{"id":19198,"date":"2012-02-23T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T14:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/homeschool\/?p=19198"},"modified":"2019-03-11T10:08:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:08:45","slug":"preschool-activities-colors-and-shapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/homeschool\/preschool-activities-colors-and-shapes\/","title":{"rendered":"Preschool Activities: Colors and Shapes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The following \u00a0is a post from Angie.<\/em><\/p>\n

In my capacity as founder\/editor at The Homeschool Classroom<\/a>, I find that we frequently get asked on our Facebook page about how to start formal schooling with very young children.\u00a0 While I am not personally a proponent of formal schooling at a very young age, I think that lots of exploring, music, games, and reading are wonderful ways for young children to learn.\u00a0 Some basic skills, however, that are also great fun to work on are colors, shapes, letters, and numbers.<\/p>\n

The colors and shapes activities that I’m sharing today are hands on activities that will make learning fun and interactive.\u00a0<\/strong> Some of them can get messy with very young children, so plan to be with them.<\/p>\n

Everyday Conversation<\/h3>\n

When I was working as an in-home developmental therapist for several years, I often suggested to parents, who wanted learning activities for these concepts, that they just incorporate colors or shapes in their everyday conversation.\u00a0 Instead of saying to your child, “Can you get the towel for me?”\u00a0 You can easily say, “Can you get the blue towel for me?”\u00a0 (You can do this even if the only choice is a blue towel.\u00a0 It’s not about choosing, it’s about giving that color a name.\u00a0 Of course, as they get a little older, distinguishing between colors becomes another thing to work on.)<\/p>\n

Art Activities<\/h3>\n

Art activities are boundless when it comes to the ability to work on naming shapes and colors, from coloring, to finger painting, to sidewalk chalk, and so much more.\u00a0 Art, by its very nature, is often about colors and shapes.<\/p>\n

For younger children, talk about colors and shapes during art projects.\u00a0 Allow them time to just work, but also take time to ask them about the colors or shapes they are using.\u00a0 For older children, you can move on to harder, more complex shapes as well as concepts like color mixing.<\/p>\n

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Making Color Mixed Crayons:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It’s fun to talk about the colors while using old crayons to make new crayons that are a mixed color. It’s also a fun opportunity to make a variety of shapes. (Directions for making mixed color crayons from old crayons<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Shape Pictures<\/h3>\n

While these are also art activities, these are a fun thing for slightly older children (preschool and kindergarten).<\/p>\n

A Shape Caterpillar:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I worked on this with my preschool-aged co-op class once, and they had a ball.\u00a0 (Kids love their glue sticks!)\u00a0 We used foam shapes in a variety of colors and worked on everyone recognizing the shapes and colors that they used on their papers.<\/p>\n

Shape Collages:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is one that I did with my children of a variety of ages.\u00a0 While I wasn’t worried about the older ones naming shapes, my youngest and I talked about the shapes and colors on the page.\u00a0 In this particular activity, we worked on making buildings by cutting various shapes out of construction paper and putting them together to make the finished product. \u00a0This is also a great activity for working on scissor skills.<\/p>\n

Making Jewelry<\/h3>\n

While some people may not think to do this with boys, I have found in my co-op classes (and at home) that young boys liked doing these activities just as much as the young girls.\u00a0 If you are working with small children, of course, they will need constant supervision as some small pieces could be a choking hazard.<\/p>\n

Some examples of jewelry making projects that we’ve done include:<\/p>\n

Pop Beads (as shown in first picture):<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are good not only for colors but also for fine motor skills.\u00a0 Some Pop Bead sets come with various shapes as well as the traditional rounded shape.<\/p>\n

Plastic Pony Beads<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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Pony beads are also available in various shapes and colors.\u00a0 Whenever I use them with younger kids (or even older ones), I like to tape the end of a string to the table so they don’t get frustrated by the beads falling off the other end. \u00a0Keep in mind that sometimes beads of this size are discouraging to young children.<\/p>\n

Stringing Colored Pasta:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This was one of my favorite activities that I ever did with my preschool co-op class.\u00a0 We made pasta necklaces for their mothers for Mother’s Day.\u00a0 Pasta comes in many shapes, and you can dye them in a large variety of colors.\u00a0 Leftover pasta can be used for other art projects or sensory bins as well.\u00a0 (Here are step-by-step directions for dying pasta for kids crafts.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Sorting Activities<\/h3>\n

As children get older, sorting is a great way to learn about colors and shapes (and many other things too!). \u00a0Being able to distinguish a color or shape from others is a higher level skill than naming a shape or color.\u00a0 A favorite activity of ours was sorting fun size packages of M&M candies.\u00a0 All of the children made predictions about what they thought they would have the most of and the least of color-wise.\u00a0 For my youngest, she just worked on sorting after that, while my oldest kids worked on ratios and other math concepts.\u00a0 (Everyone ate their materials afterward!)<\/p>\n

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The homemade worksheet is where the sorting took place.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are also many wonderful educational toys to work on shape and color sorting.\u00a0 Some of my favorites from my developmental therapy days include:<\/p>\n