I found this activity through Pinterest and decided to give it a whirl.
Working with toddlers it provides for increased opportunities for parallel/associative play. This is beneficial for social-emotional growth and advancing into cooperative play. In addition, there are increased opportunities for building on color awareness/recognition. The DRDP Categories this will focus on are: Relationships/Social Interactions with Peers and Cause and Effect.
Material/Equipment: For this activity, I will be using baby wipes, washable markers in a variety of colors, rubber bands, food dye, and several containers with water, pipettes and construction paper.
Preparation: Set-up the table with the prepared baby wipes, tray of markers and containers of watered down food coloring with pipettes. Also, I created a sample to place on the table. Mostly, this is for the Clinicians, Parents and myself to use as a guide. We are not trying to reinforce product type art. However, this is a visual guide to understand what the outcome of the activity might look like.
Procedure: Beginning: Guide child over to activity. Prompt child with markers (i.e.: which color? Look at this! What should we do?). Open cap of marker if child is not able to. Start by turn taking if the child is unsure of what to do.
Middle: Hand-over- hand scaffolding with markers and food coloring. If child is verbal, use prompt questions like: which color should we use next, where should we put the color. If child is not yet verbal then we can use sign language for prompts like “help” etc.
End: After the child has used up to three colors, we can ask if they want to “color more” or are they “all done”. When finished, if the child is still engaged, we can scaffold with scissors to cut the bands off the baby wipes. A prompt question to transition to next activity could be used like “what’s next?”
In reflection, another thing I would like to adjust is the use of the rubber bands. I am not certain if bread ties or another easy to remove band would work. If not, then smaller rubber bands are ideal. I noticed some children had trouble maintaining focus at the end because the time it took to remove the rubber bands. I will definitely repeat this activity. It is a great way to explore colors and cause and effect.
Advertisements Share this:
