Color of the Week: Pink

Welcome back to the 

Color of the Week Series 

here on Play Create Explore!

In our 2nd to last week in the Color of the Week Series, we explored the color PINK! 

I'll admit that I was pretty darn excited for this week :) 

Pink Objects Exploration Bin

As always, the first thing we do on the first day of our color themed weeks, is walk around the house and gather a bunch of our toys and other objects for the color of the week. This serves as a bit of an introduction to the color of the week and we also explore this bowl all throughout the week. I keep it right on the dining room table and we often go through this bowl and talk about the things in it during breakfast, lunch or dinner. For my 20 month old, it serves as a great way to identify and verbalize new objects, experience different shapes and textures, as well as different shades of our color.  For my oldest, it's a great tool for encouraging language and communication.

Pink Themed Sensory Bin
Our pink sensory bin was filled with some of our pink objects and also some pink and light pink dyed rice. It was also bubble gum scented! To see how I colored and scented the rice, click HERE.

Pink Mixed Media Collages
I gathered some of our pink craft supplies, some pink shredded paper, some of the pink rice we used in our sensory bin, and some pink colored glue, pink paint and pink glitter paint to make really cool pink collages. 

Pink Styrofoam Mini Beads Sensory Bin

I found this big bag of pink styrofoam beads at our local Goodwill for just $1 and it's been one of my favorite sensory materials because it's just so unique! They are almost weightless, they can be poured into containers, but some of them also stick to the sides of the bin and your skin. Pretty neat stuff!

Pink Lemonade Themed Bath

This easy peasy pink lemonade bath I set up for the boys was so much fun! It included a spouted jug filled with water and quite a few packets of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Pink Lemonade Flavored Powder. (To see other fun ways we've used the Frosting Creations, click HERE) This not only colored the water pink, but it also smelled like pink lemonade! The spouted jug was the best part because the kids could pour their lemonade for their "customers" (me) and the more they poured, the more PINK their water became! I also added some plastic cups, fake plastic ice cubes, and some pink lemonade bath paint! 

Pink Lemonade Bath Paint

Shaving cream plus one of the Pink Lemonade Frosting Creation packets made a 

fun and yummy scented bath paint for the boys!  

Pink Shredded Paper Sensory Bin
We have a paper shredder and I've been using it a lot in these color themed weeks to shred construction paper and make color specific sensory bins. I save it all afterwards because I can always reuse it as a sensory material or even as an alternative to Easter Grass. 

Pink Baking Soda and Vinegar Eruptions
I mixed baking soda and another another frosting creation packet (bubble gum flavor I believe) in some little glass jars which I put into a plastic container, so we could pour in the vinegar and make eruptions. We've done this so many times, many different ways, but it never gets old! For my youngest, I put the baking soda mixture on a small plate and he helped me pour a little bit at a time onto the baking soda to make it fizz. He loved it and kept yelling "bubbles!" I think the most fun we've ever had doing this though, was
when we made a FIZZY RAINBOW!

Coloring Pages
For each of these color weeks, i've been printing off simple color themed coloring sheets to give to the kids during dinner prep time. To see where we usually get our coloring pages, click HERE.

What else did we do?

Here are a few other very simple ways we focused on "pink" this week

--We identified brown ALL over the place. If something was pink, frequently I identified it and said it outloud. "The flower is pink."  "A flamingo is pink." "What color her dress? Her dress is pink!" 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 pink specifically!

We checked out these PINK ANIMALS , and then I remembered I had a picture of the pink caterpillar we found in our yard last year. It was so neat!

We read our books with pink covers, themes, or characters...which meant LOTS of "Elephant and Piggie" books, by Mo Willems. 

-We listened to THIS  pink color themed kindergarten song on Youtube.

We googled and then swooned over the delicious PINK FOODS

We played with our homemade Bubble Gum Scented Pink Play Dough

You could also
Make Scented Pink Waterbeads for Sensory Play

Awesome ideas from others

Strawberry Playdough from Sunhats and Wellie Boots
Pink Ideas for Tot School from You are the Roots
Beautiful Pink Sensory Bin from My Crazy Blessed Life
Handprint Flamingos from Red Ted Art
Paper Plate Pink Pigs from A Bunch of Keys

Join me here next Monday as we continue with Grey!

More Ways to Follow the Fun!