activities

Yellow is a color synonymous of the upcoming summer. It reminds many of the big, bright sun shining above, giving warmth and sending children outside to play. Yellow is the color of sunflowers so vivid and lemonade so yummy. Explore the color yellow as your group participates in these summer activities.

Mr. Sun

Cut sun shapes from yellow construction paper and hide them around a room or outdoors in the yard. Have the children go on a "sun search" to find as many sun shapes as they can. Continue to search until all the suns have been found.

After the search, set up a table with crayons, markers, sequins, faux jewels or anything that shines and dazzles. The children can decorate; gluing these materials to the sun shapes they found.

Make Sunflowers

Have each child paint a small paper plate yellow (mix a small amount of white school glue in the paint). Lay pieces of yellow tissue paper in the wet paint (to give it a petal appearance). When this process is dried, give the children sunflower seeds to glue in the center of the plate. Staple two giant green construction paper leaves at the bottom. These flowers make great summer decorations for your room or to take home!

Play Games with Children that Involve Colors

Use a yellow beach ball or other large ball. Players form a line, all facing the leader. The leader calls the name of a player and tosses, rolls, or bounces the ball to the named person. The player catches the ball and returns it to the leader in the same manner.

Teaching colors does not have to be about worksheets and printed pages. Since play is a child's learning tool, use fun activities and projects to embed these skills into a child's mind for life.

Wow, just one more letter. See you tomorrow with the letter Z.

Tania