The multicolored theme

AREA SETUP

(Open thematic poster-The multicolored theme) Print, laminate, and decorate the walls of your daycare with all kinds of posters.

Poster-July
(Open Banner July) (Open Banner July-Small) Print and laminate. Use the banners to decorate your daycare.

Educa-decorate-The multicolored theme
(Open educa-decorate-The multicolored theme) Print, cut out, and laminate. Decorate the walls of your daycare to set the mood for the theme.

Educa-decorate-Colors
(Open educa-decorate-Colors) Print, cut out, and laminate. Decorate the walls of your daycare to set the mood for the theme.

Educa-decorate-Rainbows

(Open educa-decorate-Rainbows) Print, cut out, and laminate. Decorate the walls of your daycare to set the mood for the theme. Hang multicolored streamers from the ceiling. Loop strips of colourful construction paper together to form a colourful garland. Each day, set a plastic tablecloth of a different color on your table. Hang multicolored Christmas lights. Hang colourful balloons. Paint your windows with colourful window paint or window markers. Stick colourful pictures on the floor using adhesive paper. The possibilities are endless!

Poni discovers and presents-Primary and secondary colors
(Open Poni discovers and presents-Primary and secondary colors) Print the cards. Laminate them and cut them out. Use your Poni puppet or another puppet children are familiar with to present the colors to your group.

PICTURE GAME

The pictures may be used as a memory game or to spark a conversation with your group. Use them to decorate your daycare or a specific thematic corner. (Open picture game-The multicolored theme) Print, laminate, and store the pictures in a Ziploc bag or in your thematic bin.

ACTIVITY SHEETS

(Open activity sheets-Rainbows) Activity sheets are suggested for each theme. Print and follow instructions.

WRITING ACTIVITIES

(Open writing activities-M like mulitcoloured) (Open writing activities-J like July) Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker.

Stationery-The multicolored theme
(Open stationery-The multicolored theme) Print. The stationery can be used to communicate with parents, in your writing area, or to identify your thematic bins.

Educa-nuudles-The multicolored theme

(Open educa-nuudles-The multicolored theme) Print for each child. Have children color the sheet and use Magic Nuudles to give it a three-dimensional look. Variation: You don't have Magic Nuudles? Have children fill the spaces designed for Magic Nuudles with bingo markers or stickers. To order Magic Nuudles:

VARIOUS WORKSHOPS-The multicolored theme

Construction/Building blocks:

• Instead of dividing your blocks according to their type (wooden, LEGO, etc.), divide them according to their color.
• Colourful felt can be added to children's constructions.
• Sort cars, figurines, etc. according to their color.

Arts & crafts:

• Use paint to introduce children to color combinations.
• Construction paper, tissue paper, etc. in a variety of different colors for cutting, drawing, and creating.
• Finger paint for exploring color combinations.
• Markers with different tips (narrow, broad, etc.).
• Color by number activity sheets.
• Coloring pages.

Role play:

• Transform your area to represent a paint store. Include paint sample cards, paintbrushes, rollers, painter hats, and wooden sticks used to stir paint. Ask parents to provide old decorating and design magazines. Add old shirts with paint stains on them.
• Create an artist studio complete with easels, paint palettes, etc. Add large sheets of paper and let children pretend they are famous artists.
• Decorating magazines.
• Old t-shirts with paint stains on them.

Manipulation:

• Memory game related to colors.
• Modeling dough. Allow children to mix colors together. Homemade modeling dough helps reduce the cost of this activity.
• Association game involving colors (example: a blue card can be associated to blueberries).
• Sorting activities using items available in your daycare.
• Cellophane paper can be cut and glued to the bottom of empty toilet paper rolls to make colourful binoculars.
• Lite-Brite or mosaic games.

Reading/relaxation:

• Books related to shapes and colors or books with pretty illustrations.

Music and motor skills:

• Homemade Twister game.
• Red light, yellow light, green light game.

Sensory bins:

• Water table: add drops of food coloring to the water.
• Rock bin: fill a container with colourful rocks (used in aquariums).
• Froot Loops bin.

Early science:

• All experiments that involve colors can be explored here
  o Color explosion in milk.
  o The flower that changes color when food coloring is added.
  o Color combinations with paint.
  o Bake a cake and add food coloring to the icing.
  o etc.

LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES

Word flashcards

Use the flashcards to spark a conversation with your group or in your reading and writing area. They may also be used to identify your thematic bins. (Open word flashcards-The multicolored theme) (Open giant word flashcards-The multicolored theme) Print. rainbow, candy, butterfly, ice cream, colored pencils, paint, fireworks, traffic light, ball, lollipop, marbles, popsicles (Open word flashcards-Colors) (Open giant word flashcards-Colors)

red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, pink, orange, brown, grey, fuchsia, purple

Special activity-Multicolored Day

(Open perpetual calendar-Color Day) Print and display to announce this special day.

Greeting and area setup

• To greet children in the morning, wear colourful clothing items.
• Serve a special cocktail to children as they arrive and decorate glasses with colourful fruit pieces.
• Replace regular light bulbs with colourful light bulbs or colourful Christmas lights.
• Invite children to dress as colourfully as possible.
• Make a colourful hat by gluing items on an old baseball cap or on a construction paper hat. You can also make colourful hats with your group or invite parents to make a colourful hat for their child.
• Hang colourful pictures and items throughout your daycare.
• Offer colourful toys in each corner/area of your daycare.

Food:

• For lunch, use food coloring to transform food items. Serve shepherd's pie with colourful potatoes. Add food coloring to water when you cook spaghetti or pasta. Add food coloring to milk glasses.
• Serve colourful food items.
• With your group, prepare a colourful fruit salad.

Activities:

• Hang a large banner on a wall and encourage children to make a colourful collage by cutting colourful items out of catalogues or flyers or by tearing colourful paper into tiny pieces.
• Play a modified version of musical chairs. Simply replace the chairs you would traditionally use with colourful pieces of construction paper or pictures of rainbows.
• Play music and have children dance with multicolored scarves (or pieces of multicolored fabric).

ROUTINES AND TRANSITIONS

Game-This is my spot-The multicolored theme
(Open game-This is my spot-The multicolored theme) Print two copies. Laminate and cut out the cards. Glue one copy of each card on the table using adhesive paper. Drop the other copies in a bag. Children take turns picking a card to determine their spot at the table for the day. You may also use the cards to determine naptime spots or for your task train.

My multicolored path
(Open my multicolored path) Print, laminate, and secure the illustrations on the floor to create a path which leads to areas frequently visited by children such as the bathroom or cloakroom. If you prefer, the illustrations may also be used to delimit your various workshops.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AND MOTOR SKILLS

Lacing-The multicolored theme
(Open lacing-The multicolored theme) Print, laminate, and punch holes around the contour of each shape. Give each child a shoelace or ribbon they can thread through the holes.

Move with Poni
(Open Colourful Poni) Print and laminate the characters. Use adhesive paper to secure them on the floor. Use the characters to play musical chairs, to encourage children to hop from one character to the next or to walk on them, etc.

Multicolored toys
Collect several different toys and deposit them in the centre of your daycare. Associate a different color to each area of your daycare. Children must sort the toys by color and deposit them in the correct area.

Massage with multicolored balls
Show children how they can massage their friends using tiny balls. Encourage children to find a partner and roll multicolored balls along his/her back, arms, and legs.

Color association
Give children colourful gift bags. Invite them to fill the bags with objects of the corresponding color. To increase the level of difficulty, give children bags containing two or more colors.

Multicolored balloons
Blow up four or five colourful balloons. Tell children the balloons must never touch the ground. If this is too easy for your group, provide more advanced challenges. For example, tell them they cannot touch the balloons with their hands or that they must blow on them to keep them in the air.

Color hunt
Visit your local hardware store and collect several colourful paint chips. Be sure to have two copies of each color. Cut the paint chips that contain more than one shade. Hide one series of paint chips throughout the daycare. Divide the second set of paint chips among the children in your group and invite them to find the matching cards.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

Multicolored treasure hunt
Hide colourful objects throughout the yard. Invite children to hunt for them. Make this activity even more fun by hiding very tiny items and providing magnifying glasses. Variation: This activity may also be done indoors or even in the dark with flashlights.

Multicolored spray bottles
Fill spray bottles with water. Add a touch of colour to the water by depositing old felts (from markers) in the bottles. Spray the water on an old white blanket or large sheets of paper.

Multicolored bubbles
Add food coloring to your bubble solution and blow colourful bubbles.

Creative recipe-Jell-O Bubbles

(Open creative recipe-Jell-O Bubbles) This recipe must be used outside. The mixture is sweet and it can make surfaces sticky.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Jell-O powder
• Approximately 50-70 ml of dishwashing liquid
• Approximately 400-500 ml of lukewarm water

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Do not stir vigorously because if the mixture is foamy, it will not make as many bubbles.
2. The quantity of water and soap required may vary depending on the brands used. Simply test the resistance of the bubbles and add soap or water as needed.
3. Use the Jell-O bubble solution like you would use regular bubble solution.

COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES

Educ-trace-The multicolored theme
(Open educ-trace-The multicolored theme) Print for each child. Children must trace the lines using the correct color and then color each item using the corresponding color.

Educ-pairs-The multicolored theme
(Open educ-pairs-The multicolored theme) Print. Children must draw a line between matching items or color them using the same color. Print and laminate for durable, eco-friendly use.

Educa-symmetry-The multicolored theme
(Open educa-symmetry-The multicolored theme) Print. Children must color the bottom picture (black and white) to make it look exactly like the top picture.

Educ-association-Colors
(Open educ-association-Colors) Print the pages and arrange them in a file folder. Children must associate the illustrations as per the instructions provided.

Educ-math-Colors
(Open educ-math-Colors) Print and laminate for durable, eco-friendly use. Children must count the objects in each rectangle and circle the correct number.

Bingo-Colors
(Open bingo-Colors) Print and laminate. Play bingo with your group. Store the game in a pretty box or Ziploc bag.

Educ-trace-Rainbows
(Open educ-trace-Rainbows) Print for each child. Children must trace the lines using the correct color and then color each item using the corresponding color.

Educ-differences-Rainbows
(Open educ-differences-Rainbows) Print and laminate for durable, eco-friendly use. Children must find the number of differences indicated at the top of the page.

Educ-math-Rainbows
(Open educ-math-Rainbows) Print and laminate for durable, eco-friendly use. Children must count the objects in each rectangle and circle the correct number.

Educ-same and different-Rainbows
(Open educ-same and different-Rainbows) Print and laminate for durable, eco-friendly use. Children must circle the illustration that is different in each row.

I know my colors
(Open game-I know my colors) Print. Children take turns rolling the die and moving their playing piece to the next square of the corresponding color. Encourage them to name the color before moving their playing piece.

Color memory game
(Open memory game-Colors) Print two copies. Laminate and cut the cards. Place the cards face down on a table and arrange them in rows. The first player turns two cards. If they are identical, he keeps them. If not, he must turn them over and it is the next player's turn. If the cards are identical, he/she keeps them and plays again. The winner of the game is the player that collects the most pairs.

Color dominoes
(Open colored dominoes) Print the dominoes. Glue them on heavy cardboard and cut them. This game is for 2 to 4 players. Each child picks five dominoes. Arrange the remaining dominoes in a pile. Set an initial domino in the centre of the table. The first player tries to match an illustration to one of the illustrations on the initial domino. The second player does the same thing and so on. If a player cannot play, he/she must pick an additional domino. If this domino cannot be played, his turn is over. The game ends when a player successfully plays all his dominoes.

In my book, I see many colors
Give each child a storybook. Have them turn the pages and search for an item of a specific color. When they find one, they must call out the name of the color and show the group what they found. If you wish, you can change color each time children turn the page.

MUSICAL AND RHYTHMIC ACTIVITIES

Multicolored musical chairs
Cut multicolored shapes out of cardboard (or use educa-decorate illustrations). Set them on the floor throughout the daycare or on the grass in your backyard. Play fast-paced music and invite children to move to the sound of the music. When the music stops, name a color. Children must quickly find a shape that corresponds to the color you named. Variation: Invite children to move in a variety of different ways (backwards, on one foot, etc.).

Color association
Give children colourful gift bags. Invite them to fill the bags with objects of the corresponding color. To increase the level of difficulty, give children bags containing two or more colors.

EARLY SCIENCE/MANIPULATION/EXPLORATION

Color wheel
(Open color wheel) Print and cut out the pieces. Glue the color wheel in a paper plate. Make a small hole in the centre of the plate and insert a fastener to hold the arrows in place in the centre of the color wheel. Use the two small arrows to point to two primary colors. Use the large arrow to point to the corresponding secondary color. Experiment by combining the two paint colors with your group.

Colourful bottles
Fill clear bottles with lukewarm water until they are ¾ full. Add a tablespoon of corn syrup and 3-4 drops of food coloring. Secure the caps with hot glue and let children manipulate the bottles. Variation: You can also add metallic confetti instead of food coloring.

Colourful ice cube tray
Add a few drops of food coloring to the water in each section of an ice cube tray. Freeze. You may also choose to insert a colourful object in each section. Deposit a plastic container on a large towel, drop the ice cubes in the container and let children manipulate them.

CULINARY ACTIVITIES

A single color in my plate
Prepare special meals by trying to offer food items of a single color at a time.

• Haddock, mashed potatoes, cauliflower.
• Macaroni and cheese, yellow beans, corn.
• Spinach pasta, broccoli, peas.

Multicolored lunch
Throughout the week, add drops of food coloring to different food items (shepherd's pie with blue potatoes, green milk, pink vanilla pudding, etc.).

ARTS & CRAFTS

Puppets-The multicolored theme
(Open puppets-The multicolored theme) Print the models on heavy cardboard. Have children cut them out and decorate them. Glue a Popsicle stick behind each model to create puppets.

Multicolored mobile
Print multicolored items (see educa-decorate) or use pictures of colourful items found in catalogues or flyers. Decorate them with glitter, ribbon, cotton balls, confetti, etc. Glue the items on either side of ribbon or string to create a mobile. Hang your mobile from the ceiling or over your changing table.

Models-The multicolored theme
(Open models-The multicolored theme) Print the models and use them for various crafts and projects throughout the theme.

Monochromatic project
Give each child a single piece of white paper. Have them cut items that are all the same color out of magazines, catalogues, and flyers and glue them on their paper. Encourage them to draw on their paper using crayons of the same color too.

Multicolored tangrams
(Open tangrams-The multicolored theme) Print for each child. Have children color the shapes.

Colourful lollipops
Give each child a circle cut out of construction paper (older children can cut their circle themselves). Invite children to tear tiny pieces of colourful paper and glue them on the circle. When they are satisfied with the result, have them glue a Popsicle stick behind the circle to make it look like a lollipop.

Puppets-Painter
(Open puppets-Paint) Print the models on heavy cardboard. Have children cut them out and decorate them. Glue a Popsicle stick behind each model to create puppets.

Paint workshop
Install several easels and offer different kinds of paint (poster paint, water paint, watercolours, etc.).

Rainbow-Collective project
Draw a rainbow on a large piece of cardboard. With your group, cut tiny pieces of colourful paper. Children must glue the pieces of paper on the arc of the corresponding color.

Color mix
Organize a painting workshop. The goal of the workshop is to mix paint colors to create new colors.

Rainbow colors
Have children color on tactile paper with waxed crayons that correspond to the colors of the rainbow. When they are done, encourage them to paint over their drawing with black paint. Let dry. When the paint is dry, they can scratch the black paint to rediscover the pretty colors that are hiding underneath.

Bubble paint
Add a few drops of food coloring to prepared bubble solution. Have children make wands out of pipe cleaners. Give them white pieces of paper and have them blow bubbles on the paper. The bubbles will leave colourful prints.

COLORING PAGES

Complete the drawing-The multicolored theme
(Open complete the drawing-The multicolored theme) Print for each child. Have children draw the missing items.

I am learning to draw-A rainbow
(Open I am learning to draw-A rainbow) Print and laminate the model sheet. Encourage children to practice their drawing technique on the model sheet before trying to draw a rainbow on their own.

Scrapbook-Colors
(Open scrapbook-Colors) Print this page for each child. Complete it and add it to their scrapbook. If you do not already have a scrapbook, type "scrapbook" in the educatall club's search engine for a printable copy.

Creative coloring-Colors
(Open creative coloring-Colors) Print for each child. Have children complete the drawing as they wish.

Coloring pages theme-The multicolored theme
(Open coloring pages theme-The multicolored theme) Print for each child.

SONGS & RHYMES

(Open songs & rhymes-Colors everywhere)

By: Patricia Morrison

Colors everywhere

There is green grass in my yard
A red apple in my tree
A yellow flower in my garden
And a blue sky above me

Have fun!

The Educatall team