All about colours part 3

Yellow was the next colour Zech learned.

Bought the tiny yellow stones from Daiso and the rest of the objects were taken from his existing toys. Added a real lemon for the first day of play with the sensory tray.

After playing with the sensory tray, I cut a slice of lemon and let Zech try it. Very sour but he likes it.

Stimulating the 5 senses is important in learning so this time, yellow food is included in learning. :)


Zech had scrambled eggs with cheese for breakfast. I allowed him to watch how the scrambled eggs were cooked. He was involved in beating the egg and adding in the cheese. He slurped it all up! For lunch, he had pineapple fried rice prepared by my mum. Super yummy too!

Coincidentally, the next day was a rainy day. Brought out his yellow raincoat and rain boots and played pretend at home. We sang the yellow song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHGYLqvfygE) while walking around the house.

Once the rain stopped, we went to the roof garden for a walk.

There's Zech romping around in his rain boots at the fitness corner.

We even spotted a yellow flower.

Then it was time to work those little fingers! Zech had fun with window art. I pasted contact paper on the sliding window and Zech pasted pieces of yellow transparent paper on it. The final product will be one with different colours on it.

 

Other activities Zech did with the colour yellow were kneading yellow play dough, sponge painting on a chick and picking up yellow pom poms with tongs and placing them in the egg carton. He had loads of fun! The best part I feel was using the concept of a chick hatching from an egg to teach him about how God has given us a new life when we believe in Jesus Christ.

In the following week, I prepared a different sensory tray for Zech to learn the colour orange. We had too many ice cubes at home so I put a couple of them in a pail and added some orange colouring.

Water play has always been Zech's top favourite activity. Ice play seems fun for him too. He loves scooping up the ice with his bowl and pouring them back again into the pail.

Ice play was the first part of play. The second part was after his nap. By then, the ice had melted. Took the opportunity to teach him Science. He looked kind of amazed when I showed him the melted ice cubes. Now he could play with orange water!

Zech did some quiet work as well. He identified orange smiley stickers on the sticker sheet and pasted the stickers on an activity sheet.

 

Made a bag of orange paint for Zech to scribble on. But he played with it for a while and now it's just sitting in his activity basket.

Zech also made his own orange juice. The enjoyable part was of course drinking the fruit of his labour.

He continued with his window art.

 

 

 

Found some really nice printable pumpkins online (http://www.pre-kpages.com/halloween-visual-discrimination-activity/). Zech was supposed to identify similar patterns in the pumpkins. A pity he was not in the least interested. He merely tried once and protested loudly when I asked him to do it again.

The last activity I did with Zech was counting one on one. He often recites 1 to 10 while he plays but this is probably meaningless unless he understands the concept of counting. Was surprised he enjoyed this activity and wanted to try over and over again. It's a good way to get him to learn counting. :)

 

 



 

Learning about colours part 2

After playing around with the colour red, it's time to move on. The following week, we named it the green week. Throughout all the activities, I emphasized on the colour I wanted Zech to learn and at the same time, I tested him while he played.

1. Sensory tray with all things green. Green beans, leaves, ribbon, pom poms, bowl containers etc.

Indulging himself in free play with the sensory tray, Zech got all imaginative with the different objects in the tray.

He hung the ribbon around his neck and pranced in front of the mirror, pretending the ribbon to be a necklace. Then he used the Christmas stocking as a pillow and laid down on the rug to sleep.

 

2. Do-a-dot art. This is displayed in Zech's room and he loves naming the animals every time he passes by.

 

 

3. Leaf printing. The final product looks quite bad as Zech pressed too hard so the prints do not look like leaf prints at all. He enjoyed getting his hands all green though. Boys are boys after all.

 

 

4. Turtle craft. This was not a hit with Zech at al. See the photo below? He seemed to be forced to paint the paper plate green. However, he likes pasting the beads on the "shell" of the turtle. The sticky white glue on his fingers added to his delight.

 

5. Read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' to Zech who simply adores the book. Did a follow-up activity. Taught Zech how to reorder the sizes of the caterpillar. He caught on the concept of big to small pretty quickly.

 

 

Blue was the colour I wanted Zech to learn next. This was fairly easy for him.

 

1. Sensory tray for blue. A very soothing colour I realised.

 





This time, Zech was fascinated with the glittering pipe cleaners. He imagined them as birthday candles! ;)

 

2. Playing with white and blue water beads. Zech loves this and keeps asking to play again. The interesting thing is you can't see the white water beads in the water. You can only feel them. To identify the blue ones from the white ones, Zech scooped them up with a sieve and poured them into a container. He had to take out the white water beads and put them back in the pail. He had tremendous fun with these water beads! But close adult supervision is required. Had to remind Zech never to put these water beads into this mouth,

 

 



 3. Doraemon memory game

Zech likes Doraemon. Thanks to my mum's nfluence! :p So I downloaded some Doraemon pictures from the internet, printed them and taught Zech how to play the memory game. While playing, I pointed out the colour of Doraemon's clothes and also the blue sky that God created. I've intentionally chosen the sky theme in most of the Doraemon's pictures. Too bad the sky outside was overcast that day. Though he couldn't really see the blue sky, he knew God has created the sky blue.

4. Do-a-dot art. Printed this activity from here: http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/bingo_daubers.htm
Zech had to be more precise at where he dabbed his dots now. This time, he learned the sea is blue and God has created the blue sea.

The majority of the materials for Zech's activities were bought from Daiso. My favourite store currently for stocking up on craft and play.

Zech celebrates Children's Day!

Family traditions are something I cherish as they create beautiful memories of family time. Besides celebrating special occasions such as birthdays and anniversary, Children's Day has always been special in my heart. Not just as a child but also as a teacher, I used to spend time and effort looking for gifts for my form class. Enjoyed doing that. The entire process of searching, buying, packaging and finally giving. All these just to expect a big smile from my pupils. It's a time for me to show my love for them despite the scolding and nagging in the classroom almost every day.

As a stay-at-home mum now, Children's day is part of our family tradition starting from this year. Other than presents, I made a card and wrote a special love note inside just for Zech. Always feel it's so important to tell a child how special he is to us parents.

The boys with their presents on Children's Day!

Fun at the Science Centre! Special activities were lined up for the kids that day at the marquee near the Ecogarden. Here's Zech learning about the wonders of colours.

This wasn't as enjoyable for Zech as the Sound Show which is shown daily at the Science Centre. Smaller scale but cosier. Was pretty interesting for Zech as he learned about the different sounds produced by various objects. A visual and auditory treat!


Zech's favourite exhibit! Found near the entrance. He was fascinated with the cause and effect of the ball spinning and rolling.

Children's Day Carnival at Burghley Drive...

Zech had loads of fun at the water play table on his own and later with his cousin.

 

 

Managed to get Zech's little fingers working on decorating a windmill at the Art Studio.

 

 

 

There was a bouncing castle at the carnival but we had to go. Zech was really reluctant as he was still having fun with the water play then. Now I'm so tempted to buy a second-hand water and sand play table for him. Hm...lots more thinking to do.

 

Learning about colours

It was easy for Zech to learn and recognise the basic shapes but not colours. Decided to focus on one colour a week. Started with the colour red.

1. Sensory tray

Zech had a good time exploring the items. He used the red cup to scoop the red beans and poured some into the red plastic bag.

Nathanael wanted to be involved too so we took out one item at a time and let him practice grasping objects. Zech had lots of fun with the red packet which he pretended to take out money and gave some to me. Other items in the tray included cubes, shapes, foam music notes and instruments, rubber bands, toy fruits, tinsel. Throughout his play time, I repeatedly tell him the items are red in colour.

2. Using the shapes from the shape sorter and with red paint, I taught Zech how to print shapes. He had great fun as it was similar to stamping.

 

 

3. Cut an apple and showed Zech how God has put a star in the apple. He was fascinated. After telling him the apple is red, we ate the apples. Then we used the remaining apple to make apple prints. Was not very successful as Zech tends to press too hard so the prints did not come out nicely.

 

 

 

 

4. Zech used tongs to pick up red pom poms and placed them on the apples on the apple tree.

 



 

 



5. Made apple stencils for Zech by cutting out the apples on printed paper. This was easier for Zech as all he needed to do was to hold the brush and paint.

 

 

After feasting his eyes on red for a week, we are now moving on to the colour green. That is going to be good for his eyes. :)