Colors of the Rainbow

Jman and I made some color bottles together. Ok I made bottles he worked on his fine motor skills and dropped the wrong color bead into every bottle. But that's ok, in our house Jman is allowed to help with anything and everything. So it was a chance to talk more about colors and I guided him to add beads to only one bottle while I sorted. Sometimes he would help put them in the right one. 

I took mini bottles and filled them with whatever of that color I had- beads, pompoms, pipe cleaners, blocks. The teacher stash went to good use! Filled them water and glued the top. 

These are just to have around to talk about colors. He likes to look at them and name the color. We already know most colors through our normal explorations. These are just something different to practice them. 

But then he did something on his own that impressed me. He found some paint chip cards I have and he started to match the card to the color. He would say "where's blue? Oh there it is."  He initiated it all on his own. Now it's a game we play everyday. Smart boy I have. 

In our home, the goal is to learn through play. He's learned most colors by just mentioning them as we do things, pointing them out, same with shapes. Whenever we explore or just playing we talk about what we see and describe it. Now he is counting on his own, counting objects and adding in his head. Just from playing. It's so important the practice of play. Children should be learning through play as long as they possibly can. So we are going to embrace this time for as long as we can and let the whole world be our classroom.