More Colorful Ideas and a FREEBIE

Happy Wednesday!  For those of you who have been reading and keeping up with my recent posts, I'm guessing you have noticed a common theme of COLORS.  We have decided as a grade level to focus on colors for the entire month of September!

When we decided this, I will admit, I panicked a bit.  I knew I wanted lots of hands on activities but at that time, I didn't have many ideas.  What did I do, you may be asking...Well, I went to craft stores and hobby stores in the area and walked up and down every aisle just looking for color.  As I would spot something, I would grab it and think about how to use it in a meaningful way.

Here is an example of one of those grab and think...

Those little colored clothespins were a find at Michaels.  I was in the aisle with all the wooden craft sticks and these happened to catch my eye.  I loved the bright colors and that they would offer some additional fine motor practice.  The paint swatches I grabbed from Home Depot and put them with the clothespins to make a super simple, inexpensive, and yet engaging activity.

Here is visual of how it would look being used (little man was my helper again!)  I had him tell me the colors on the paint swatches first, he grabbed a clothespin, told me the color, and then matched it to a paint swatch.  I encouraged him to try "pinching" it onto the paint swatch, but if that was difficult he was given the choice to just lay it on top.  * The fine motor practice of placing the clothespin on the paint swatch is ideal but I am not going to force my kids to do it.  I want to keep frustration levels to a low, so I will encourage it/offer the idea, but will not require them to do it.*

 

Another idea came from a set of dice I picked up while at the I Teach K! conference in Vegas this summer...

For this I used the colors on the die to make the color dot strip.  The strip was then attached to a piece of scrapbook paper to make it a bit more sturdy.  The bottle caps are used to cover the colors as they are rolled.

 

 

I used my pocket cubes to make a few more sets of color dots, so I would be able to have more kids working with these colors at the same time.  How to play is simple...roll the die, name the color, find the color on the strip, and cover it up.  After all colors are covered, REPEAT!

 

This could easily be adapted to a partner activity where each child gets a different colored/shaped object to cover the colors with.  I would have the kids tell each other the color before covering it!

 

If you would like the color dot strips and color dot card inserts, click on the picture above to download it for FREE!  All I ask is that you leave a comment if you do!  Comments are encouragement and fuel for future freebies!

 

Erin