(tot school tuesday) color sorting wheel activity

I’ll be blogging about Logan’s learning adventures every Tuesday in my new Tot School Tuesday series. Before this whole mama gig, I was a social worker who worked with mostly children in the foster care system. I saw first hand how children learn and communicate through play. I never went to work without a stash of art supplies in my bag. I think that’s why I’m so passionate about crafting, there’s a huge therapeutic benefit from it for anyone who does it (old or young).

One of my favorite things about being a mama is watching my 2 year old learn new things. He’s truly a sponge and it blows my mind at how much he already knows. I’m amazed at how my toddler, who typically has the attention span of a gnat, will attentively participate in any learning activity I set up for him if it involves play. So, that’s how Tot School Tuesday was born.  Plus, this is just a good reason to put everything else aside and give my kiddo one on one time. I know many of my readers also have toddlers at home, so hopefully this will be a good opportunity for us to share teaching ideas with each other. Should I put up a linky every Tuesday so you can link up your own Tot School ideas? Let me know!

Here’s the first Tot School Tuesday activity that I tried out with Logan a couple weeks ago. We’re focusing on colors right now, so I put together this color sorting activity for Logan. I was going to do a toy scavenger hunt and have Logan find the toys himself, but I ended up filling a bin full of primary colored toys myself because sorting colors is still a new concept to him. It was less confusing that way, because many of his toys are multicolored. We might try this activity again once he has his colors down and I’ll have him hunt for toys himself. He did a fabulous job sorting his toys by colors and even asked me for “more colors”, so we did the activity a few times before he just wanted to play on his own and the toys started raiding the blue sheet. After the sorting activity, you can try calling out colors and have your child stand on the corresponding felt sheet (by the way, those are stamps on his feet, not dirt lol). You’ll be amazed at how a few cheap sheets of felt will hold your tot’s attention.

Learning Objective

Identify, name and sort colors.

Materials

Primary Colored Felt Sheets
Bin or Basket
Primary Colored Toys
Tape

Instructions

Tape primary felt sheets to the floor, forming a circle wheel. Pick out small primary colored toys and add to a bin or basket. Have child sort toys onto the felt sheets by color, while you help them identify and name the colors.