Summer Learning: Rainbows Day 3

I love finding things around the house to use for fun activities and games. I'm big on recycling what you have and trying not to spend money. However, I'm sure my husband would beg to differ on the latter! Anyway, this lesson was created around AB's interest in containers and collecting. Yup. I have a two year old collector. She likes to find things that are all the same in some way or another, and collect them and keep them in one place. Weird? That's questionable!

Supplies:

• An old, washed bread crumb or formula canister with lid to make a "Collecting Can"
• Color cards (I use paint swatches from Lowe's)
• Construction paper, markers, and anything else you'd like to decorate with
• Different colored objects around the house to "collect" things in.
• Foam circles from previous activity

About a month ago we were cleaning out the pantry, and I found an old bread crumb can that was nearly empty. I emptied it, almost threw it away, and then stopped myself. Something told me to hang onto it. Hence my recycling obsession. I'm so glad I did, because I turned it into AB's Rainbow Collecting Can.

I covered it just like I did the Treasure Tubes, and decorated it with some crazy psychodelic, rainbow design, using her name. It was fun to make!

When I was at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago, picking out a color to repaint my kitchen, I grabbed some, what I call "color cards", but they are just small square paint swatches. I love this because they were FREE - always a plus!

I had originally grabbed them for AB to keep in her collecting can, because she loves to "collect" playing cards. My intention was for her to just keep them in the can, and when we pulled them out, this is how we would review the colors.

We kept the rainbow foam circles from last week.

And we found some other rainbow colored items around the house that would fit into her Collecting Can to use. I put all of these items into her Collecting Can to use for this lesson.

I mentioned in the last post that we tried to sort the foam circles. The sorting didn't come as easy as I wanted it to. That's probably because she had nothing to sort onto. Duh. So, these paint swatches or color cards made perfect sorting mats. They were small enough to keep in her Collecting Can and just big enough for the items we had in there, as well.

Given her age, we only spent about ten minutes on the sorting and reviewing the colors, shapes, etc. It was a fun lesson, and after some help, she picked up the sorting concept fairly well. Mind you, don't get frustrated if your under five-year old child isn't picking it up. It is a Kindergarten skill, and they will be working on it in Kindergarten. No need to stress. I just thought it would be good to introduce early.

After we finished sorting, AB put all of her items back into the Collecting Can.

With all of this summer learning, we needed to head outside and have some summer fun. So, we ran through the sprinklers, played in our little pool and then finished the afternoon off with a fun, sweet, colorful/rainbowish treat!

Yeah. It was a tad bit messy, but super yummy and we talked about each color as AB "bit" it off. A yummy way to end a summer learning day!

Summer Learning: Rainbows Day 2

I was super excited to get started on day two's rainbow activities. It's activities like this that makes me have such a passion for early childhood education! This activity, however, took a little preparation in advance. What's on the agenda for today?

Rainbow Rice

Above are all the ingredients you'll need for this activity (this is a really simple "recipe" I found on the internet):

• six containers with lids
• wax paper
• paper towels
• food coloring
• rice
• rubbing alchohol
• six gallon size bags

To start off, I divided up how much rice I needed for each container. I found these containers at the dollar spot at Target (four for a dollar).

I poured the first container of rice into a gallon size bag.

I added about four or five drops of food coloring to the bag.  Then I added about half a teaspoon full of rubbing alcohol to the bag (this helps the color adhere to the rice a little easier). Then shake, turn, and knead the bag of rice to help the color evenly distribute.

Then I laid down some wax paper, and a paper towel on top of the wax paper.

Pour the dyed rice from the bag to the paper towel to let the rice dry. Make sure it's dried almost completely before enclosing it into the containers, otherwise the smell of the rubbing alcohol will knock you over - yuck!

Aren't they pretty?? I love looking at the finished product. So colorful!

I love these containers because I just put the lids on all of them and stacked them until I was ready to do the activity.

It's learning time!

Supplies:

• "Rr" circle page
• foam circles of rainbow colors

Today was focusing on the colors of the rainbow, the letter "Rr" and the shape of a circle. We started off with an "Rr" polka dot page. I had recently bought a big box of foam shapes. I pulled out a few circles, and we practiced saying the color of each circle, and then going over the shape and the letter.

When I first wrote this activity, I intended for us to glue the circles onto the "Rr". Instead, we just sort of used the "Rr" page as a learning mat and the circles as manipulatives. I like this much better. This leaves some room for reviewing and manipulating with the shapes. AB loved putting the circles onto the page.

We turned the paper over and practiced sorting the colors. Haha. Yeah, again with me forgetting I'm not working with a five year old. I would guide the sorting, but it was obviously a difficult concept. We did the best we could with it.

After about 10-15 minutes of this, it was time to move onto our sensory activity with the rainbow rice.

Supplies:

• containers of dyed rice
• big plastic bowl
• scoop
• old container or canister

I determined this would probably be best as an outside activity. So, I took a large bowl outside with a scoop, an old bread crumb container and the containers of dyed rice.

We worked on one color at a time. We dumped the first container of red into the bowl, and she spent a few minutes scooping the rice into the empty bread crumbs can. Sometimes she would alternate using the scoop and her hands. Hey, it's a sensory activity - do whatever floats your boat! We did this with each color and talked about what each color was.

Last time I mentioned that to AB every color was green. Well, I've noticed some progress...now everything is either green or purple. Haha. I guess it will take some time, but we'll get there. Oh, and I guess it's a good thing we made the rainbow rice an outdoor activity. We left evidence of the fun on the sidewalk.



Summer Learning: Rainbows Day 1

I know I'm supposed to be on summer vacation and take a break from teaching...but I can't help myself. Not when you have an inquiring and curious, almost two-year-old mind over here who wants to know everything! So, I dedicated the first part of my summer to writing a short summer curriculum for early preschool age. At first, I was going to do a "theme" for June and a "theme" for July. Seeing how our summer is filling up fast, I think I will just continue with one theme for the summer. It's ok though, because when you're talking about rainbows, you can incorporate a lot of learning and subject areas into that one theme.

Ready to get colorful?

I started today by preparing the snack while AB was napping. So, what's on the menu? Rainbow fruit kabobs. For this, you'll just need a fruit with each color of the rainbow, and some wooden skewers. Look how pretty they are...and very rainbow-ish.

Strawberries

Oranges

Pineapple

Grapes

Blueberries

Plums...yeah, yeah. They are red. In my defense, the skin is purple. I just didn't want to feed AB the skin.

They're easy and fun to do. The only thing I made sure to do, was to break off the pointy end of the kabob. It makes me nervous.

Today was a basic introduction to the rainbow and it's colors. This is a much needed lesson, because to AB, every color is green. We have to do something about that!

Here are the things I used for this lesson:

• A book about rainbows
• chenille stems (aka: pipe cleaners)
• craft glue
• light blue construction paper

I ordered the book, What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Schwartz. I had never actually heard of the book before I ordered it, but it is perfect for little learners and introduction to colors.

Each page talks about a different color and how it makes up the rainbow. When you turn the page, a ribbon for each color of the rainbow stretches across the top - very cool.

The last page is a pop-up rainbow.

 A big inspiration for this theme was actually a hand-me-down gift from one of the teachers at work. It's called "A Rainbow in My Room". It's a mini lamp/light that reflects a rainbow onto the wall or ceiling. We turn it on every night for AB when she goes to bed and she loves it!! They're about $22 on Amazon.com. Every night when we turn this on for her, she shouts out, "BAINO!!" So, not only is this lesson for learning colors, etc...but to learn that it is not called a "baino." (Although, it is very cute!)

After we read the book, we just played with the chenille stems and talked about each color. We compared it to the ribbon on each page in the book. We did this for a while and just played around - relaxed learning, as I like to call it.

When I created this activity, the goal was to bend the pipe cleaners in an arch shape and glue down with craft glue to make a rainbow. Sometimes I forget AB isn't five. No such luck, with a nearly two year old. So, I let her play, bend, and just go crazy with the pipe cleaners and glue them on however she wanted. Hence this wild creation.

However, that's what makes it so wonderful. It's her own rainbow and her own creation. Every color she would pick up, I would name and then have her show me where to glue it. It turned out beautifully, I think!

Oh, and remember the rainbow kabobs?

I'm pretty sure they were the best part.

*Obviously I've written these activities for very young pre-school age. It can be modified for older preschool kiddos as well. I have most of it completed in a word document. If you would like a copy when I'm finished, I'd be happy to share it. Just shoot me an email at livelaughlovelearnblog@gmail.com.

Hello, Summer!

Just because it's summer time, that doesn't mean the learning stops here! Oh, no! It's just begun!!!

So, now that my summer has begun, so has all my ideas for fun, summer learning with my almost two year old! I've got lots of ideas cooking, that are currently being put to paper, and I can't wait to get started. For the first "theme" of the summer, I'll give you a hint:

Eeek! Lots of fun to come!