Colours and Shapes Interest

You can have so much fun with a colours and shapes! I sorted through a bunch of ideas and picked my favourites for this interest.

Block shape Stamp Painting

Using big, chunky blocks we stamped them into dishes of paint and stamped them onto paper. The black paper worked well to show off the shape and colours.

You can follow up on this activity by having the children wash the blocks in the water table with a bit of bubbles. They can watch the colours mux and blend as they wash them.

Shape Lacing Cards Activity

I made these lacing cards by printing shapes on card stock and laminateing them. I put colorful backs on them to expand on the conversations about color as well.

The lacing works best with shoe laces or laces with the bound end. Yarn or string is harde for the littles to get threaded through the holes.

Colour Sorting Sensory Bin

In the sensory bin I put two large size ice cube trays. I glued different coloured squares to the bottom of each cube. I includes a wide variety of colourful items in the sensory bin and invited the children to sort the colourful items into the coloured cube trays.

You could also use muffin tins for the sorting. On the second day I added laces from the shape lacing activity as the children were interested in lacing the beads, buttons and straw pieces.

Playdough Shape Mats

An easy idea from Teachers Pay Teachers. I printed off and laminated shape cards and invited the children to build the shapes with playdough. They loved the activity and expanded it to use diffterent colored playdough, mixing the colours to build the shapes. It turned into a shape building AND colour mixing activity. Next time I will use primary colour playdough to expand the coulour mixing idea.

Lettuce Spinner Painting

This activity is so much fun! You simply cut card stock the size of the bottom of your lettuce spinner, drizzle paint around and close the lid and spin. The results are a splatter painting without a splatter mess!

Littles may need help to spin it and I always hold the lettuce spinner for them so it does not tip over.

I used primary colours for the paint to explore even more colour mixing ideas.

Splatter painting the no-mess way!

Color Mixing Station

Again, so simple and so fun! I simply places two bins of coloured water, provided and empty bin and an pipette (eye dropper) and invited the children to explore and mix the coloured water into the emplty bin. I added water absorbing pads beneath the bins to help protect the table. This activity lasted a long time and held their focus.

Orange Juice In A Bag

We explored the different colours of the foods we eat. Then we made Orange Juice in a bag. It was a hit! Simply add orange sections to a large zip bag and have them squish away. Cut the corner and let the juice drain into a cup for them to drink. This was fun and relatively mess free. The room smelt so good once we started squishing the oranges.

2-4 orange sloces at a time seemed to work best.

When you do Orange Juice in a bag you can talk about the colours of many fruits. You can also do Lemon Juice in a bag and squeeze lemons for the color yellow.

For very little friends you may want to tape the top of the bag closed before you let them squish the fruit.

Watch for seeds as you drain the juice into the cup. You do not want to accidentily get a seed in a child's juice cup.

Color Mixing In a Bag

Another simple and clean activity. Simply add cear gel or soap to a large zip bag and add two different coloured paint blobs. I also added glitter fot more fun. Seal the top and tape all four sides to the table. Let the kids squish and mix the colours.

If you are going to tape it to a window (vertical) you will want to use clear hair gel instead of clear soap gel. It is thisker and works better.

Fizzing Colours Science Activity

This activity was so much fun and all the kids enjoyed exploreing the reactions. I simply gave each child a small container of baking soda and three small containers of coloured vinegar and a pipette (eye dropper). I showed them how to use the pipette to pick up the water and drop it into the baking soda and making a small fizzing eruption. They thought it was great and many children asked for new baking soda when their was all used up.

Colours and Shapes was a blast! There are so many ideas for exploring colours and shapes with kids. Get creative and think about new, fun ways to talk about colours and shapes.

Happy Playing!