Color Matching Relay

 Using the foam sheets you buy at craft stores (for durability), I cut out circles in two different colors (blue and red).  Our shape of the week was the circle this week, so I am reinforcing the circle in all activities possible.I mixed the circles together and placed them at one end of the room.  At the other end of the room I placed a piece of blue foam and a piece of red foam next to each other.  I told J that he had to pick just one circle, run to the other side of the room as fast as possible and match it to the correct color foam.  He repeated this until he had no more circles left.  He loved it.  Of course I was cheering him on the whole time. 

The activity was too easy for him.  Honestly this was the first time I tested him with color matching  so I made the activity simple, not wanting him frustrated.  I underestimated J and could’ve added another color easily, probably more.  Keeping him engaged is a constant learning process… since he is always learning! 

Age attempted: 20 months. 

Try Again?  Yes, but increase the difficulty by matching more colors or matching colors and shapes.

Falling Leaves

I love Dot markers!  Oh I wish they had these when I was little!  I find myself thinking about tons of different pictures we could create with these cool markers.  At this age, however, I’ll stick to the simple pictures.

One such picture is an autumn tree.  I drew the tree trunk beforehand and gave J the orange, yellow and red markers to create leaves.  He loves the dot markers too, but hasn’t quite mastered them yet. He mostly likes to take the colorful caps off and then of course put them back on.   

You’ll notice many of the leaves in the example picture are in the process of falling or have already landed on the ground nearby.  Hopefully it looked enough like a tree for Grandma to recognize it!

Age Attempted: 17 months

Teachable moments: Of course you can emphasize that the markers create circles on the paper, take a walk outside to see the changing leaves, talk about how the leaves change from green to yellow and orange and red when the weather begins to chill; this is a good seasonal activity

Try Again?  We’ve already done other pictures with dot markers.  They make great balloons and bubbles!  Sorry no examples to show!