Welcome back to the
here on Play Create Explore!
In the 4th week of the Color of the Week Series, my oldest son chose the color BLACK!
I'll admit that I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have as many activities for this week's color since we are usually surrounded by more colorful toys and craft supplies, but after we started getting into it, I had a hard time deciding which activities I wanted to do...there are so many cool things to do with the color black!
I didn't have many all black objects or toys though to make our usual exploration bucket, such as THIS ONE, so we just jumped right into walking around the house and pointing out the things that were black, then we jumped right into some sensory play!
*Sorry for the lack of pictures of the kids in action, but with this being Spring Break Week,
I just didn't have the time to include many play pics in the post. *
Black Buttons and Homemade Colored
and Licorice Scented Rice
We have a pretty big button collection so I gathered some of the black ones and threw them in with our homemade colored and scented rice. This rice was licorice scented and was a scent the boys weren't used to so it was funny to see their reactions to the new smell! See how to color and scent this rice, HERE!
Gluing Black Paper Squares
We did a very simple pasting activity using some cut construction paper pieces. This was Little B's (19 mo) first time doing something like this and he did pretty well! I showed him how to put the pieces on the glue and pat them a bit, which he did., but he also just liked to run his fingers in the glue and take the pieces off haha, but that's just part of the exploration process of FIRST ART. My oldest used his glue stick to use the black squares to make his own collage which he said was a treasure map.
Black Aquarium Gravel Sensory Bin
Super simple sensory bin with black aquarium gravel bought from Petco. Aquarium gravel is cheap and comes in so many different colors. It's an awesome sensory material!
Animals
We started talking about animals with black skin or fur, black stripes or spots...snakes, bats, bears, zebras, pandas, bees, spiders, killer whales, etc. I had some of these in our animal collection so I got these out and talked about them with the boys. For little B, this was more for animal identification. He hadn't learned many of these animals yet!
And so we did a few animal activities, starting with some simple coloring pages which I found and printed off of Google Images. See my google search results HERE, for some ideas.
Panda Sensory Bin
A simple sensory bin created with navy beans and black aquarium gravel.
(you could also use black beans!)
The kids seemed to really like Zebra's, including my youngest
so we did a few Zebra activities...
A super simple and fun art activity with beautiful results!
Click HERE to see the how-to and the finished product!
Little B played with our zebra striped shaving cream afterwards!
Zebra Themed Bath
This zebra themed bath was so fun to create and fun for the boys! I used zebra print duct tape to make the letters on the wall and trim for the outter tub side. I used store bought washable paint for the zebra stripes on the wall and black food coloring for the bathwater. The black paint didn't stain at all, however the black food coloring left a very faint tub ring disappeared in minutes on it's own without scrubbing after I misted it with a bleach/water combo. The also drew some stripes on the white balloons with a sharpie. Done. Easy peasy!
Black Shredded Paper Sensory Bin
We have a paper shredder so I shredded a bunch of black construction paper for this simple sensory exploration bin. After they were done playing I bagged it up for another time, or to use for any other arts or crafts!
Black Play Dough
I made some black play dough, using usual our go-to recipe as follows...
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
(food coloring, extracts/essential oils-optional)
In a heavy saucepan, mix together all the ingredients (including food coloring if you choose), stirring constantly until mixture thickens and forms a large lump or ball. (approx. 3 min) Remove from heat and set on a sheet of wax or parchment paper to let cool for a bit, then knead until smooth or add any essential oils or extracts for scented play dough.
Black Aquarium Sand and Black Gems
This was another simple sensory bin with black aquarium sand which I bought from Petco, and some black gems which I found at Walmart in the floral department. You can also find these at most pet supply stores as well in the aquarium supplies section.
What else did we do?
Here are a few other very simple ways we focused on "red" this week
--We identified black ALL over the place. If something was black, I identified it and said it outloud.
"The road is black." "This book is black." "What color is your shirt? Your shirt is black!"
You can never have too much repetition! However, we didn't leave out or ignore other colors though. In our everyday play I still identified other colors, I just put a lot of focus on black specifically!
-We read our books with black covers
-We picked a day to wear black shirts
-We went outside to count as many "black birds" (mostly crows) as we could find.
Ideas from others!
To see the all the previous color themed activities from our Color of the Week Series, click the photo below!
Our next Color of the Week is ORANGE!
More Ways to Follow the Fun!
I LOVE sensory bins! You have some really great ideas! Very creative!
ReplyDeletewow nice toy and your baby is so cute That is my first time I have visited here I like This Design and cool color thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletehttp;//www.apparelnbags.com/next-level/index.htm
You are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI love all of these!
ReplyDeleteQuestion- what do you do with the mixed sensory materials (gravel and beans, mixed rice colors, etc)? Throw it out? Save it?