Littles Learning Link Up: Colors and Color Mixing Fun Literature and Craft Round Up

Welcome to Littles Learning Link Up. Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child.

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

It's time for this month's Round Up

Recently I have been trying something different for my round up posts. I share a selection of books that focus on a specific topic (like Celebrating the Birth of Christ or Snowmen) and then I share a round up of "Favorite Book List" posts that other bloggers have compiled, plus craft/activity posts that went with those books. I have decided I am going to continue this through the year. I hope these posts have helped you find some new books to share with your children. I know they have helped me find books I have never heard of before, and reminded me of books we have read in the past but I had forgotten about.

This month I decided to focus on colors and color mixing because our current (and final) unit with My Father's World Kindergarten is Y:Yellow. We are focusing on colors and being thankful for the beautiful world that God gave us.

As I've done in the past, after I share my book selections and craft, I will share a list of posts that also focus on colors and color mixing.  I hope you find some new books and ideas to share with your children.

Colors and Color Mixing Fun Literature and Craft Round Up

There are some wonderful books available that focus on color and color mixing. 

First I would like to share my favorite books where each color gets its own focus.

White is for Blueberry by George Shannon has a unique way of looking at objects, and seeing colors that you wouldn't normally associate with the object. 

Icky Bug Colors by Jerry Pallotta features bright, bold images of bugs on each double page spread. Each one devoted to one color that pops right off the page. 

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert is a great book for spring time, as different color flowers are planted. After all the flowers have grown, each page is devoted to one color of the rainbow. I love that each page is a little bigger than the others, because strips of each color show on the right side of the book forming a rainbow, which slowly shrinks as you turn the page. I also love that there are a variety of flowers for each color. 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. is a classic book that focuses one animal of a specific color at a time. Each one tells what the next animal will be as it answers the question "...what do you see?"

What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park shares the story of a little bunny going through the garden, seeing new colors along the way. Each new color is introduced by a rhyme.

Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood, is a cute story about a curious little owl who stays awake during the day to see the beautiful colors of the world.

Now I would like to share my favorite books about color mixing.

The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown is about two kittens who try to make all the colors of the world by mixing the primary colors. 

Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni is about two friends, Little Blue and Little Yellow. One day they can't find each other, and when they do, they become green. Unfortunately, there parents don't recognize them and they are rejected until they find a way to become their true colors again. 

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh has to be my top favorite. When the older girls were younger, we did a craft based on this book. The white mice hide from the cat because they are the same color as the page. But one day they find three jars of paint, red, yellow, and blue. They take turns getting into the different colors and stepping in puddles of a different color to make the secondary colors, which they paint with. They make sure to leave a section of the paper white however, so they have a place to hide once they are washed off.

In Harvey the Painter by Lars Klinting, the beavers Harvey and Chip are painting a cupboard, and they have to mix the colors together to make a very colorful cupboard indeed.

And now for our project.

The project the children and I did was based on the book Chameleon's Colors by Chisato Tashiro. The book itself is not one that focuses on colors or color mixing; however, we used it to make camouflaged chameleons like the poor chameleon in the book who is tired of never being seen because he always blends in with his surroundings. When he discovers that hippo would love to be able to change colors, he took flowers, fruit, and leaves and squeezed out the juices so he could paint all the animals in the jungle. However, they discovered they wouldn't be able to survive without being the colors they were meant to be, because they couldn't either couldn't hide or find their prey. They got angry with Chameleon for messing up their world. In the end, they all discover that they are happy the way they were meant to be. 

Camouflaged Chameleons

For this project you will need:

Card stock

Fine tip black marker

Acrylic Paint

Paint brush

Construction paper

Scissors

Glue stick

Crayons (optional)

Here is a video we made, with step-by-step instructions for making the chameleon.

As mentioned in the video, I was trying to use the same way of looking at an object that Mr. Hofland does in his ArtAchieve classes. I did not do near as good of a job as he does, but I hope you can follow the steps, or perhaps get the idea for drawing the chameleon yourself. I really do like the way Mr. Hofland teaches his lessons. I invite you to check out my review. ArtAchieve even offers some free lessons. 

Once you have drawn your chameleon, it needs to be painted. I had the children decide what color they wanted their chameleons to be by having them think about what they would like the chameleon to be hiding in front of. For instance, Tabitha chose to paint her chameleon pink because she was going to make a pink tulip to glue it on to. Amelia's chameleon is green because it is walking in the green grass. Harold's is blue because it is in the water (yes, I tried to tell him water isn't really blue, but he was stubborn). Hannah's is orange because if is crawling next to an orange. And mine is on a yellow flower, so yes, it is yellow.

This step gave us a chance to play around with some color mixing. They are all old enough to not really need a lesson in this, but it would be a great opportunity for younger children to learn which colors come from other colors being mixed together.

Then they used construction paper to create their backgrounds.

More Color and Color Mixing Crafts and Activities that go with books:

Chelsea from Buggy and Buddy shared Cooking With Kids: Little Blue and Little Yellow Cookies.

Chelsea from Buggy and Buddy also shared Playdough Color Mixing Activity Inspired by Little Blue and Little Yellow.

Jodie from Growing Book by Book shared Writing Activities: Little Blue and Little Yellow Sensory Writing.

Sheryl from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds shared Little Blue and Little Yellow Paint Mixing.

Cerys from Rainy Day Mum shared Little Blue and Little Yellow Colour Exploration.

Cerys from Rainy Day Mum also shared No Mess Colour Theory Experiment to go with Little Blue and Little Yellow.

Chelsea from Buggy and Buddy also shared Mixing Colors: Create and Name Your Own Colors to go with the book Mix it Up!

Jen from Mama. Papa. Bubba. shared 'Mix it Up!' Colour Exploration Kit

Jen from Mama. Papa. Bubba. also shared Colour Theory Ornaments to go with Mix it Up!

Devany from Still Playing School shared Chameleon Color Changing Activity for a Color of His Own.

Darla from The Preschool Toolbox shared Mouse Paint: Learning About Colors in Preschool.

MaryAnne from Mama Smiles shared No-Mess Color Mixing Art to go with Mouse Paint.

Rebecca from Line Upon Line Learning shared Learning About Color Mixing with the Color Kittens.

Tanya from The Natural Homeschool shared Awesome Printable Heart Activities for Kids {Color Strips}.

Tanya from The Natural Homeschool also shared Heart Activities for Kids to Match Colors {Printable}.

Tanya from The Natural Homeschool also shared Insect Books For Preschoolers That Teach About Maps, Colors, and Sight Words (Printables).

Kay from Handcrafting a Vibrant Arab World shared Mosque Golden Domes {Tutorial}.

Amanda from Sicily's Heart & Home shared Orange Toddler Theme to go with the book Orange by Sarah L. Schuette.

Annette from A Net in Time shared Art Series: The Painting-In Book.

What are your favorite Color/Color Mixing books that you read to your children?

I am lining up guest posts for the new year. If you would be interested writing a guest post for Littles Learning Link Up one of these months, please leave a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page. I will need to have your email address so I can contact you. I am looking for posts that have to do with young children: crafts, activities, foods/snacks, tips, or other ideas. I am open to suggestions.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were only 3 wonderful posts linked up. Unfortunately, last week's post was very late due to three days of being without electricity thanks to the severe weather that rolled through the area. I will only be sharing a randomly selected post, as there were no clicks either. 

Don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Lisa from Syncopated Mama shared Latticed Learning: The Early Church.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas or other relevant board, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time, if applicable. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

I would love if you could share my button. 

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An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing here:

Toddler Ideas Tuesday: February 17, 2015

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! I hope you will join with me again in sharing the fun activities, crafts, and lessons that you are doing with your young children. 

Now that we are done with our countdown to Valentine's Day, I wanted to share an idea for St. Patrick's Day. Yes, I realize it is a month away. The thing is, I wanted to make sure to get this idea out there for anyone who was interested, because you would need to get started early next week as we are going to do.

I like to use this time of year to focus on colors with the children. I will focus on 2 colors a week, making our way through the colors of the rainbow in order. Here is this years plan:

We will have 2 days to focus on each color: Monday/Tuesday for one, then Thursday/Friday for the next one, and so forth, and so on. Wednesdays we have off because of co-op. Mondays and Thursdays the color will be introduced and they will have a muffin tin. We will do color collages and I will put together a color sensory bin. Sort of like this one I made several months ago:

For each color, the children will also add torn paper for a rainbow. Here's how we did it one year:

Next Monday the children will have a Red muffin tin meal for lunch, sort of like this one, but I do like to change them up from year to year.

 The older girls will get muffin tins, but any of the projects we do will be for the younger children. You can check out this post to see ideas for muffin tins of each color.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

On my last Toddler Idea Tuesday post, there were 3 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post. 

This week's randomly selected post is:

Tara from Embark on the Journey shared her round up post called 20+ Busy Bags to Keep the Littles Occupied. I don't know about you, but I sure can use some ideas to keep my littlest one busy while working with the older children.

The following post tied with the above post for the most clicks:

Jill from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom shared her fun penguin activity: Tacky the Penguin Sensory Bin. This will be great when we get to P:Penguin again with My Father's World Kindergarten next year.

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your toddlers and preschoolers? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up. Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our toddler time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

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Hands-On Construction Play with Design & Drill Socket to Me {A Review}

We had the wonderful opportunity of reviewing another product from Educational Insights. This is such a remarkable company, with just awesome products that combine fun with learning. For the construction-minded child, they have a wonderful, award-winning line of Design & Drill products. The newest toy in this series is called Design & Drill Socket to Me which is suitable for kids ages 4 and up. 

Enclosed you will find 4 separate sturdy plastic projects, along with 30 multi-colored bolts and a socket wrench that actually switches from forward to reverse.

There are 6 each of 5, bright, eye-catching colors.

A child can choose between the rocket, race car, robot, or tugboat.

 Below, you can see the switch used to choose between forward and reverse.  In order to attach the bolts you need to ensure that the bolt is tightening. The switch should be all the way to the right; you will hear it click into place. To loosen the bolts, just move the switch all the way to the left. When we first started using the wrench we didn't realize the switch wasn't quite "clicked in" and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Surprisingly, mommy was able to figure it out without the help of daddy. If you are not hearing the real ratchet sounds, just check the switch. There are times it will move slightly while the child is working on a project.

As Hannah is our resident 4 year old, she had the honor of trying out the Socket to Me kit first. She was having a blast designing the rocket.

We did discover that it is necessary to use our fingers to twist the bolts on as far as they will go before using the socket wrench. This is a wonderful opportunity to develop the pincer grasp and work on twisting at the wrist.

It is then time to pick up the wrench and tighten the bolts. We have found that it is easiest to work with the projects if we are holding them in our hands. (For anyone who has an aversion to squeaking objects, do NOT allow your child to work on this with it resting against the table. Eeek!)

It took a few demonstrations from mommy, but she finally figured out how to get the wrench to work.

Yes, she was having a blast!!

So curious. She was watching how the bolt went in from the underside.

Finished project.

Amelia wanted a turn next. While the product is recommended for ages 4 and up, I wondered if my two older girls would be too old for it at 6 and 7 years of age. I discovered that I had no reason to be concerned. 

I was going to suggest that she try making her design symmetrical, because we had been learning about symmetry recently in our lesson times. Imagine my delight when she decided to do just that, without my prompting (or even hinting)!

In fact, both the robot and the rocket lend themselves to being designed symmetrically if a child so desires.

No need to worry about your children not using their imagination. Once the projects are completed, the children were having fun using them for such things as blasting up into space.

Though recommended for children 4 and up, Harold was trying valiantly to attach the bolts. 

I think with a little more work he may get this yet. 

Yes, he was supervised while using the bolts, which could be considered a chocking hazard.

I was also happy to see how safely this was designed.

The way the activity boards are designed, there is no chance of a child being poked or scratched with the bolts. As you can see, even when they are securely attached, they do not extend beyond the base.

The Design & Drill Socket to Me kit is full of safe, educational, skill building fun. 

Skills learned:

• Your child will get to practice fine-motor skills while learning about tools. 
• Color recognition and sorting
• Math skills, such as counting and symmetry
• Imagination development

Concerns:

• Though there are obviously an even amount of bolts, I wish there were 3 more so that all of the projects could be used without taking bolts out of another one.
• I would love to see either another wrench provided with the kit so more than one child could use this activity at a time, or have the ability to purchase one separately. Though it does teach a child to take turns and to wait patiently, the girls would have had a blast working together to create their projects.
• The switch on the socket wrench does tend to get knocked out of position really easily, which can lead to frustration.

We always love the unique products from Educational Insights. Even with the concerns, this is no exception.

You can purchase the Design & Drill Socket To Me for $21.99 from Educational Insights.

Find Educational Insights on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube.

Don't forget to stop by later this week to enter to win your very own! 

Disclosure: I received the Design and Drill Socket to Me kit from Educational Insights in exchange for my honest review. I received no further compensation. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.