DIY Color Recognition & Color Matching Activities

DIY Paint Chip Color Activity: 

I made for my soon-to-be-preschooler to help her practice color recognition and matching same colors and shades.

Materials Used:
* 2 of each color paint chips (ex. 2 reds, 2 oranges, 2 yellows, etc)
* Clothes pins (I bought a package at the Dollar Tree.... I love that place!)
* Hot glue (to glue the paint chip to the clothes pin)
* Scissors (to cut one sheet of paint chips)
* Zip top baggie (for storage) 

And that is it! I took a few minutes of me demonstrating to my daughter how to match the color shades before she caught on....Now she is a pro!

DIY Construction Paper-Object Match Up Activity:

Materials Used:
* Construction paper (I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and white).
* Objects or toys around the house.
* A basket to place your gathered items in....have your child sort these items by placing the object on the paper that matches the color on the object.

Several objects had multiple colors on them. After discussing with my daughter the different colors on the object we concluded the color that was most present/visible on that object was the same color construction paper she placed the object on.

Note: Since the first time she did this match up activity I wrote the name of the color on the corresponding construction paper sheet. Then I laminated it! Have I ever mentioned how much I love my laminator! Best invention ever for a stay-at-home-mom and in-home-childcare-provider!

DIY Fine Motor Development Activity

A couple months back I made this fun game for my daughter to play. She loves it and plays with it at least once a week or more. I like it because it helps her to develop her fine motor skills as well as matching and eye-hand coordination to name a few.

Materials I used:
* A clean, empty Pringles can
* Fuzzy pompom balls (I got in a package from the Dollar Tree)
* Chinese chopsticks for beginners (I got from a Chinese restaurant we dined at, I asked the waiter if we could take two....they said yes as they were just going to dispose of them after we left)
* Scrapbook paper (to wrap around the Pringles can)
* Tape or glue (for the scrapbook paper)

And that's it folks! So simple to make and easy to play!

And one of my favorite parts (as I love organization) is that all the pieces store nicely inside the container! 

My three year old daughter loves picking up colors one at a time. For example she will pick up all the yellow pompoms, then all the orange ones, then the green....and so on and so forth until they are all picked up and placed back into the Pringles can.

If I play with her we will race to see who can pick up their colors the quickest.

Note: The pompoms are a choking hazard for little ones so supervision is needed if you think your child may put them in their month. 

Learning the Alphabet.... One Letter at a Time!

I made this little alphabet tracing book for my toddler to help her with tracing and working on her fine motor skills. Using a dry erase marker she follows the lines. Each time she "practices" her writing she gets a little better. To clean up the alphabet book and make it ready for the next time we use a wet washcloth or a baby wipe.

I purchased the colorful paper (no cutting needed as it is already this size) from the Dollar Tree in the school/office supply section. I also purchased the letter/writing paper at the Dollar Tree which I used to write the upper case and lower case letters onto using a permanent sharpie marker. I then cut the writing paper into a smaller size and glued it into the center of the colored paper.

Next I laminated it all! I love my laminator! As a mom to a toddler and a in-home daycare provider I use my laminator way more than I ever imagined I would! Did I mention I love my laminator? I bought it from Walmart for around $30 and the sheets I buy in the big pack as I use them often.To me it's been a great investment!

After I laminated the cards, I hole punched them and added these little rings through the hole punches. I found the rings in the school/office supply section at Walmart.

Don't forget about the 123's! I also included numbers 0-9 for her to trace!

Here is another little tip....I hot glued little pompoms onto the end of the caps of the dry erase markers so she can erase if she wants!

Another thing I love about this book is it is small enough to fit in my purse to take with us for something for her to do in the car, at a restaurant, or while waiting at the doctor's office!