Category: Preschool

Tot-School Colors Day -Rainbow

Today we reviewed all of the rainbow colors before moving on to the browns and grays!

Read:  

Song: 

If You Are Wearing Red

If you are wearing red, Shake your head,
If you are wearing red, Shake your head,
If you are wearing red,
Then please shake your head.
If you are wearing red, shake your head.

Blue, touch your shoe
Green, bow like a queen
Yellow, Shake like Jell-O

Discuss:  What are the colors of the rainbow? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple 

We used our Dot Magnets and our Dot Daubers on the Rainbow Do-A-Dot  page.

Rainbow Color Activities:

  • Hop on Colors
  • Sort colored alphabet cards by color

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Orange Day

Read:  

Song: 

ORANGE TREATS

Orange treats, orange treats, yum, yum, yum.
Which will I choose, oh what fun.
Will it be a carrot, crunchy and sweet?
Will it be orange sections, juicy and sweet?
Will it be orange sherbet, icy and sweet?
What will I choose for my afternoon treat?
–Jean Warren

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is orange).  Have the child point to the orange car.

Word Recognition:  Print the Orange paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something orange? Oranges, goldfish, tigers, etc…
  • “I spy something orange…”

Snack:  Oranges, Carrots, Orange Juice, Macaroni and Cheese, Orange Sherbet, Cheese, Cantaloupe, Peach, Spaghetti, Cheetos

Orange Playdough

Get out any orange play dough and orange play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Orange Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are ORANGE (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and orange paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the orange paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Orange Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a orange one for her to play with today.

ORANGE word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the yellow pictures onto the ORANGE word.

Paper Plate Pumpkin


Materials:

  • Paper Plate
  • Orange Paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Black and Green Construction Paper
  • Glue
  • Scissors


Description:

  1. Paint the paper plate orange.
  2. Cut out eyes and mouth shapes from the black paper.
  3. Glue the face on the pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern.
  4. Cut out a stem and leaf from the green paper.
  5. Glue the stem on the pumpkin.

ORANGE Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with orange toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Purple Day

Read:  

Song: 

WE LOVE PURPLE
Tune: “Three Blind Mice”

We love purple, we love purple.
Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
Purple grapes and eggplant,
Purple plums and grape juice,
Just for me, just for you.
–Heather McPhail

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is purple).  Have the child point to the purple car. (we used bows today)

Word Recognition:  Print the Purple paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something purple? Plum, violets, jam, etc…
  • “I spy something purple…”

Snack:  Blackberry Smoothie, Grape juice, Plums, Grapes, Cabbage, Blackberries, Grape Jelly, Purple Jello

Blackberry Smoothie

Materials: 

  • 1 Cup Blackberries
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 1 Cup almond milk (or coconut milk)

Directions: 

  1. Blend the berries in a blender, scrape the sides.
  2. Add the banana and blend more, scrape the sides.
  3. Add the milk and blend until smooth.

Purple Playdough

Get out any purple play dough and purple play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Purple Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are PURPLE (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and purple paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the purple paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Purple Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons. Today we played with a purple dancing scarf instead of a balloon.

PURPLE word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the yellow pictures onto the PURPLE word.

Planting Purple Tulips

Materials:

  • Purple Construction Paper
  • Craft Sticks
  • Egg Carton

Directions:

  1. Cut tulip shapes from the paper and glue a craft stick to them.
  2. Turn the egg carton upside down and cut slits in each egg part.
  3. The child can plant the tulips in the different slits.
  4. Count how many tulips he planted.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions

PURPLE Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with purple toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Green Day

Read:  

Song: 

THERE’S A COLOR WE ALL KNOW
Tune: “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”

There’s a color we all know,
G-R-E-E-N.
It’s the color that means “Go!”
G-R-E-E-N.
Oh, grass is green and lettuce is green,
Leaves and spinach and peas are green,
There’s a color we all know,
G-R-E-E-N
–Elizabeth Scofield

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is green).  Have the child point to the green car.

Word Recognition:  Print the green paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something green? Frog, tree, grapes, etc…
  • “I spy something green…”

Snack:  Green Sugar Cookie, Grapes, Green Beans, Honeydew, Kiwi, Lettuce, Cucumber, Green Apple, Green Koolaid, Pickle

Green Playdough

Get out any green play dough and green play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Green Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are GREEN (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and green paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the green paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Green Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a green one for her to play with today.

GREEN word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the yellow pictures onto the GREEN word.

Shopping for Green Food

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Put play food in a shopping basket.
  2. Have the child pick out all of the green foods and place them on her plate.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions

GREEN Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with green toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Blue Day

Read:  

Song: 

WE LOVE BLUE
Tune: “Three Blind Mice”

We love blue. We love blue.
Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
We love the ocean and sky so blue.
We love blue ribbons and blue jeans, too.
We love blueberries, so good for you.

We love blue.
–Liz Ryerson

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is blue).  Have the child point to the blue car.

Word Recognition:  Print the Blue paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something blue? Blueberries, train, jeans, etc…
  • “I spy something blue…”

Snack:  Blueberries, Blue Jello, Blue Popsicle, Blue Gatorade, Blue Chips, Blue Unicorn Pudding

Blue Playdough

Get out any blue play dough and blue play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Blue Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are BLUE (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and blue paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the blue paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Blue Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a blue one for her to play with today.

BLUE word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the blue pictures onto the BLUE word.

Blue Fish Painting

Materials:

  • White paper
  • Blue paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Masking tape
  • Googly Eye

Directions:

  1. Use the masking tape to make the shape of a fish on the white paper.
  2. Let the child paint the whole paper blue.
  3. After it dries peel off the masking tape.
  4. Add a googly eye.  It looks like you have a blue fish swimming in blue water now.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions

BLUE Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with blue toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Yellow Day

Read:  

Song: 

YELLOW SUN


Yellow sun, oh what fun.
Now we all can play.
I will wear my yellow suit
And swim out in the bay.

Yellow sun, in the sky
Shinning down on me.
I will play out in the sun,
Then rest beneath a tree.

–Jean Warren

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is yellow).  Have the child point to the yellow car.

Word Recognition:  Print the Yellow paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something yellow? Sunshine, bumble bee, cheese, etc…
  • “I spy something yellow…”

Snack:  Bananas, Lemonade, Lemon pudding, Pineapple, Corn, Kix, Eggs

Yellow Playdough

Get out any yellow play dough and yellow play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Yellow Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are YELLOW (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and yellow paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the yellow paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Yellow Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a yellow one for her to play with today.

YELLOW word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the yellow pictures onto the YELLOW word.

Cornmeal Sunshine

Materials:

  • Paper
  • Glue
  • Cornmeal

Directions:

  1. Make a sunshine with glue on the paper.
  2. Let the child sprinkle cornmeal over the glue.
  3. Shake off any extra. Then she drew in the cornmeal with his finger.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions

YELLOW Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with yellow toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Tot-School Red Day

Read:  

Song: 

I LOVE RED
Tune: “Three Blind Mice”

I love red, I love red.
That’s what I said, that’s what I said.
Firetrucks, wagons and strawberries piled high.
Stop signs, hearts and pizza pies.
Roses, tomatoes and apples, oh my.
I love red.
That’s what I said.
–Jean Warren

Color Recognition:  Show the child 3 cars or toys (be sure one is red).  Have the child point to the red car.

Word Recognition:  Print the Red paper to use with do-a-dot markers. 

Discuss: 

  • What is something red?  Apples, fire trucks, ladybugs, etc…
  • “I spy something red…”

Snack:  Strawberries, Red Apples, Red Juice, Red Jello, Radishes, Watermelon, Licorice, Pepperoni, Tomato

Red Playdough

Get out any red play dough and red play dough toys and tools. Show the child how to use the tools.

Red Mixed Media Collage

Materials: any drawing materials that you have that are RED (crayons, markers, colored pencil), white and red paper, scissors, glue

Description: Child used drawing materials on the white paper. Then she will cut small pieces of her paper and glue them all onto the red paper.

Skills Targeted: teach your tot to follow directions, be creative, and fine motor skills.

Play with Red Balloon

This girl loves to play with balloons, so I got out a red one for her to play with today.

RED word and pictures

I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  She put the red pictures onto the RED word.

Find the Red Ball

Materials: 3 red solo cups, a small red ball

Description: Place three cups with their opening down on the ground. Show your toddler the red ball and place it under one of the red cups. Move the cups around for a few seconds. Have your child see if they can follow the cup with the red ball and guess what cup it is under. Once you do this several times, allow your toddler to put the ball under the cup and try to trick you!

Skills Targeted: teach your tot color recognition, teach your tot to follow directions, teach your tot to play games, teach your tot to make guesses.

RED Baby Bin

I made a Baby Bin filled with red toys for my granddaughter to play with too.

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

Colors Tot-School

We are learning colors this month. We spent a couple days on each color, basically however long she needed to remember the new color. Storm is 2 years old, but you could use most of these activities for 3 and 4 year old children as well. I also have a few activities for babies; we included my granddaughter in some of the lessons. You can click the links at the bottom of this post to see what we did for each individual color.

Preschool Colors Book List

Tot-School Colors Book List

  • Red by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Yellow  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Blue by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Green by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Purple  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Orange by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Black  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Brown  by Patricia M. Stockland
  • White by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Gray by Patricia M. Stockland
  • Pink by Patricia M. Stockland

Baby Colors Book List

Color Music Songs:

Color Activities:

  • I found these Color Headers in the Target back to school clearance a few years ago.  I punched out the pieces and laid them on the floor for her to match up. 

Color Busy Book:

I made Storm a busy book to match up colors. I printed all of these pages from free resources that I have found. Then I laminated them and 3 hole punched them and placed them in a binder. I cut out the matches and added velcro dots to them so that she could place them in the appropriate spot.

  • Paint Brush Colors

Here are the links to posts for the individual colors that we learned:

“The Wheels on the Bus” Tot School

“The Wheels on the Bus”

Color: Yellow

Shape: Circle

Number: 4

Letter: B

Verse 1: wheels go round

  • Look at the wheels on our van.
  • Show the wheels on the toy bus and push it on the floor to see them go round and round.
  • Roll a ball to go round and round.

Verse 2: people go up and down

  • Jump up and down.
  • Hold a baby doll up then down.

Verse 3: horn goes toot

  • Sit in the van and honk the horn.
  • Show child some other types of horns.

Verse 4: money goes clink

  • Drop coins in a jar or piggy bank to go clink.

Verse 5: wipers go swish

  • Wash the van window.
  • Turn on the window wipers in the van.

Book List:

  • Wheels on the Bus by Sylvie Kantorovitz Wickstrom
  • Wheels on the Bus by Jerry Smath
  • The wheels on the Bus by Dana Regan
  • Big Gus The Double Decker by Ian Pillinger
  • The Bus Driver by Todd H. Doodler
  • Red Truck, Yellow Bus: A Book of Colors by Rookie Toddler
  • I’m Feeling School Bus Yellow by Tina Gallo

Dramatic Play:

  • Play with Sesame Street bus.  “Doors go Open and Shut”
  • Melissa & Doug Transportation

  • Fisher Price Little People School Bus

Music/ Poems:

  • “Wheels on the Bus” youtube    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOiYN7iU-W8&t=572s

Foods:

  • Graham Cracker
  • Cinnamon Toast Crunch
  • Cheese
  • Mini Oreo

Fine Motor:

  • Paint a Shape Bus

Trips:

  • Take a bus ride.

Rainbows Day 5 -What Makes a Rainbow

Today we talked about the science behind rainbows.  We learned that all a rainbow needs is light and water so we went outside to try to create some or our own rainbows.  Today we included more rainbow crafts, science, math, literature, and snacks.

What Makes a Rainbow

Discuss: A rainbow needs light and water for us to see it. Show a simple demonstration of how we bend light by using a straight straw and a clear cup that is half filled with water. Even though the straw is straight, it looks bent when we put it into the water. That is just the light bending. When we bend light, it is called “refraction.” Let’s bend some more light.  Show the kids a prism, go outside and used a prism to create a rainbow on a piece of white paper. Why do we see rainbows when it rains? The raindrops are like a tiny prism, bending the light that comes from the sun. So we need both sun (light) and rain (prism) at the same time to make a rainbow in the sky. Let’s do a simple demonstration to see how the sun and water make a rainbow.  We’ll use the hose in the backyard to make a rainbow.  Make sure the sun is behind us and the water is in front of us.

We did experiments from the “Magic School Bus The Mysteries of Rainbow Science Club Kit”.

Read: What Is a Rainbow? By Chris Arvetis and Carole Palmer

Comprehension Questions:

  1. What makes a rainbow? Light and water

Fruit Loop Bagel Breakfast

Materials:

  • Plain Bagels
  • Cream Cheese
  • Fruit Loops

Directions:

  1. spread cream cheese on the bagel
  2. place the fruit loops in the shape of a rainbow

Tissue Paper Rainbow

Materials:

  • colors of tissue papers
  • pencil with a full eraser
  • school glue
  • white cardstock with an outline of a rainbow on it
  • markers or crayons

Directions:

  1. Have the children use the markers or crayons to color in the colors they want their rainbow to look like.
  2. Cut the tissue into 1 inch squares.
  3. Pour some school glue onto a tray or plate.
  4. Have your child take one piece of tissue, and show them how to center (approximately!) the eraser onto it.
  5. Wrap the tissue up around the pencil. 
  6. Dip into the glue.
  7. Hold onto the edges of the tissue, and press the glue tipped end onto the paper, matching up the color from your picture. Slide the pencil out.

Rainbow in a Box

Discuss: Like water drops in falling rain, the CD separates white light into all the colors that make up the rainbow. The colors you see reflecting from a CD are interference colors, like the shifting colors you see on a soap bubble or an oil spill. You can think of light as as being made up of waves-like the waves in the ocean. When light waves reflect off the ridges on your CD, they overlap and interfere with each other. Sometimes the waves add together to make a rainbow.

Materials:

  • CD
  • Box
  • Flashlight

Directions:

  1. Shine a flashlight on an old CD in the bottom of a box turned on it’s side.
  2. Turn off the lights, and move the flashlight across the CD to make the rainbows dance.

Rainbow Addition

Materials:

  • Paper
  • Pen
  • Construction paper

Directions:

  1. Draw an outline of a rainbow on the paper.
  2. Write addition combinations on the blank rainbow. (make sure they are spaced out quite a bit)
  3. Cut the construction paper into rectangles small enough to cover one of the combinations.
  4. Write the answers to the top row of combinations on the red rectangles.
  5. Next row answers are on the orange rectangles. And so on.
  6. Child will look at the combination and find the answer in the colored pieces and place it over the combination. At the end there should be a completed colored rainbow.

I modified the one for A. to counting dots on the white paper and finding the correct number on the colored pieces.

And I modified the tots to matching colors.

Eat the Rainbow

Discuss:

Talk about what different colors of the rainbow that we can eat to be healthy. Fruits and Vegies Then make a chart with the kids that have all of the foods that they suggested written on it.

Materials:

  • Posterboard
  • Markers of crayons
  • Strawberries
  • Cantaloupe
  • Banana
  • Pear
  • Blueberries
  • Red Grapes
  • Kabob Skewers

Directions:

  1. Make a rainbow on a plate or platter with different fruits.

RED – Strawberries
ORANGE – Cantaloupe
YELLOW – Banana
GREEN – Pear
BLUE – Blueberries
VIOLET – Red grapes

    2. Let the children use the kabob sticks to make their rainbow fruit kabobs.

Read: I can eat a Rainbow by Annabel Karmel while they eat

Make a REAL Rainbow

Read: A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

Discuss: Rainbows appear wherever sunlight falls on water or glass.  We used the Rainbow Diagram here to help us with this experiment.

Materials:

  • Glass of water
  • Dark kitchen
  • White Paper
  • Masking Tape
  • Flashlight

Directions:

  1. Fill a glass of water (almost to the top) and place it at the very edge of the counter in a VERY dark kitchen or bathroom.
  2. Place a sheet of plain white paper on the floor a few inches away from the counter.
  3. Put two pieces of masking tape over the front of a flashlight so that the light comes out of a slit about 1/8 inch wide.
  4. Shine this light across and down into the water as shown in the figure. When a narrow beam of light is passed through a glass of water, a spectrum can be seen on a white sheet of paper.
  5. Can you see a small rainbow on the white paper? If not, move the flashlight around a little until you achieve the best results.

Rainbow Symmetry

Discuss: A line of symmetry divides a shape into two identical parts. In some cases, as with a rainbow, you’ll find one line of symmetry down the middle. In other cases, there is more than one, like with eight sections of an orange. So if we paint a rainbow on one side of the paper and then fold it in half it should appear the same on both sides forming a symmetrical rainbow.

Materials:

  • Cardstock folded in half
  • Paint for all the colors of the rainbow

Directions:

  1. Fold the paper in half and open.
  2. Have the kids how to paint half a rainbow on one half of the paper in the right order. 
  3. Fold the paper over and press gently.
  4. Open again to see your rainbow print. 
IMG_0701

Rainbow Celebration Cake

Cake Materials:

  • White cake (2 boxes)
  • 9 in. cake pan
  • Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring.

Cake Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9” cake pans. Make the 2 cakes according to the directions.
  2. Divide the batter into 6 bowls (about 1 1/2 cups each.
  3. Then whisk 2 drops of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Pour into the pans and bake for 12 minutes each.
  4. When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and stash them in the fridge to cool quickly.

Frosting Materials:

  • 2 Cups shortening
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 lbs. Powdered sugar

Frosting Directions:

  1. In large bowl, cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add water and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
  2. This icing can be stored 2 weeks. rewhip before using.
IMG_0680I added sugar sprinkles in the shape of a rainbow to it too.

More rainbow fun that we had this week:

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