colors

Rainbow Outdoor Games for Preschool

2013

My kids love to get outdoors and play. Since my 3 year old has been rainbow obsessed this week and we decided to add some rainbow-ness into some of our traditional outdoor games and came up with three fun ways to play.

Rainbow Outdoor Games for Preschoolers from Coffee Cups and Crayons

Rainbow May I?

My older kids are so happy that my 3 year old can finally really play Mother May I? with them! We had painted a bunch of rainbow plates and used one of them to make a rainbow hat for Rainbow May I?!!!

I drew two rainbow lines on our sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. One of the kids stood put the rainbow hat on and stood at the purple end. The other two each started at the beginning of the rainbow lines and took turns asking Rainbow May I? They did the traditional, May I take 3 leaps, 4 twirls, etc. and added in some color fun with requests like, May I run to yellow?

We added in some learning by naming the color that they landed on, talking about what sound the color started with, and predicting which color they would land on.

Rainbow Races and Other Games to Play Outside with Preschoolers

Rainbow Races

After playing Rainbow May I? for awhile they decided they wanted to race! They raced from one end of the rainbow line to the other and back again. And again. And again. I joined in after this picture and we had a blast thinking of different ways we could race across the rainbow. Let’s just say they can definitely beat me at race across the rainbow like a puppy!

Rainbow Tag and Other Outdoor Preschool Games

Rainbow Tag

We started off playing that whomever had the rainbow hat on was it, but the hat did not make it very long! One of the kids was the rainbow and tried to tag the others and turn them into rainbows too. After you were tagged you joined in with the other rainbows to help get the others.

Once almost everyone was a rainbow the last person became the leprechaun. We added in challenges for the leprechauns such as, you had to touch something red before you could tag anyone. It was silly and fun and a great way to get moving outside!

Some of the other rainbow activities we have been doing this week:

We made a rainbow banner by painting circles like Happy Hooligans did except we used small paper plates we had leftover and then just cut them in half once they were dry to make our banner!

We ate Rainbow Jell-O in a Jar!

We went on a Rainbow Toy Hunt and then my almost 5 year old practiced matching the toys to the correct color word card.

How have you had fun with colors and rainbows lately?

Filed Under: Learning Activities Tagged With: colors, kindergarten, outdoor games, preschool, preschool games, rainbow games, rainbows

Activities for Birds by Kevin Henkes

2012

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The author for this month’s Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids is Kevin Henkes!

(amazon affiliate link)

We read lots of Kevin Henkes books this month and especially enjoyed the book Birds, which is beautifully illustrated by Laura Dronzek. The book may be simple, but it packed full of fun learning opportunities. In the story Henkes talks about what birds look like, what they do and what they could do.

In the story Henkes talks about what birds look like, what they do and what they could do. He even hypothesizes what the sky would look like if clouds were birds. We love to look for and tell stories about things we find in the clouds so my kids were very interested in the cloud page illustrations. Then, of course, after we read the story we had to make our own bird clouds!

There are many ways that you can make cloud paint and our favorite is to mix together shaving cream, white paint and school glue.

There was a bit of a debate about what the best way to paint would be–fingers, brushes, Q tips, etc. After a bit of discussion they all decided that thin brushes were just what they needed!

Fun Kid Activity Alert: Cloud painting is such a relaxing activity and super fun to do outside on easels when the weather isn’t quite so hot!

The next Birds activity that we did was a color match memory game! My 2 year old is extremely proud that she knows her colors and loves to identify them. She was all over the beginning of the story where Henkes talked about all the different colors birds could be. To build upon her color knowledge my 6 year old and I created a bird memory game for everyone to play.

The game cards are just 8 pairs of different color birds my 6 year old drew on halves of index cards. We mixed them up, turned them over and took turns trying to remember where the colors where. It took a couple rounds before the 2 year old caught onto the idea–during the second round she warned her brother not to turn over that purple card under there because she was going to get the match on her turn. After he made the match himself she wisely learned to keep that info to herself!

The third Birds activity we did based on a page talking about what the sky would look like if birds made marks with their tail feathers when they flew.

This was a collaborative art project. Each kid got to “be” a different color bird and use a feather to paint that birds’ path on the paper. It was a lot of fun for them to work together and our colorful sky looks very cool hanging with all their cloud paintings.

There are so many more activities that could be done with the story! We will definitely be doing more with it. What fun things have you done with Birds?

We’re participating in the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids’ blog hop! Check out all of the awesome Kevin Henkes ideas below and then stop by Toddler Approved and many of the other sites for a Kevin Henkes giveaway!

Filed Under: Crafts, Learning Activities, Reading Tagged With: art, birds, clouds, colors, crafts, Kevin Henkes, kids crafts, kindergarten, paint, preschool, preschool art, reading activities, reading games, Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids

Colorlicious Color Game

2012

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This month’s challenge for The Little Book Adventure was to create a game based on a book. When I explained it to my 6 year old she immediately said, “Oh, let’s do a game for Pinkalicious!” They decided that they wanted to make a game where the players pretended to eat food and then turned the color of the food. So that’s what we did!

They collected food in different colors and we made a color die to roll to decide which food to eat. To make the die we duct taped two waffle box corners together to form a cube and then covered each side with a different color square of construction paper.

Then we designed game boards. They wanted people on it in each of the colors, but this was the best I could do in Word! If you want to use them too, just download the free COLORLICIOUS GAME BOARD PRINTABLE.

Then the big kids colored the faces and added googly eyes! This was also the point they decided to change the name from Coloricous to Colorlicious–I admit it’s catchier, but I didn’t want to waste the supplies so this one is still on their boards.

Then we were ready to play! We started by rereading the book. Then they took turns rolling the color die and eating the food. They used a goldfish to mark the corresponding color face on the game board.

They really put their acting skills to work while eating and loved pretending that they were turning different colors!

We kept playing until all of the faces were marked.

As you can see they had a blast playing! And each got to practice colors at their level. The two year old identified and matched the colors for us. The four year old identified each color word on a chart, and the six year old practiced spelling the words for us. Tons of fun for the whole family!

Linking up to:

Filed Under: Crafts, Learning Activities, Reading Tagged With: color game, colors, crafts, free printable, kids crafts, Pinkalicious, preschool, pretend play, reading activities, reading games, The Little Book Adventure

Egg Carton Computer and Jelly Bean Toss Game

2012

11 Comments

It’s time for another Tinkerlab Creative Challenge!

The item this month is an egg carton and we definitely have lots of those in our craft cupboard right now! Last Friday the big kids each got an egg carton to create something with.

The almost 4 year old got right to work cutting even though he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to make yet. After he had cut the cup section into 3 parts he announced he was going to make a game and would know what kind of a game it was going to be after he finished painting it.

The 6 year old turned her carton around in her hands a couple times and decided it would make a perfect play computer. She thought this would be especially good because we only have one pretend laptop and they usually need more than one computer when they’re playing. She cut the top off of the carton and flipped it over so that the the inside of the top could be the computer screen.

She painted the “keys” each a different color and traced and cut out paper to cover the writing on the top of the carton.

After the almost 4 year old had finished painting he decided the cartons were going to be “catchers” and that they needed handles. He cut and painted a paper towel roll to attach to the bottom to use to hold it.

I hot glued the rolls to the cartons for the game and the top onto the bottom of the carton to make the computer.

And here’s the finished game! Instead of catching a ball in the cups he wanted to try and catch jelly beans — and his little sister agreed that was a wonderful idea!

Other than making a computer for their pretend play the oldest didn’t have an exact plan for how they were going to use it until it was done. Since then they have used it in their “office” to work on their website, to practice “typing” colors, and as part of an I Spy game that all three of them understood the rules too even though I never did. Upcycled, simple to make, and full of pretend play opportunities – I love it!

So far neither of the little two have caught a jelly bean in their “catchers,” but they have had lots of fun (and eaten lots of jelly beans) trying!

To see what other bloggers and their kids have done with egg cartons check out:

Tinkerlab’s Creative Challenge: Egg Carton post

What have you created using an egg carton? We’ve still got some left.

Filed Under: Crafts, Learning Activities Tagged With: art, colors, crafts, egg carton computer, egg carton jelly bean toss game, egg crafts, kids crafts, kindergarten, preschool, pretend play, school age, Tinkerlab Creative Challenge

Make Shamrocks Prints with Peppers

2012

Rainbow Car Paintings

2012

16 Comments

What do you do with two kids who love cars and rainbows? Car painting, of course!

Our supplies:

Paint in individual containers (in our case old container lids)
Small cars that can be cleaned with soap and water
Paper in trays (cookie sheets)
A dish of water for the car wash
Paper towels

Then they drove their cars through the paint and then on their papers. In between colors the cars went through the “car wash” to rinse off. The cars don’t need to be completely clean to go in the next color as long as most of the globs are off.

It was so interesting to see how they made the rainbows with the cars since I didn’t provide any instructions. When we did the shaving cream painting with fingers and brushes my 2 year old did not make a rainbow shape at all and I had expected her to follow a similiar process today. With the cars she drove it in an arc each time – very interesting! The sensory experience this time was the tool instead of the paint.

They were so proud of their finished products! We left them in the sun to dry and then they used the rest of the paint to drive/paint on other paper I had taped to the patio.

Then they wash their cars! And lots of their other outside toys in the water table.

We always have lots of fun painting with cars. What toys do you like to paint with?

Linking up to:

Filed Under: Crafts, Learning Activities Tagged With: car painting, colors, crafts, kids crafts, kindergarten, paint, preschool, rainbows

Shaving Cream Rainbows

2012

5 Comments

To continue our fun with color we played with shaving cream paint! Not only is it fun on so many levels, it’s a perfect medium to use when exploring color mixing. The texture of the shaving cream allows kids to truly see how two primary colors become one.

To make shaving cream paint you add a couple drops of food coloring to a mound of shaving cream and stir them together. We mixed ours in a muffin tin so each secondary color was in between its parent primary colors. We had 3 kids painting so we made a double batch of each color. (Don’t worry in real life the colors looked much better…although the purple was a little on the brown side.) The kids loved mixing the colors and really enjoy the texture of the shaving cream.

Once the colors were mixed they went to work! The almost 4 and 6 year old immediately wanted to paint rainbows with all the colors we created and then covered the rest of the shower in pictures and colors and handprints. My 2 year old had fun painting herself. And the walls. And the floor. The great thing about painting with shaving cream in the shower is that you can make as big of a mess as you want and all you have to do is rinse everyone and everything off. It’s the perfect place for painting.

Filed Under: Crafts, Learning Activities Tagged With: color mixing, colors, crafts, kids crafts, paint, preschool, preschool art, rainbows, shaving cream painting

Rainbow Toy Hunt

2012

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My 2 year old loves to learn all about colors so we decided to have a rainbow hunt to practice finding them! The big kids were super excited because it had been awhile since we had done one.

We go through the house and find different objects in the colors of the rainbow starting with red. As we walk around we chant, “We’re going on a color hunt, we’re going on a color hunt. We’re going to make a rainbow! We’re going to make a rainbow!”

Once we had a large pile of each color we organized them into a rainbow. Then we took turns playing I Spy using our creation. Lots of fun for everyone!

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Filed Under: Learning Activities Tagged With: colors, preschool, rainbows, toy hunt

The Dr. Seuss Band App!

2012

2 Comments

We recently discovered the Dr. Seuss Band app for the iPhone and iPad and cannot get enough of it. And not only is it a ton of fun, but right now it's also FREE!

Oceanhouse Media created this Rock Band style game where kids of all ages can jam out to songs like The Cat in the Hat, There's a Wocket in my Pocket!, and Dr. Seuss' ABC. You touch each of the colored notes at the bottom of the screen as the colors come down the lines. While you're playing Thing One (or Thing Two?) pops up and praises you. As you earn points (or pay extra) other songs and sound effects, like a fish bowl and train whistle, are unlocked.

While the difficulty of the game is geared more toward kids ages 5ish and above, the game has definitely been enjoyed by everyone in our house. In addition to playing along with the Seuss songs you can also create your own music and switch around the instrument combinations, a favorite of all three of my kids. My two year old like to press the different colors and letters and switch the instruments around - sometimes even before she plays them! The 3 1/2 and 6 year olds would play for an hour if I let them. Even I find Dr. Seuss band to be quite addicting!

There are so many great things going on here for kids. Aside from the obvious hand-eye coordination and visual discrimination skill development the app also let kids explore and learn about music. I love to hear them identifying the names of the notes as they play!

We went a little crazy with the downloads so check back for more Seuss app fun!

Filed Under: Learning Activities Tagged With: colors, Dr, Dr. Seuss band, games, iPhone/iPad apps, kindergarten, letters, music, preschool, school age, Seuss

Rainbow Outdoor Games for Preschool

Rainbow May I?

Rainbow Races

Rainbow Tag

Activities for Birds by Kevin Henkes

Colorlicious Color Game

Egg Carton Computer and Jelly Bean Toss Game

Make Shamrocks Prints with Peppers

Rainbow Car Paintings

Shaving Cream Rainbows

Rainbow Toy Hunt

The Dr. Seuss Band App!

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