Color Themes - Red

As I am trying to figure out how we are going to do Tot School, I decided I wanted to try introducing concepts one at a time as a theme.  This week was kind of our trial run with the color red.

It started with our Tot Trays.  I set out a bin of random red items from around the house.  It included our red counting bears with cups, red blocks, red cookie cutters, red dominoes, red balls from the ball pit, red toy fruit, red spools, red Dado squares, a red spoon, etc.  I also included the laminated cards from our English and Spanish Color Cards (click to download).  Throughout the week I would show him the cards while playing with the red items to reinforce the idea of "red" and "rojo."

His favorite red item ended up being a balloon I filled with flour.  He would frequently put it in the red cup and shake it out.  I will definitely have to make him a few others.

Another tot tray had his Leap Frog Wash and Go Magnet Set, with only the red fire engine pieces.  I started leaving the pieces next to the base on the tray.  He struggled getting them oriented correctly, so I ended up just leaving them in.  He would periodically walk over and push the button to hear it say "Red Fire Engine" and listen to the song.  While I liked this activity, I haven't decided if I will leave it in place of a tot tray, or just have it out during out color weeks.

We practiced coloring with red crayons and put stickers on red paper.

I also printed and laminated a red color book from here.  Xander and I used a red Expo marker to trace and color the pages.  Well, really, he sat in my lap while I did it for him.  I liked the idea behind the book, but decided to make some changes for next week.  I wanted to have a matching Spanish copy of each book, so I decided to make my own.  I will try to post them on my downloads page as we do them.  Also, the colored Expo markers I have are too big for Xander's little hands.  I need to find an alternative.

We also played with red play dough.

This week at Xander's daycare (a wonderful home daycare that I am thankful for each and every day), they made Christmas wreaths.  All of the wreaths were supposed to be green with red berries, however, our day care provider said Xander INSISTED on red paper, so he has a more creative wreath.  I wonder if his desire for red paper came from working on the color red all week.