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. :)



Post Sea Aquarium activities

Off we went to the Sea Aquarium on a bright and sunny Monday morning!

Some sea creatures we love...

And of course many fishes too. Big ones. Small ones. Colourful and dull ones. Weird ones. You name it. They have it.

 

We couldn't help getting all crafty after the trip. Bought beads and wiggly eyes from Daiso.

 

Made a fish using a recycled CD. Fins, tail and mouth using felt.

 

 

Having loads of fun painting the starfish.

 

 

Final products with plenty of help from me!

 

Made an octopus using toilet roll. Zech enjoyed using the glitter glue though he found it hard to squeeze it out.

Wrote a journal in Zechariah's book. It's a book I've made for him since he was a year old. Have written quite a lot of entries starting from his birth. Zech would sit down and watch while I write. Have been keeping bits and pieces of stuff such as tickets to plays, brochures and even red packets etc. This time, I pasted the leaflet from the Sea Aquarium and wrote an entry together with Zech. Was surprised by his enthusiasm and active participation in contributing to some of the content in this entry. My boy has grown!

 



A worthwhile family trip! Definitely enjoyed it much more than the last time I visited the Sydney Aquarium two years ago.



Fun with play dough!

Zech had been asking for new play dough ever since I threw the old ones away. So one night, I decided to make fresh play dough. This time, the texture is much better than before. Love the feel of the play dough myself.

Play dough is becoming a part of Zech's daily play now. He loves squashing them in his hands.
Besides moulding the play dough into small balls, pancakes and sausages, I used it to hone his fine motor skills. Taught him to make a porcupine with toothpicks.

From my kitchen, I took out some spaghetti, penne pasta and cheerios. We poked the spaghetti through a small piece of play dough then thread the penne pasta and cheerios into it. Zech enjoys threading the cheerios.

Bought a set of cookie cutters from Ikea. Using these cookie cutters was the first thing Zech learned with play dough. This time round, we improvised a little by adding details onto the human shape.

More ideas can be found here - http://handsonaswegrow.com/pretend-create-learn-with-play-dough/

Storytelling eggs

Was inspired by a mummy's blog on storytelling pebbles. Brought back memories of school days as a teacher. A technique that uses creativity to tell a story in sequence with pictures as stimulus is a rather common method I used in teaching creative writing. Never imagined this could work for young kids. What amazed me was the ability of a 32 month old who can comprehend and enjoy storytelling in this way. Especially for busy mummies, this is very simple to prepare.

Searched for cute clipart from mycutegraphics.com. Printed and laminated them before placing each clipart in a plastic egg. These eggs were in fact Easter eggs.  Now I can maximise their use. :)

Got Zech to choose one egg at a time. As he took out the picture from each egg, I'd spin a story based on each picture. The main character in the story is of course none other than Zech. I guess that's why he likes this so much.

At the end, I'd lay out the pictures in order and repeat the story again.

Have done this with Zech a few times and every time we do this, the story is different. Sometimes, Zech even attempts to tell the story. The most motivating part for me is when Zech told me, 'This story is nice.' Realised it takes so little to make a child happy. We will be having these eggs around for some time.