Two weeks ago I found a goldmine of Thomas trains at a local consignment store and the boys were so completely obsessed with them that I didn't even attempt to get them to do anything 'school related.' They spent hours building the tracks and pushing the trains, connecting the trains with the magnets and racing them on the floor. I'm sure they were learning, it just wasn't about the color purple!
We had a good time this week focusing on all the colors in the rainbow. It was a great review too, and I might actually continue it into next week to really reinforce the concepts of each color. Should a 20 month old be able to point to a certain color or just match something red with something else red? They really enjoyed the activities too, so continuing might not be a bad idea anyway.
I tried using the R is for Rainbow printable from Making Learning Fun with balls of Play-Doh, but should have laminated the paper first. They loved sticking the balls to the paper, but peeling it off (when they got it wrong) was a bit of a mess. In general, they love Play-Doh and anything I ask them to do with it, but filling each white hole was a little too challenging I think.
I made circles out of pipecleaners for them to match with their race cars. By the end of the week, any color matching activity I asked them to do included them putting the object in every wrong color saying 'no' before finally putting it in the right spot and leaving it there. They really do get it! 
We used our foam/cardboard/velcro puzzle with all the colors and shapes. I think for next week I'm going to color in the shape outlines so they can match the foam colors to the outlines. I used the back of the foam puzzle board to make a Brown Bear matching puzzle for them too, which they loved! I printed two copies of the Brown Bear lap book pieces and put half of them (rainbow colors only) under the contact paper, then added a piece of velcro to the top of it and to the backs of the second set of laminated animals. They didn't quite get the heads and tails right, but they were able to match the colors very well!
We used Ikea cups and colored popsicle sticks for another color matching activity. I love watching their brains at work - they would hold a stick over a cup and pause to see if it matched before dropping it into the right cups. They used the cups for stacking practice too. (Not pictured) we used the cups with the pipecleaners and toy cars for color matching also.
The highlight of their week (I'm sure!) was the Rainbow Cupcakes. They are time intensive, but delicious and so worth it! Just watching their faces as I cracked one open to show them the colors was awesome, and they ate every bite. Good thing we still have some left for next weeks 'reinforcement' : )
Hope you had fun this week in school too! Go to 1+1+1=1 to see what other Tot Schoolers were learning this week. If you have any more rainbow ideas for this upcoming week, pass them along or leave me a link to your blog to check out your ideas.
12 comments:
If you don't want to go to the expense (and the extra errand) of laminating -- you can buy sheet protectors to use for playdough mats --- just an idea!
Too fun! I love the circles & your shape puzzle. The cupcakes look so yummy!
I started using sheet protectors for worksheets so we can use dry erase markers that way we can reuse the worksheets. When we have papers/activities I want to protect but we are not writing on I "laminate" by using clear contact paper. More time consuming than a laminator but I don't have the money.
Love your pipe cleaner color match activity. I am trying to see what my daughter (23 months old) knows about colors. When we were playing Candyland she could point to spaces on the board that corresponded to the color card she drew. I don't know if she can show me a color that I ask for yet. I don't know if they should be able to at this age or not, for sure. But the activities you are doing are just giving them all that practice, they will get it if they don't already point to a specific color when asked, just so long as you are naming the color as you go.
Did you notice the cute color matching activity Carissa posted about last week. http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2010/05/preschool-printables-color-matching.html
I printed it out, but haven't had a chance to use it yet.
Also, here is the link to what we did with the letter R for rainbows.
http://totsandme.blogspot.com/search/label/rainbows
So cute! And what yummy cupcakes!
The cupcakes look so yummy. When my little man is bigger I want to do the car matching with him :)
Great activities to learn colours. I am going to bookmark this page for future reference. Your twins look like they are really doing well. I have a 25 month old son who will not sit down at all and do things like this and does not know his colours. On the other hand my daughter would do things like matching and sorting from about 18 months so they are all different!
Sophie loves her Thomas Trains. I think that might have been the only way she was potty trained so quickly. We use the trains for all sorts of tot school activities...colors, numbers, shapes.
Sophie knew all her colors at 19 months or so, but now is totally not into them. She really likes numbers. She will occasionally want to do a color activity, but now is all about the letters and numbers. I think they go through phases.
Great week. I love the velcro puzzle.
Every child is different, but my little guy (28 months)is very into sorting by colors right now. He can name the color, pick up something red (or whatever color I name), etc. At 20 months, we would simply sort objects by color - like a pile of red, a pile of blue, etc.
I love the simplicity of sorting the popsicle sticks into colored cups! I also really love that homemade shape-sorting board...might have commented on it before, too...and think that I need to make one of those! :)
Looks like a great week! The matching sounds perfect for 20 months to me. Sammy wasn't into colors for a while and didn't care to learn them but he could match them long before identifying them!
I can tell they lots of fun with the trains. I love all of the color activities, I may try some of them.
Love the activities you are doing!! :) Can you email me when you get a second? I have a quick question for you. :)
Jolanthe
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