Play School: Colors

This week in Play School we learned about colors. M taught and she had some great ideas!

Concepts: naming colors, mixing the primary colors to make new colors

Activity: Along with finger-painting (always a favorite among preschoolers!), M put plain gelatin into sandwich bags and added a few drops of food coloring. Then she let the kids smush the bags until the gelatin was colored. They started with primary colors and then added more food coloring to make purple, green, and orange. The kids loved the texture of the gelatin in the plastic bags and watching it change colors.

During the week, I also helped Tempe, Helena, and big B make "tie-dye" crayons one day. I took all of the broken crayons we had around the house, peeled off the paper, and let them choose whichever ones they wanted to put in muffin tins (with liners). I baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes, and then put them into the freezer to cool. The result was a somewhat blobby, muffin shaped crayon that is strange to look at, but fun to color with.

Books: Red Red Red by Valeri Gorbachev; My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss; Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert; I Spy by Walter Wick; Colors by Richard Scarry; Color Dance by Ann Jonas; My Very First Book of Colors by Eric Carle; The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone; and Colors Everywhere by Tana Hoban.

Songs: The Primary Colors

Snack: Rainbow Cake--big B helped me make this Rainbow Cake while Tempe and little B were at Joy School. We started with a basic white cake mix, prepared as directed on the box. We divided the prepared batter into five equal amounts in separate bowls and added food coloring to make red, orange, yellow, green, and blue batter. Then we stacked the batters on top of each other in a bundt cake pan, being careful not to swirl them.

It looked kind of gross until we cut into it. But look at that "rainbow!"

Get to know you question: What is your favorite color?

Tempe: pink (no surprise)

Big B: blue

Little B: dark blue (go BYU!)