The other day my mum (and the kids' beloved Nana) came over to hang out. I thought that we could all do some art, as being creative together provides time for chatting, learning, connecting and bonding. 

Not only would we end up with some lovely artwork but also memories of togetherness that will last a lifetime.

I'd been saving some watercolour paper to create something cool with for a while, and thought we could use it to paint some vibrant watercolour spider-web designs.

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Brought to you weekly by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum,
and One Perfect Day

This week we are showcasing

"8 Activities to help learn colours"

One of the first things that many children learn are their colours. (Yes, that's how we spell colour (color) here in Australia). It is such an obvious and everyday occurrence for children that it makes sense that they would find the need to classify, organise and understand their world in colours. Here are a fun collection of ideas from last week's Tuesday Tots linkup, that will help children learn their colours, but at the same time work on important skills such as fine motor, sorting, grouping, gross motor, numbers/counting, patterns and more.

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Here is a great game for toddlers to help them learn and identify colours (colors) whilst getting them moving and working those gross motor skills at the same time. You can play this game virtually anywhere and it will take minimal time to set up/ pack away. This is a favourite game of my son's that we play in his kinder gym class and you can vary it to suit your child and the stage that they are up to.

Age: 6 months- 2 years +

(N was approx 2 years old here. See bottom for tips to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)

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As a way for my son to learn to identify colours, practice sorting and further develop his fine motor skills, I made up this quick and easy DIY colour sorting game using a recycled ice-cream container. If you don't have one, you'll have to eat some ice-cream. All in the name of parenting of course.

Age: 6 months- 2 years +

(N was approx 18 months here. See bottom for tips to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)

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Welcome to this week's TUESDAY TOTS.
Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum,
and One Perfect Day

This Week:

Learn with Play at home is showcasing

Fun Activities to learn about Colours

These great posts all came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup
where we featured 8 Toddler Invitations to Play

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Another way we like to paint is with different painting tools on the same picture. It can create a lovely effect while also engaging your child cognitively as they switch between processes.

For this activity I provided a large sheet of paper, a variety of different types of paint (Some on a sponge for printing) and some various painting tools (4 Different brush types of varying thicknesses and some textured stamps..psst: This set was purchased from Mothercare)

Decisions, decisions...

 Using focus and concentration while exploring the different marks each different brush or stamp makes

 As she picked up each tool (of course she wanted to use each and every one in her design) I can see how she is handling and holding each one and gently show her another way to hold the brush. Teaching her the different control you can get over each tool depending on how it's handled.

 The work in progress

Handy tips:

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "textures" and "implements." This will help with their language development.

-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're creating, eg. "Why did you choose to use that tool first?", "Which is the next tool you are going to choose?", "Did the pattern show up well using the glitter paint? Why/why not?"

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

- This activity can be repeated time and time again with a different end result each time. Mix around and change some of the materials that you provide each time to inspire new ideas

- Use this time to demonstrate particular skills to them that they might be attempting unsuccessfully. For example, how or where they are gripping the paintbrush. How they can avoid big drips of paint on their page etc.


Debs :)

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Nappies hold a lot of wee, yet without any intentional questioning from you, it is doubtful your child will ever ask why that is. Never once did my daughter question why nappies could hold a lot of liquid whereas undies certainly didn't! :)

Nappies (or Diapers), are probably the first experience your child will have with absorption and it won't be the last. Cleaning up those puddles of spilt milk etc are just part of everyday life. Here we took a deliberate look at absorption with a simple little activity

Using absorbent materials can be fascinating for children. Just introducing the wonder of a simple sponge and a pool of water can be all the entertainment they need for a time.

So, while we set about testing the absorbency of a couple of different materials, we thought we might as well use coloured water and create some art as well.

 Materials: various shades of coloured water, eyedropper, cotton pads (medical or cosmetic work well...check your first aid kid or make up removal) and towelling paper

 Using fine motor skills, focus and concentration to transfer water from the container to the cotton pad

 She just kept adding more and more water until the cotton pad couldn't handle any more. Look how it bubbled

 It was her decision to make each pad a different colour

But look what happened to the cotton pads that were touching! Watching the coloured water travel from one cotton pad to the other was exciting.

 Once we'd used all the cotton pads, we tested the absorbency of the paper towelling

We discovered that it wasn't as absorbent which we decided was due to the thickness

It was so much fun watching the colours separate out on the towelling paper and the end result looked fabulous. Many more sheets of towelling paper were used to create lots of different patterns :)

Handy tips:

- To extend this activity try lining the cotton pads up and seeing how far you can get the water to travel along them. Try creating new colours by having 2 primary coloured cotton pads side by side. (eg, a yellow and a blue cotton pad)

- For younger kids, start this activity by making the coloured water and learning how to transfer water with an eyedropper using this fun activity

- Let the cotton pads and towelling paper dry out when finished and then reuse them for crafts etc. We used a piece of the patterned towelling paper to help decorate a homemade birthday card. It looked great!

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it.

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "absorption" and "transfer." This will help with their language development.

-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're experiencing, eg. "Why do you think this cotton pad is going blue when you haven't put any blue water on it?" etc.

- If you have coloured water left, why not try making Cloud Jars?

- For more fun, have a look here and here to see what others have done using similar materials



Debs :)

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This water transfer activity will take you moments to set up and provide your child with a great activity to help promote colour recognition, discovery and guess work while practicing fine motor skills, focus and concentration.

Ages: 2+

(see handy tips at the bottom for ideas to simplify or extend to meet your childs needs)

Materials: Multi vessel container (recycled packaging or ice-cube tray), pipette/turkey baster/eye dropper/small syringe (many come with children's medicines), water, food colours

 Simple put a few drops of food colouring in each segment. Have some basic colours and mix some others. I used the instructions on the back of the food colouring box to see how many drops of each colour would create other colours. Some were just random and even I had no idea which colour would show up. Provide a vessel of water and some water transfer tools.

 Learning to squeeze the bulb then release to suck up the water and then squeezing the bulb again to release the water.

 Guessing and seeing which colours appeared when water was added was quite exciting

 Going from the pipette to the syringe was a little tricky as she had to learn a new process. Pull up to get water, push down to release water. It didn't take long to get the hang of it.

 The syringe squirted the water out very fast. Woah!

A wonderful array of colours. But now what to do with them? How about some testing some absorption on cotton pads, making pretty patterns on towelling paper or making 'cloud jars' with shaving foam and water?

We LOVE Science Activities Here!

Here's our 2 most popular ones

 

Water Bottle Fountain                                              Cloud Jars

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity for younger children by focusing on the water transfer. Can they get water from one vessel to another? If pipettes etc are too tricky for little fingers provide a small spoon for them to transfer the water. Which colour will each segment have?

- Extend this activity by using your coloured water to experiment with, try mixing the colours, test absorption on cotton pads, try some art on towelling paper or use with a cloud jar experiment. Children could also write down their guesses for the colours in each segment.

- Use this time to demonstrate particular skills to them that they might be attempting unsuccessfully. Learning the process of squeeze in, release and squeeze again to transfer water with a pipette can be a little difficult for little kids. Let them practice and experiment until they get the hang of it.

- You could also put drops of food colour in the bottom of various glasses for them to experiment with.

- See what happens to the colours when you add more or less water. Talk about the strength of colour. dark or light? etc

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it. eg. "You are doing a great job transferring water from one vessel to the other" etc 



Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Depending on the age of your child, an activity like this could end up as a fabulous art piece.

With my 3y/o we used this activity to help practice fine motor skills, letter recognition and creativity.

As children work toward developing those early literacy skills and start to move towards writing letters and words, working with some order and within some confines can be very helpful in developing the fine motor skills that they will require in order to be able to write.

This is such an easy activity that will take you a minute to set up and you can use any design you like. Abstract patterns, hidden letters/numbers, objects, etc.

 Draw a simple design on a piece of paper with thick black texta and divide into lots of different segments. Provide whichever art material you'd like. I gave textas this time and the instructions, "try to use a different colour inside each segment."

 I loved how she attacked each segment differently. Taking time to ensure something different in each one.

 She chose to follow the shape of the "M" instead of colouring it. Great practice for letter formation

She spent quite some time on this simple little activity. A great one to pull out while you're cooking dinner or need a few quiet moments. The focus and concentration used in this task was fantastic to see.

Handy tips:

- Use any design that you or your child come up with

- Extend this activity by letting your child draw the design first and then paint/draw within it's confines. Hide letters/numbers to help with learning recognition and formation

- Simplify this activity by drawing larger spaces for your child to work within. Try dividing a simple shape into 4 parts etc.

- Repeat this activity with different designs etc and using different sizes art materials. Paints, inks, crayons, make a collage etc

- Stay near your child while they do this so you can give them gentle reminders about trying to work within each segment

- Talk with your child about what they are doing and use new words (eg. Segments) to increase their vocabulary and understanding.

Happy playing,

Debs :)

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