Original manipulations for color and letter exploration

Original manipulations for color and letter exploration

For the following activities, try to use primary colors as much as possible. You will need the following art supplies:

• Pipe cleaners
• Paintbrushes
• Paper plates
• Fun Foam letters
• Glitter
• Modeling dough
• Small craft match sticks

Note: Most of these items can be found on the educatall.com online store.

For this first activity, you will need pipe cleaners and Fun Foam letters. Invite children to bend the pipe cleaners to represent different letters. You can ask them to use corresponding colors. For example, in the photo above, note that each letter was shaped using a pipe cleaner that was the same color as the matching Fun Foam letter. This will make working on both letter and color recognition possible within this simple activity. Be sure to name the colors and letters with your group.

Next, use the pipe cleaner letters created by children for an association game. Set the Fun Foam letters and the pipe cleaner letters on a table. Encourage children to find matching letters. Younger children can simply find letters of the same color. The more letters your group created during the first activity, the greater this challenge will be.

For this next manipulation, set a ball of modeling dough on a paper plate and invite children to flatten it. Encourage them to find a Fun Foam letter that is the same color as their modeling dough. Next, have them insert craft match sticks in the dough to represent the letter. If the children in your group are very young, simply have them prick craft match sticks of the corresponding color in the dough as they wish.

When they are done, invite children to exchange their plates to give them the opportunity to explore a different color. They can simply remove the sticks, form a ball with the modeling dough to erase the tiny marks, flatten it once again, and pick a new letter of the corresponding color.  

For this third manipulation, pour a small quantity of glitter in a paper plate. You can use four different plates, each one containing a different primary color. Here children pick a Fun Foam letter out of a bag, find the plate containing the corresponding color of glitter, and use a paintbrush to trace the letter in the glitter. Children’s fine motor skills will be tested since they will have to brush the glitter very gently to see their letter outline appear.

Have fun!

Patricia-Ann Morrison