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Week 1: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr.

Promote language development with books

Activity:

Teach your baby colors and animals with this laminated, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See,” handout for baby to hold from 1plus1plus1equals1.com. Touch the animal that corresponds to the page you are reading and say the color, “brown bear.” Your baby will begin to recognize that you are matching these images and with repetition, be able to recognize the corresponding color and animal words.

Objectives:

• Beginning color recognition - Each animal is paired with a particular color.
   
• Animal noises - Ask your baby what each animal sounds like. Animal noises are a GREAT way to begin introducing intentional sounds. Then make the sound… this will grab your babies attention.
   
• Language development - Say the name and color of each animal.
   
• Additional visual context – The laminated storyboard helps to provide additional visual context.

Printable PDF Here

Week 2: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Play, Play, Baby! By Anna W. Bardaus

Kicking play for 2-6 month old is important for whole body and brain development.

Activity:

This is a simple play activity for babies. Blow up the 2 included balloons and loosely attach them to your baby’s ankles. Lay your baby on their back or fasten them into a baby chair. Watch their excitement as they kick the colorful balloons. Disclaimer, this activity is intended for little ones BEFORE they grasp and mouth objects and before they're rolling over. Once you see these skills, discontinue this activity for safety.

Objectives:

• Strengthens the belly muscles
• Strengthens the leg muscles
• Encourages "chin tuck" by looking toward the feet; chin tuck is important for neck strength and to begin rolling back to belly
• Develops understanding of body position by sensing weight shifting
• Promotes learning of cause and effect

Balloon toss for 7 month – 2 year olds is important for brain development, physical activity and hand eye coordination.

Don’t let the balloon touch the ground, a classic balloon game perfect for indoors. The objective is to simply keep the balloon in the air and not let it touch the ground. Be sure to have adequate space, free from fragile items and tripping hazards. This is a great game to play to music.

Add on to this activity. Try throwing the balloons through a hula hoop, or moving all of the balloons to a particular area or colored mat.

Printable PDF Here

Week 3: Reading Colors Your Baby's World

Book: Love is You & Me by Anna W. Bardaus

Baby in the Mirror!

Activity: Hold baby in your arms in front of the mirror. Talk about and point to body parts—eyes, nose, mouth, arms, etc. Then move baby away from the mirror and ask, “Where did baby go?” Move back in front of the mirror and say, “There’s the baby!”

Hide-and-seek enhances babies’ growing sense of body awareness, or the knowledge that they are separate from you. Give your baby a big hug and kiss in front of the mirror. Watch as they delight in this show of affection displayed all through the mirror. You can play the game, “I Spy, “in the mirror with older children.

I Spy Game:  Say, ‘I spy with my little eye something that I can eat’ or ‘I spy with my little eye something that’s red’. The other person/s can guess what the object is.

Song: I look in the Mirror

I look in the mirror and what do I see?
I see a happy face smiling at me.

I look in the mirror and what do I see?
I see a surprised face looking at me.
                                   
(Use this song while you and your child are looking in the mirror.  Make up other verses as you make additional “feelings” faces.)

Objectives:

• Recognize faces, including their own
• Learn to associate words with body parts
• Recognize facial expressions
• Very young babies learn how to focus and track images

I spy’ involves turn-taking and talking, it develops social and language skills.

Printable PDF Here

Week 4: Reading Colors Your Baby's World

Book: Eat Your Colors by Scholastic

Edible Finger Paint

Activity: Combine baby food and yogurt in a bowl, using one bowl for each paint color that you wish to make; or you can use a muffin tin. Greek yogurt provides the best results in these paints because of its natural thickness. You can add 2-3 drops of food coloring to increase the vibrancy of the colors, many health food stores sell natural food coloring. Try giving older babies different objects to paint with.

Paint Storage: Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week. You may have to re-stir paint between uses.

Artwork Storage: let the paper air dry in a sunny spot until completely dry before displaying or storing.

Red Finger Paint: In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of beets or pomegranate purée baby food and 1 teaspoon rice cereal baby cereal until well blended.

Yellow Finger Paint: In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt, 3 teaspoons of butternut squash purée baby food and 1 teaspoon rice baby cereal until well blended.

Orange Finger Paint: In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon carrot purée and 1 teaspoon rice baby cereal until well blended.

Green Finger Paint: In a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt, 4 teaspoons green bean purée and 2 teaspoons rice baby cereal until well blended.

Purple Finger Paint: In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon blueberry or blackberry purée baby food and 1 teaspoon rice baby cereal until well blended.

Objectives: Learn about colors and fine tune motor skills

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Week 5: Reading Colors Your Baby's World

Book: Talk and Point Colors by Scholastic

Tug Lid with Talk and Point Colors

Material from laughingkidslearn.com. This week’s summer reading kit has supplies to make a toy for developing your baby’s motor skills. You can even make this when your baby is a newborn and hang it above as a mobile, then graduate it to a toy when their grasping and grabbing skills are more refined.

Activity: First, poke several holes through the included lid with scissors or a hole punch. Next, thread various ribbons of different textures and lengths through the holes. Knot the ends of the ribbon with a pony bead so they wouldn’t slip through. Lastly, give each ribbon a good tug to ensure it won’t slip through the hole. You can expand this project by using a cardboard box instead of a lid and add pipe cleaners in place of some ribbons.

Objectives:

• Builds Hand / Eye coordination
• Fine motor skills when your baby is grasping and pulling the ends of the ribbon
• Introduces cause and effect, pull and see what happens

Printable PDF Here

Week 6: Reading Colors Your Baby's World

Book: Baby Music by Liana James

Baby find the rhythm!

Activity: Use the included shaker egg to have fun with your baby or toddler, or any other rhythm instrument. Just like books, songs have great vocabulary words. Singing and rhyming increase your child's awareness of the sounds in words and is an important early literacy practice that helps prepare children to read.

Also, when you sing to your baby you’re forming a special bond through the sound of your voice. Sing old favorites and new tunes together. Get the whole family involved to help build deeper family bonds between siblings and grandparents. Add in some dancing and you will have a party!

Attached will be a few of our favorite Story Time action songs. Join us for singing, stories and crafts during our weekly Story hour. Call your local library for times and hours.

Printable PDF Here

Week 7: Reading Colors Your Baby's World

Book: Dance, Dance, Baby! By Anna W. Bardaus

Activity Source: http://resourcesforearlylearning.org

Your baby needs exercise. Being physically active sets the stage for later fitness. Music is a great way to get your baby moving.

• You can gently move your baby’s arms and hands together to help him clap along to a song as you wait for the bus or in the grocery line. 
• You can lay your baby on his back and bicycle their legs to the music beat as you wait for dinner to cook or sit on the grass outside.
• Use rhymes, songs, and chants like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to help your baby move as he practices new skills, such as pulling up to a sitting or standing position.

You can get moving too! Hold your baby in your arms and dance to music around the kitchen or the living room--or even outdoors!

Babies enjoy different kinds of music

Singing, dancing, and sharing all kinds of music with babies is a great way to have fun together. When you use music to connect to babies, you will want to maintain eye contact and hold them close (as long as they are comfortable).

Try using different music for different routines throughout your day. For example:

• Help babies settle and relax with soothing music such as classical guitar or soft instrumental music.
• Get babies alert and moving with upbeat music, such as children’s music or a salsa tune.
• Help babies feel confident (and happy) as they anticipate words and sounds and clap along to nursery rhymes and other action songs for babies.

Plan group sing-alongs

Checkout Story Time at your local Library, for more information call (209) 754-6510. Babies will have fun kicking, waving, or bouncing to the music and imitating older children’s actions. Enhance the fun even further with the following ideas.

• Include babies’ names in the song if possible and have older toddlers sing each name along with you.
• Offer young babies rattles to shake, anklets that jingle, or scarves to wave.
• Offer older babies a bell to ring, a drum to hit, or a plastic bottle with rice to shake.
• Provide duplicate or similar instruments so that children can imitate each other.
• You can look for CDs at your local library or for lyrics on Internet sites.

Help babies feel safe and comfortable while they are away from home by including music and songs from their home cultures.

Printable PDF Here

Week 8: Reading Colors Your Baby's World

Color Flash Cards

Teaching your child to recognize colors is an important part of early learning.
 

Start introducing lessons about color around 1 year to 18 months.

The following website has some great tips. For example, begin with color matching or color sorting before you even begin to assign names to colors. https://www.teachinglittles.com/9-simple-ways-to-get-your-toddler-to-learn-colors/

6 Fun ways to introduce colors to your child:

1. Introduce one color at a time. Try assigning colors for each week. Blue Week, Red Week, Yellow Week, etc. Gear your activities towards the week’s color. Serve blue foods; have them wear blue clothing; give them blue paint to play with, be creative!

2. Play with colored blocks, shapes or flashcards. This is the simplest way for your child to make clear comparisons between colors. Blocks are identical in shape, it allows your toddler to focus primarily on the differences in their colors. You can also use the included flash cards that I found at www.totcards.com.

3. Use media. Try introducing a video that teaches them a song. Their verbal memory will be activated by exciting sounds and visuals. Some recommended songs to look up include, “Color Song.” Try iPad’s Speak Colors app to help children learn how to say color names aloud and use them in full sentences. Checkout Watch and Learn, a teachable service, on our Library website.

4. Make your child’s bath a different color every week. Try adding a few drops of food coloring, bath bomb or colored bath salts to their bath water, you can also add colored toys.

5. Serve them colored food. During orange week offer oranges, cantaloupe, macaroni and cheese, cheese crackers or cheese sticks. For yellow week offer pineapple, lemonade, yellow rice, taste a yellow bell pepper… you get the idea. Have fun being creative and if all else fails default to different colored fruit purees, jello and fruit snacks.

6. Play, “I Spy,” Help your child locate colors in the world around them. If you’re in your back yard, go around and see what red things you can see-- “I spy a red wagon; I spy a red flower; I spy a red bucket. Most of all have fun teaching your little one new vocabulary!

Printable PDF Here

Week 1: Picture Puzzle
Cut out the mixed up picture pieces below and arrange them to look like the correct picture.

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Week 2: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Handout 1: Our world is so colorful from the food we eat and people we meet, to the places we can travel. Take a walk around your neighborhood with the Color Walk Handout and search for all the colors of the rainbow.

Handout 2: Create your own passport with an adult. A passport is a piece of paper with information about yourself. People need passports to travel to different countries. Fill out your passport by writing your name and attach or draw a photo. Ask an adult about your nationality. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

In the community where we live, and when we travel to others, it is important to be a good citizen. What does it mean to be a good citizen?

Checkout this link for a short 2 minute video on how to be a, “Good Citizen,” in your community:

https://watchandlearn.scholastic.com/videos/social-emotional/good-citizens.html

Visit the Calaveras County Website for more Watch and learn videos located under the Catalogue tab:

https://library.calaverasgov.us/

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Week 3: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin

In this activity we will use M&M’s to teach diversity:

• Pour the pack of M&M’s into a bowl. Do not let children touch the candy. 

Ask: What do you see?  What can you tell me about these M&M’s just from looking at them? (e.g. different colors) Are there any of these M&M’s better than the others? (Acknowledge that some may have a favorite color; steer conversation to the value of the candy itself)

• Make the following statement: We are just like this bowl of M&M’s. We may appear different on the outside, but we are very much alike on the inside. 
   
• Let each person have one M&M to eat. Ask them to bite into it to look at the inside. Compare insides, noting how they are all the same. 

Say: We may like the red ones or the green ones best, but that does not mean the yellow ones aren’t as good. This is the same with people. There may be some people we like a lot, but this does not mean other people are not as good. The M&M’s are all made of the same ingredients to make chocolate. Just like M&M’s, people are all made of the same things. We all have blood, muscles, skin, a heart that feels, and yet we all look different on the outside. What if you were all the same size, shape or color? Our world would not be as interesting or fun. Our differences are what makes life exciting. 

• Highlight differences in ability along with difference in size, shape or color.
   
• Read the poem Different (author unknown) and ask what it is about.

Different
Hey! Hey! I’m just me!
I’m different from anyone else you’ll see!
Taller than John - shorter than Sue...
Hair that is darker than Nancy’s too.
Eyes not black or really green.
Nor really blue, but in between.
I’ve got more freckles than Don or Fred.
Jane reads better but I can add,
And Jim runs faster (which makes me sad!)
Johnny’s arms are chocolate brown,
And he’s got the happiest grin in town.
Judy’s arms are almost white
And I’m dark tan - and it’s all right
Cause Johnny is him, and I am me,
And Judy is Judy, plain to see,
And we’re all as different as we can be!

Checkout this link on Scholastic Watch & Learn about how we can all be friends: https://watchandlearn.scholastic.com/videos/social-emotional/we-can-all-be-friends.html

Printable PDF Here

Week 4: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Introduction to origami: Make your own paper cap in 5 simple steps

You can use the included newspaper to fold your caps

Now that you can make caps, how many can you stack on your head? How many caps does the peddler in the story have stacked on his head?

Printable PDF Here

Week 5: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Chalk by Bill Thompson

Use chalk and a little imagination to create some outdoor fun with gross motor skills, color, letter and number recognition.

Make a start point and work your way around the sidewalk by drawing different activities. Include different tasks such as dancing, jumping, hopping, turning around, jumping on 1 foot, clapping, going backwards, etc. You can include rocks, dice or other objects and create a task around it. Also, squeeze in some ”break” activities such as make a wish, give high five to the sky, say your name, empty your pockets, it makes the obstacle course more fun. YouTube also has some great ideas.

Here are a few more ideas to get started:

• Hop in place ten times
• Zig zag lines to run over
• Spirals to turn your body
• Loops to run around
• Add a maze
• Add upper and lower case letters to match
• Add a hop scotch
• Add a number line with dice to roll- have children stand/jump on the # they rolled
• Rainbows to run over
• Step across the cracks on a sidewalk.
• Sprint across the grass.
• Skip back to the starting line

Printable PDF Here

Week 6: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: A Couch for Llama by Leah Gilbert

What will Llama do with a Red couch? No one really knows, not even Llama!

Handout 1: Practice holding a pencil and tracing the lines. Next color the circles to match the ones at the top of the paper.

Handouts 2 & 3: Have fun using fine motor skills with coding stickers. Use the stickers to complete the color patterns.

In the book, “A Couch for Llama,” the family recognizes that Llama enjoys having a couch. They give Llama their couch because they know it will make him happy. This was very kind of them to do!

Watch the Scholastic Watch & Learn video on ways you can choose to be kind: https://watchandlearn.scholastic.com/videos/social-emotional/choose-to-be-kind.html

Printable PDF Here

Week 7: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Sky Color by Peter Reyolds

In the book Marisol watched the day turn to night at sunset. The sky isn’t just blue. Marisol noticed the sky was many different colors. Watch the sunset, how many colors do you see in the sky?

Sometimes you can see a rainbow in the sky. Have you ever seen one? Color the rainbow handout to discover how many colors are in a rainbow.

Use the included watercolors and color mixing handout to make new colors. How many different colors can you make by mixing the watercolor paints?

Find the shades in the Summer Reading Kit. How many colors can you see when you look through the lens?

Printable PDF Here

Week 8: Reading Colors Your Baby’s World

Book: Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

Handouts: Practice tracing lines and color the flowers.

Grow Some Color

Try planting some flower seeds with your child. Directions located on the back of the seed packet will tell you where your flowers prefer to grow.

You will need several pots or a large planter box and some potting soil/dirt. Add the dirt to the containers and use your finger to poke holes in the dirt (this is my children’s favorite part). Drop a seed or two into each hole. Then, cover the hole with dirt and water. Assign your child daily water duty and watch how proud they are when the flowers begin to sprout!