diy color sorting gift set

I whipped up this adorable color sorting set for a dear little back in January. It can be used in a number of ways and packs a pretty punch.

I found these sweet wood tags at Michael's for $1.99 for a set of 10. I purchased two packs to make the color set worthwhile. After rifling through my fabric stash for happy fabrics I picked out four prints and matched my paints to them.

To paint the shapes, set out some wax paper, grab a brush, and give each side a coat or two, allowing dry time between coats. Takes less than half an hour to dry. I aimed for a color wash so used very little paint.

The sorting mat was made by cutting rectangles from each piece of fabric that measured about 3"X6" each. Use a sewing machine to stitch each piece of fabric together in a row, iron each seam flat as you go. Place finished patchwork right-side up and lay a neutral piece of fabric over the top, pin and trim. Bring to sewing machine and stitch around three sides. Turn right-side out and iron flat. Fold in the edges of the open side and iron flat. Put the whole shebang back into the sewing machine and give it a all a zig-zag stitch around to add a bit of decorative flair.

To make the bag, I used this project. Use a piece of fabric that is about 12"X8". If you want the bag to have the happy bit of patchwork on it, fold the fabric in half before stitching into a bag and randomly stitch fabric scraps into a happy pattern.

For presentation, roll your mat up, pop it into the bag along with the wood shapes and give it away! Enjoy! I hope this inspires you.

fine motor tree fun

The lovely Za gifted me this whimsical tree last year thinking I could surely use it for something (and it was in MY colors). I had wanted this tree but could not justify purchasing it because I had no idea what I would do with it. Skip forward a month or two when the tree arrived and I happened across a pack of mini hair clips from the Dollar Tree. Serendipity struck!

The clips matched the colors on the tree perfectly and all I had to do was pop the whole shebang onto one of my favorite trays (a plate really) and let the kiddos explore.

Mastering the tiny clips was not an easy task for my littles. It took a little practice to strengthen up those pincer fingers so that they could open the clips long enough to clip to the tree.

Matching the clips to the colors was an added bonus for the kiddos that needed a push to attempt something a little harder. It's a given that we big people can do something like this but the littles are still learning about the world around them. To try this at home without the fancy store bought tree you can use small sticks and branches from outside. Pop the branch into a vase and add hair clips or perhaps use small sticks that the kiddos paint up first. Once dry pile the sticks onto a tray with hair clips in a small dish alongside and see what magic may happen. Don't have access to sticks? Try pipecleaners!  Have older kiddos that can use more of a challenge? Have them wrap the pipecleaners with embroidery floss or yarn. There all sorts of ways you can incorporate this activity at home. Have fun and share what you come up with!

fun with pencils

 For many years I organized an international swap group that had over 1000 members. We exchanged swap packages each month. Over the course of five years I received all sorts of fun and nifty items. I also received a ridiculous amount of pencils and not being one for throwing away useful (and not so useful) things I held onto them until I could figure out a better use.

Enter a classroom of three-year-olds! I set up a bamboo utensil box with a variety of pencils for sorting and a tray with a pencil sharpener and smencils. The children sorted the pencils by color (math), counted the pencils (more math), arranged the pencils (spatial intelligence), and sharpened the pencils (fine motor) for days and days and days. One industrious youngster figured out a way to stack the pencils (awesomeness). Who would've thought?

diy: rainbow clothespins

For our week of rainbow I dyed up a batch of wooden clothespins using the same method I use for dying pasta.

While I was at it, I dyed large craft sticks and small wooden cubes as well. These are not colorfast and do bleed onto paper and play dough when wet (maybe they would be colorfast if I had added rubbing alcohol). But that's okay, I think that only adds to their charm. 

 

 I set the rainbow pins up on one of my favorite trays along with a wooden storage box made of a thin veneer. I hoped the children would figure out that they could balance the clothespin on the side of the box and they did! I made multiples of each color so that they could sort or arrange as they wished.

Some of the children noticed that all of the colors of the rainbow were represented. Others counted out how many pins there were. The clothespins migrated all over the classroom but mostly they were balanced on the edge of the box. Fun!

investigating the lid bin

It took me months to save up enough lids for an impressive lid bin. When I introduced it to the children we were all sitting in our kitchen area enjoying our lunches. I brought out the lids which I placed in a sturdy shallow wicker and wire basket. I held the basket/bin under the table and shook it. I asked the children if they could guess what I had. I did this so long ago I forgot what their guesses were. I placed the bin on top of the table and the children were very excited. Who knew? We talked about the shape of the lids, the various colors and how some of the lids had words on them. I told the children the bin would be in our block area if they would like to investigate and immediately upon finishing lunch they swooped down on it. There was stacking and sorting, nesting and counting, design making and patterning. There was a single purple lid that allowed one of the kiddos to complete a "beautiful lid rainbow". All the busyness and exuberance makes my heart go thumpity-thump.  The children enjoy working with the bin and are extra delighted when they find a cap in their lunch or snack bag. Now we have more than one purple lid for more rainbow making. This is preschool math at its best.

trafic light sticky easel

freight train sorting

Really, this is vehicle sorting on a Freight Train inspired felt train but it was set up to go along with our week of Freight Train by Donald Crews. I use the rainbow in class a lot. I think it is a really great tool for color recognition, sequencing, math, color theory and so much more. We used these vehicle counters and the children spent a lot of time at our sorting center. The felt pieces also made an appearance at our felt board. Train pieces were drawn by the mister and cut out by me. They match the colors and cars in Freight Train.

Other Train books we read:

Locomotive by Brian Floca
The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter
Trains by Gail Gibbons
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
I Love Trains by Philemon Sturgess

rainbow cloud sorting

I made these rainbow clouds using an extra large cloud punch and craft foam. The colorful bowls are a favorite thrift score. We use them for all sorts of classroom fun; color sorting, dramatic play, and paint vessels to name a few. A diy note and tip for you...craft foam does not play well with a paper punch. When punching, use a sheet of paper (I  think I used a magazine page) under the foam. This will trick the punch into thinking it is punching plain old paper and not the too-pliable craft foam. I also glued a handful of cloud shapes to blank blocks. These were used at the play dough table and were a hit! Enjoy!

on sorting and set ups...

I teach threes in a literature based school. We focus on one book for the week, pulling out theme and curriculum ideas from the book. No matter the theme, I will always have one or two sorting activities out along with fine motor fun, our sticky easel, maybe a felt board, a story basket, the mystery bag, a sensory bin, play dough, and art stuffs. Repeating these projects and actions using different materials is a great way for children to learn and stretch their growing minds and fine motor skills. The success and anticipation of knowing how to use the materials builds their confidence and autonomy while allowing for creative play when they engage with the materials in ways of their own choosing. Each time they succeed or stretch those thought processes connections are made in the brain. It's really cool! So whether or not the children put the correct amount of pom-poms on the corresponding gingerbread person there is still development happening. If the children color sort the poms (like one did in the picture) while another simply throws them all in the air, that's okay, the brain is still working and growing and the child is learning about the world around them.

 

The pretty set ups in my classroom are to engage and invite the children in and create a pleasing environment for myself and their parents. The set up is the photo-sell of a classroom but the real magic happens when the children arrive and create new ways of playing and manipulating their environment. Those photos don't really show the magic but it is there in super leaps and bounds. It is the main reason I work with children, that magical moment of learning that happens when nothing seems to be happening at all.

These gingerbread people were picked up from the dollar section at Target. I'm not a big foam fan but thought these could last a few years. There are numbered dots on one side with the number written on the other. One of my children immediately ripped a leg off of poor number six. After we discussed what was suitable for tearing, we figured out a way to repair the leg and then grabbed some tin foil and construction paper  to create a tearing station. For the sorting pieces you could use pom-poms, stickers, punched pieces, small counters, beans, or even wrapped candies though with a room of three-year olds you may find one hiding out in the gingerbread house with their cheeks full of peppermints...ahem.

sorting gingerbread people

 When we go with a theme for the week, we GO with a theme. Our week of gingerbread touched on all areas of our curriculum. We painted, we mixed, we did experiments, we read stories, we told stories, we played out the story, we sang songs, and we sorted. I picked up these fantastic gingerbread people from etsy seller How We Learn at Home. I didn't have a plan but loved them so I put them out on the tray. I then rediscovered a color carton made by my co-teacher and loved how they matched so I put it out as well. I walked away and began setting up other areas...

When I made my way back around the room with camera in hand, I found this! I love it when they do this. I thought for sure the people would end up all over the place but there they remained nestled in their colors, occasionally dumped and resorted, or put to bed as one of the children kept saying.

invitation to play: pumpkins and creepy crawleys

Four felt pumpkins and a bag of Halloween rings with the ring-parts snipped off. I set it up to see what they would do.

 

Sorting, counting and naming of colors all happened. The children also talked to each other about their favorite colors or their favorite critter. The purple bats were a top favorite.

One child pulled me over to talk about what he discovered after sorting out all the creepies. He said that there were the most spiders and that most of them were black but a lot were orange but that only one was purple. We had been working on counting, grouping, quantities, and subitizing and seeing that he was taking it all in and using it was so cool. So cool!