Little Boy Blue Toddle School: Rainbows

I found a great FREE printable over at http://picklebums.com in which I saw endless possibilities for educational activities for Little Boy Blue and know that his big brothers would want to do them too.

I may not be able to come up with the printable but I do love things that can be easily adapted to give such a variety of activities. First here is the link to the printable: http://picklebums.com/2013/02/26/free-printable-hexi-cards/

Activities

Activity 1: Baking Tray/Cookie Tray/Magnetic Board Patterns.

For this activity I printed out the hexi card printable on paper, laminated it for durability, cut them out and glued magnetic tape to the back. With this Little Boy Blue will be able to make what ever pattern he wishes in what ever way he wishes on the baking tray or his magnetic board. For the photo I matched colours together for this star/ flower shape but it is really ideal for free play and exploration.

Activity 2: Memory Match Up Game or Snap.

Little Boy Blue may be a little too young at the moment for this one but his big brothers Book Worm & Bug Boy will love it. For this activity I printed, laminated and cut out enough of the hexi card printable to give me six matching pairs of colourful hexagons. Like all other memory match up games the cards will be tuned face (picture) down and the boys will take turns to turn over two cards and if they match (same colour combination) then they get to keep the pair, the winner is the player with the most pairs at the end. Another game could be snap, just print out more cards. This could also be a busy bag activity.

Activity 3: Colour Peg Match Busy Bag.

Find one hexi card with a least one of each of the different colours, colour wooden clip on pegs to correspond (I just used felt tips to colour the pegs), pop the lot into a ziplock bag and you have a busy bag made.

Activity 4: Hexi Card Match Up Board & Pieces.

Here I printed out 2 hexi card sheets, one on card the other on paper, laminated them both but only cut out the laminated paper one. This is more for individual work and could be made into a file folder game by sticking the laminated card play board into a file folder and popping the play pieces in a pouch. The instructions are very simple: match the play pieces on to the corresponding coloured hexagon on the board.

Activity 5: Colour Pompom Match Busy Bag.

Again you print, laminate and cut out the hexi card printable then find some pompoms that match the colours on the cards. I used quiet small pompom but depending on fine motor skill you could use larger pompoms and also to add a twist pop in a set of tweezers or a clip peg for the child to manipulate the pompoms on to the correct colour on the cards, pop it in a ziplock bag and you have another busy bag.

Hope you give these a try and come back to let us know how you get on.

Well I hope everyone had some great fun today on World Book Day but let me remind you 'Reading is not just for World Book Day but for LIFE!' OK, I borrowed the phrase idea from the old RSPCA advert at Christmas but I hope books are an important part of your everyday routine for your children.

Reading Anywhere

Reading is one thing that is portable and can be done just about anywhere, it has been known for people to go to the bathroom with a book in our house! It can even be done before Mummy has a chance to get dressed and just as the joke goes "If a 2 year old hands you a phone, you answer it!" then the same could be said about a book "If a 2 year old hands you a book, you read it to them!"

When my eldest (Book Worm) took to reading I could have cried. The first time I truly noticed him being unable to put his book down was one lunch time when he was trying to eat and read at the same time. Now growing up I was always told this was bad manners and was about to stop him when I glanced over and Daddy was doing the exact same thing. I had longed for my children to love reading just like Daddy so I bit my lip and said nothing and enjoyed the sight of them both being engrossed in their books.

Books Lead To Other Activities

This week Little Boy Blue was being read The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and Little Pip and the Rainbow Wish by Elizabeth Baquley and some of the activities they led to were:

1. Making a sun catcher Rainbow Fish with contact paper and some coloured tissue paper and foil cut into scale shapes and stuck on.

2. Some sensory play with mini toys in Rainbow Rice, I did smaller quantities as this was a first for us, I got the recipe from here: http://shareandremember.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/rainbow-rice-garden-sensory-play.html

3. Rainbow Dough (no cook home made kind), I would love to remember where I got the recipe from but I can't and I think I didn't remember it properly anyway. I used 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sunflower oil and 1/2 fabric conditioner. Mixed it all up then divided it to add gel food colouring. This made a lovely smelling dough that was so soft and easily pliable for little hands. It also didn't stick to you with the added bonus of moisturising your hands as you played and it lasted a good 3 to 4 days. The down sides not tasty to eat and when left overnight wrapped or unwrapped the oil seemed to seeped out!

4. A mosaic of a Rainbow Fish from his Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks & Boards.

Little Boy Blue also managed to get himself into the middle of the activities that Book Worm and Bug Boy were doing in connection with one of their book activities. Yet another great find in the charity shop was this book about Knights with stories in it from around the globe its called The Bare Foot Book of Knights by John Matthews.

The main activity done was acting battles out as Knights which as far as all the boys were concerned was the most important part. They did however also discussed the stages of becoming a Knight, what different types of Knights there may be around the world like Samurai Warriors and Ninja (they are big into Lego Ninjago at the moment), discussed chivalry and made their own code of chivalry. We have a few other activities that we will be doing as we read the chapters of this book about the Knights from around the world.

We hope that you continue to enjoy reading or being read to and ask that you share your book ideas with us either in the comments below or on our facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/LittleBoyBlueToddleSchool