There are also tons of fun books to read too such as, Press Here, Little Blue and Little Yellow, Mouse Paint, White Rabbit's Color Book, The Crayon Box that Talked, Bear in the Square, Perfect Square, etc. We never got to one of my favorites, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Check it out in the library sometime and draw purple pictures! The Ten Black Dots book that we made as a class book should be making it's way around to all of you soon.
Kids got to use lots of colored dot stickers to cover up numbers. Each number had a certain color to use. We stacked circle blocks, used shape stampers, hooked together shape dominoes, and used shape blocks in colored rice. We played color drop with pom poms. You sorted the pom poms into their colored tube and they fell right back into the bucket to be sorted all over again. Some kids were very intrigued by how they came out the bottom of the tube! We had red water beads to play in - always a hit! Small plastic caps filled up our numbered gumball machines and we played a roll the dice gumball game. The younger kids used only the colored dice to find out what color paint dot to use to make a "gumball" in their machine. The older kids rolled two dice, a colored dice and a numbered dice. They had to add the correct number of a given colored gumball to their machines. The sorting tray was a hit with some kids, others preferred making crayon puzzles or creating "things" with colored shaped blocks.
Our smiling shapes just begged to be clipped with clothespins. There were tons of shapes of all sizes and colors to put in their right places. We played sorting games with shapes onto magnetic trays. Kids sorted popsicle sticks by color and some even matched the letters to spell the color names. Big shapes were taped to our table and we used different blocks and manipulatives to make the shapes. We played color and shape Bingo with Miss Smokler. Light Brite (the one pictured is ancient and was mine as a child) is always so magical to kids when they see the colored pegs light up after they push them into the black paper. Shapes galore to sort and trace! Colored moon sand and pom pom cupcake trays!
Color monsters love to munch their favorite colored items. Mrs. D added google eyes and a pom pom nose to colored chip clips to make the monsters! We used wikki stix (wax coated string that is very flexible) to follow shape outlines. Our crayon boxes were drying to be filled and kids laced up shape items. We used shape puzzles, sorting paint popsicle sticks, and matching color blocks. Rainbows have all the colors, except ours, which was missing purple! I heard it from them all! We used magnetic dots to fill in the color spaces. Once of Mrs. D's favorite games is the colored popsicle stick matching activity. We used sticky paper on top of the cards so the sticks don't run away on us! Pom pom sorting tub is also a favorite, as they all love to stuff the pom poms in the colored holes.
Shape Monsters are hanging in our room. Mrs. Hill and I adore them and don't want to give them up! The kids use shapes of all kinds, sizes, and colors to make monster people. They are so adorable!!!! Spin art is so magical. The kids can't believe that squirting paint onto a spinning piece of paper makes such beautiful artwork. That is why they had to make 3 different ones. They would make these for days if we could. We made colored rings by putting beads onto paper ring clips. The light table is fascinating. They love stacking different colored tiles and things on one another to see new colors. We place mirror stands on the light board and the magic doubles! Colorama is a quick, fun game. The water table was filled with craft foam colored dots to go along with our story, Press Here. The sensory table was a soft pom pom delight. There were pom poms of all sizes, colors and textures to scoop, drop, etc. We played two kinds of matching paintbrushes games.
Ohh!! Science experiments!! The kids were in their glory with these activities! We watched colored ice cubes melt to make single colors and mixed new colors. They were surprised at how quickly they melted. The Milk Experiment - We poured and inch or so of milk into a dish tub and added food coloring drops with eye droppers. Then we dipped q-tips into dish soap. When we touched the q-tips to the colors, they exploded! We then placed a piece of water color paper onto the exploded colors to make milk prints. Confession...the prints usually come out a bit better. Not sure what was different this year. It is still the process...not the product that counts! Fizzy Colors - Kids are given their own tray filled with a layer of baking soda. They then get the 3 primary colors of colored vinegar. The kids used eye droppers (AM used these cool zig-zag droppers) to drop colored vinegar onto the baking soda. Voila! You get a fizzy reaction and the baking soda begins to turn into beautiful colors and designs. Both classes played with these trays for well over 45 minutes!
During Circle Time and Language Group, we played tons of shape and color games and sang a lot of songs. The shape train left the circle time rug station as each child had to present their shape ticket to come aboard! We went around the room toot-tooting and chugging. Mrs. D even used a wooden train whistle. Mrs. Bailey made colored soup with the AM kids. Maddy, cousin to Mary Had a Little Lamb made an appearance. Her sheep are not white, like her cousin Mary, her sheep are colored! They rolled in laughter each time a new colored sheep came out of the bucket. More gumball fun with a giant gumball machine and paper gumballs. Kids had to trade in coins to get gumballs for the machine. Little White Rabbit showed us how she changed colors by dipping herself into colored paint cups. She showered each time until she ran out of water and decided to stay a nice color of brown. Mrs. D had a magic color box. We learned that our eyes need light to see colors. No light, no colors!
We stole one day away from our Colors and Shapes Unit to have a Pajama Party! We did this the day before Winter Vacation. We made pancakes to eat for snack and got to watch a Dora Nursery Rhyme video.
