Learning Colors

I am on a milkcap run right now.  They are great free learning!  I made this game way to difficult for Adeline but I wanted to have it done so that she could grow into it.

For this activity I used milkcaps and paint chips from a paint department.  You will need two chips of the same color, one for the cap the other for matching.  I cut circles out and glue guned them onto the lid.

You can start however simple or difficult your child needs.  I used about six colors with Adeline.

    

Straws and a Box

Using a shoe box that I covered with paper we played "straws in a box".  This activity is a great fine motor activity, but also eye hand coordination.  I cut the strays in various lengths and we put them "in the box".  Pipe cleaners would work great for this activity also because you could incooperate matching the colors.   Ours straws had some color strips and I was not sure if Adeline would notice them or not but she did.

Milk Cap Number Matching

 Adeline is working on learning her numbers.  I have been using some flashcards that I printed up and she has learned up to 10.

Today we did a matching game using milkcaps and cups.  Adeline placed the correct number cap into the labeled cup.

Fine Motor Sorts

Today we are keeping things simple.  This activity combines one on one correspondence with sorting colors and fine motor.

I cut some pieces of foam the size of our ice cube squares and placed them in the bottom of each square. construction paper could be used also.  We then did some matching and sorting with pompom balls.  Adeline is not able to use these neat punchers from Lakeshore Learning but I wanted to show them as an option.  We use our fingers for now.

   

Early Learning With Teddy Bear Counters

Teddy bear counters are a wonderful manipulative for early math skills.  My 6 year old uses them right now for counting practise and learning addition.  When I have these out Adeline always seem interested, so today I put together a list of things to do with teddy bear counters for early learners.  

Playing with bears in corn starch.

Working with tongs, ladle and bears in water.

Sorting colors with foam rectangles.

Sorting in a muffin tin.

One on One correspondence.

Patterning

Beginning counting

Bears are great to work with pincher grasp and fine motor skills.

Reading color words

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

I am so excited, Adeline is starting to put two words together, and a I believe that a huge part of it is due to Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  

Brown Bear, Brown Bear is a predictable book.  These books are important for young children because they can easily learn and memorize language.  Adeline can say "what do you see?".  She has heard this story enough that she is able to repeat phrases from the book.  Predictable books with basic vocabulary and simple rhyme patterns let children anticipate what words come next.  

Today we did some activities with our Brown Bear book.

The first activity that we worked on is putting the front and back of the animals together.  I really thought that this might be to difficult, but Adeline loved the animals and put them right together.
I used the printables from 1+1+1=1.

We then added the words.

We worked on coloring.  I printed up some pictures from dltk.

Later, I added a picture of Brown Bear to a shoe box and we put some of the animals "in".  We worked on saying the names of the animals while putting in.

I have not worked on this but this a great resource for teaching Brown Bear, Brown Bear with sign language.

Working On Our Interactive Book

Last year I did a post about making an interactive book.  This book was a great place to start teaching Adeline how to do some matching.  When introducing matching to a child it is important to begin with something that is familiar and simple.  Using a simple board book that your child has looked at and you have read to them a number of times is a good place to start.  This way your child is matching two simple pictures.  In the beginnning you may need to do some hand over hand to help introduce the concept.

Adeline has matched this book a lot, so now we are at the place where I can take all the pictures off, place them in a group, and then find the matching picture.

 
Interactive books can serve as great quiet books as well.