Love Books Exchange: Learn about Color with Kids
This Summer, we joined up with The Educators’ Spin On It, and 35 other bloggers, for the Love Books Summer Exchange. Each blogger was paired up with another family, and we sent out a themed package full of activities to go along with a book.
My partner is Dusty from To The Moon and Back. She and I must have been best friends in a past life, because she sent us the perfect package full of activities to explore art and learn about color with kids. I am such a sucker for Art, and even teach children’s art classes in my spare time, so I was GIDDY to see the contents of this box of summer fun!
The Crayon Box that Talked is a cute story about a girl who buys a box of crayons after overhearing them talking to each other. None of the crayons liked eachother very much, or got along. So, she drew a picture using all the colors and taught them a lesson- all the colors were important and the picture would not be complete without all of them.
It was a very cute, character building message, for a story that encouraged a lot of color exploration in our home!
Dusty came up with these wonderful art activities to go along with this story to explore the idea of using all the colors:
The kids made mosaics using pieces of craft foam Dusty had cut up into small pieces. Bug did the masterpiece shown here, a colorful mosaic of Batman.
Dusty made a printable scavenger hunt for us to go on a color search. The kids were given a pillowcase, and 60 seconds to collect as many colored items as possible. Then, they sorted them into like colors, and were given a score based on the value of each color they found (for example, primary colors are worth 10 points, secondary are worth 5).
All the kids were given a chance to paint using the Primary colors to see what other colors they could make. Little Miss is the one who loved this activity most. She was fascinated by all the colors on her hand, and enjoyed squishing them and mixing them!
She also sent us a large container of colorful candies, which the kids used to estimate the quantity, and then count. Little Miss was very busy messing up their neat piles of 5, and eating all she could get her hands on!
This was Mr. Man’s favorite activity. Dusty made a color mixing printable to use with Playdough. We took a small amount of the primary colors, and then squished and blended them to make the secondary colors. I was really surprised at how clean and beautiful the colors came out, and this may be my new favorite way to learn about color mixing with kids!
We made this very clever, and very easy color wheel using paint chips Dusty picked up for us. All I did was hole punch them in the end, and attach them with a brad after Bug put them in order. We also used this to talk about color value, and complementary colors. When we were done making them, I stuck them in my bag to use as examples in Art Class!
I thought it was so sweet that Dusty thought of Little Miss, and made a few activities just for her. This one is her new favorite toy. Dusty took a Pringles can, punched holes in the top, and added colored reinforcement stickers, and then gave Little Miss a bunch of pipe cleaners to thread through the holes and sort the colors. This simple toy keeps her attention for hours, and she has yet to get bored of sorting the colors.
This is the second activity Dusty made just for Little Miss- the pom poms get sorted by color on the tray.
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We had a wonderful experience with the Love Books Summer Exchange. You can head over to Dusty’s blog at To the Moon and Back to see the German themed box and activities we sent her family back in the states!
Stop by the Host of Love Books, The Educators’ Spin On It to see more than 30 other books and ideas to help you have more FUN with reading this summer! Visit all the participating bloggers while you’re at it!
Get the printables from this post on To The Moon and Back!
What a wonderful exchange! Looking forward to seeing what you sent – headed to Dusty’s site now.
Love the activities and we love that book!