My dad cut down a bunch of logs for me last spring as a set of natural blocks for Graham to play with outside. While he was at it, I had him cut me several of these wooden rounds as well. It’s not difficult to cut up a log if you’re the sort who feels handy with a table saw, but if you’re not the sort who is comfortable with saws and sharp things and don’t have someone in your life who is, they do also sell wooden rounds at most craft stores. I just rolled our Christmas tree outside and I’m thinking some more wooden rounds might be a…
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Wooden Color Blocks
It may come as a surprise to a lot of people who know me, but I actually do love color! However, I am admittedly quite picky about it. When introducing colors to our little one, I wanted them to be vibrant and beautiful. I wanted them to be something I also enjoyed looking at and playing with alongside him. So, this was a fun project to be able to create the shades and hues that I wanted with the remainder of the block set we used for our wooden letter blocks. I’d like to expand these colors as Graham gets older to do even further gradient sorting. But for now…
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Color Sorting with Yogurt Cups
My love for recycling yogurt containers in play based learning continues to grow and grow. It makes such good sense. It gives extended life to single use plastic. It cuts down on the additional plastic of which many store bought toys and learning materials are made. They’re not an eyesore. And they’re free! If your little one is expressing interest in color recognition and sorting, this activity is a super simple one to add to your learning times. (To make this activity even more simple, you could also replace the painted pasta with pom poms or other loose parts for sorting.) MATERIALS Assorted Dry Pasta Assorted Colors of Acrylic Paint…
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Color Play with Plastic Bottles
We’ve been on a color kick lately. And since I cleaned out the refrigerator in the garage today and found a collection of plastic bottles in need of recycling, I felt inspired to transform them into a set of colorful, rainbow bowling pins. I thought it would be a free, fun, new to us learning through play activity, where I could casually narrate our play and name the colors as we made them and knocked them down, etc. But things don’t always go as we plan. Graham very much enjoyed the process of making them and the magic of color theory basics. He enjoyed setting them up, however when I…
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A Color Study in Yellow
This month we explored the cheerful color yellow. Soft butter. Singing canaries. Sunshine. Daffodils. Cheery sunflowers. Caution. Happiness. Tart lemons. Dandelions. Taxis. Cheese. There is no ‘right’ way to do this. It’s play and discovery and celebration of the gift of color. But these are some resources that we enjoyed through the process. For us, the transition to studying a new color usually begins here, with the yellow discovery tray. YELLOW DISCOVERY TRAY I hang bunting made from paint chips, tape, and string. I gather up all of the predominantly yellow board books we own and place them on the bookshelf beside this tray which we then fill together via…
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Introduction to Color Studies
When Graham turned four months old, we began to explore color together. It had nothing to do with speeding up his ability to identify and sort specific colors. It was simply about him discovering colors one by one and delighting in all the wild and wonderful places we find them in the world. I have plans of returning to and cycling through these color studies for a few years as he grows, suiting the objectives at each time for whatever stage of development he happens to be in. But mostly, we’re discovering. We’re exploring. We’re playing. And it’s a joy. I wasn’t expecting to find such enjoyment in the rediscovery…
