Paint Chip Color Match

I saw these paint chip cards at Wal-Mart, and had an idea.  I could use them in a color word recognition game!  (To go along with this one.)  This game is speedy quick to put together.  Don't let the number of steps fool you. 

Step One:  Grab a few paint cards.  I chose eight bright basic colors.  You can make it as hard or as easy as you like.  I may add some harder colors later on.

Step Two:  Pull some small envelopes out of your stash.  My envelopes were really small, but they fit the width of my paint cards perfectly.  These envelopes are the same ones you find in florist shops to house those little sentiment cards.  (Your envelope size is going to depend on the size of your paint card.  Just find something that the cards will easily slide in and out of.)

Step Three:  Seal your envelopes and label them with color words.  I used my alphabet stamps and an ink pad.  Whatever floats your boat.

Step Four:  My paint cards were too long.  They originally had seven squares of color on them.  As you can see, I cut them down to just three paint squares. That did the trick.  You want them just a smidgen longer than the envelopes.


Step Five:  Laminate your cards and envelopes if your heart desires.

Step Six:  Cut one of the sides of your envelopes off.  Just a sliver.  You want it to be open on one end.  This will make the "pocket" for your paint cards.  After I finished cutting, I realized that I should have cut the right side off instead of the left.  (Making it much easier for little right-handers to slide the cards in and out)  Don't be silly like me.  Unless you're a lefty.

Step Seven:  Punch a hole in the top of each paint card.  Raid your ribbon stash and tie the cards with a coordinating color of ribbon.   It will look very much like a bookmark.

Step Eight:  Punch a hole in the bottom corner of each envelope and slide them onto a ring.  

And you're done! 

Hand them over to your little one and have them match the paint cards with the correct envelope.  Fun.

Complete the Word Clothespin Game

 
Back in the fall, I visited my local teacher's supply store and purchased a book entitled, Reading First Activities Grade K  by JoDene Lynn Smith.  It has been a fabulous spring board for lots of good reading activities for my little one.  I thought I would share one of the games that we have enjoyed playing.  It's a clothespin word game.

You will need some clothespins and some word cards.  I printed and laminated cards from the book.  (A huge thanks to my older daughter for coloring them for me!)  But, I think it would be easy to recreate your own.  You could use simple free clip-art from the internet, or cut pictures from a magazine, or even draw your own.

You want pictures of simple objects that are identified with three or four letter words.  Type the word at the bottom of the card.  Leave a blank space for the beginning letter.  Then you will need to use a sharpie and write the beginning letters onto the clothespins.

To play the game, have your child clip the clothespin with the corresponding letter onto the card to "complete the word".  It's that easy!

Color Word Clips

I've been working with my daughter on recognizing her color words.  I wanted to come up with a fun way for her to practice matching the words with the colors on her own.  And that's how I came up with...

Color Clips!  

I punched out some squares of paper and laminated them.  (Actually I didn't feel like going to the copy store, so I just covered both sides with clear packing tape and trimmed)  I focused on the basic colors--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, and black.  You could obviously use whatever colors you want or start with the basics and add more later.  Then I gathered some clothespins and some small flat wooden craft spoons.  I wrote the color words onto the spoons with a black sharpie.  Then I glued the spoons onto the clothespins, using some E6000 glue.  This isn't totally necessary, but it allows you to use a little larger "font".  The clothespins didn't give me quite enough room to write.

All you have to do is have your child clip the color card with the appropriate clothespin.
 

I purposely wrote the words in black, because I wanted my daughter to actually read the words without any other visual clues.  But, there are at least two ways to make this game a little easier: 

1.  You could write the color words with colored ink.  In other words, use a red marker for the word "red" and a blue marker for the word "blue", etc.  This would give the child a visual clue as well as introduce them to the written word.

2.  Or if you just want a color matching game, dip the ends of the spoons in paint (or color them with a marker).  Your child would match the color on the clothespin to the color square. 

COLOR CLIPS are a fast and fun educational craft.  My daughter loves playing with them.  I love that she is recognizing color words.  Win.  Win.

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I'm linking up with:

Toys in the Dryer 
Homeschool Creations 
The Kids Co-op