Toddler Theme: Colors

It's officially Fall and the leaves are starting to change colors here in Colorado.  It made me think that it was about time we did a whole Color theme week.  Mia knows her basic colors so we focused on some more advanced topics like lighter vs. darker, transparent vs. opaque, color mixing, and even a little about complimentary colors.

You've probably noticed by now that one of my favorite learning activities is the scavenger hunt.  Mia is an active kid so it's my way of tailoring her learning experiences to her personality.  A color scavenger hunt is particularly fun because you can create a rainbow with your findings.  Last year, we made this collage with all of Mia's colored findings.  This year, she's really into scribbling in her notepads so I made her a whole page list to check off instead.

For a little extra fun one day, we took a walk through the alleys of Denver's RiNo neighborhood.  Street artists have been covering buildings & walls with their beautiful murals.  So many colors!  This week there happened to be a whole street art event, Colorado Crush, and Mia actually got to see several artists in action.  

We had to have a little conversation on the way home about how those artists had permission to paint on the walls, but in general, we shouldn't paint on our walls.  Haha!  Instead, she and I rolled out a long piece of art paper and worked on a colorful mural collab.  I started with some overlapping abstract shapes as an invite to create with me.  One day we used markers, another day paint, and another chalk so we could talk about their color textures and also saturation.  There were some lessons in color mixing too -- "Look mom, brown!"  Last year's Color week project was the creation of this pretend makeup kit using little travel containers and a thin layer of nail polish (watch Target Dollar Spot for bags, brushes, and even travel containers).  This week, I picked up a few more travel containers so we could add to her "eyeshadow" collection.   

Have you heard of Mr. Printables?  It's a really great website with lots of free learning printables and they have a few that are perfect for Color week.  The first one is a color wheel.  You can print it in color or not for a bigger challenge and it's great to use for a little independent sorting activity.  I had our color wheel laminated so that I can use it over and over but especially so that I can use it during snack time.  I gave Mia a bowl of Fruity Cheerios and she sorted them into piles one afternoon.  Once she had them all sorted, I taught her a little about complimentary colors (the ones opposite on the color wheel).  We wondered if the Denver Broncos knew their blue & orange colors were complimentary.  Something tells me they do know...clever!  Mr. Printables also has these color overlay cards (shown below).  You can submit the printable file online to Staples.com and they will print them on transparencies & cut for you.  I like to outsource when I can.  Mia played with these on a white table top and I kept Millie simultaneously busy with a mess-free paint bag (poured red, blue & yellow paint into a food storage bag and sealed).  I chose the primary colors intentionally because as Millie mashed and squished the paint, she helped us see that red and yellow make orange, and so on.  

As a last special treat, I took Mia out on a very rare one-on-one date to the nail salon for pedicures.  Knowing how excited she gets about my nail colors naming each one of them off as she rifles through the little box, I just knew she'd love this experience.  They had a whole wall of nail colors -- "Wow, look at allllllllll the colors!"  And then she chose an iridescent white polish.  The irony!  

A summary of all Color week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Went on a colorful scavenger hunt, Played with Mr. Printables color mixing transparencies (find them here), Sorted cereal with the Mr. Printables Color Wheel (find it here)

ART PROJECTS: Made a colorful mixed media mural, Made a pretend makeup set with travel containers and nail polish

OUTINGS: Went to Colorado Crush in the RiNo neighborhood to see the street artists in action, Had colorful pedicures done at the local salon

BOOKS: Press Here by Herve Tullet, Pantone: Colors by Pantone, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr

BIBLE STORY: Joseph and his colorful coat

BABY BONUS: Ziplock bag painting and color mixing, Read Alice in Wonderland: A BabyLit Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams & Andy Warhol's Colors by Susan Goldman Rubin

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Oktoberfest & Germany

This is one of those toddler themes that is made easier by exploiting community activities.  In this case, we leveraged local Oktoberfest celebrations as we learned about Germany.  Denver hosts Oktoberfest over two weekends in September each year.  We went late morning and it wasn't too crowded yet which made it easier for us to sample lots of traditional German foods -- wursts & kraut, spaetzle, boiled potato salad.  The German music intrigued Mia...or maybe it was the lederhosen the band was wearing.  Her curious stares as she tried to make sense of it all were pretty funny!  

Another great time of year to learn about Germany while utilizing community activities is near Christmas time.  Denver hosts a Christkindl Market downtown between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'm sure other cities do as well.  I've been to a few of these famous markets in Frankfurt & Dusseldorf and one thing I particularly loved is the way people congregated and drank glühwein (mulled red wine) huddled together on a cold winter night.  Inspired by that, we made our own kid-friendly version of glühwein.  I picked up a huge jug of apple cider from the orchard last week and Colorado peaches are in their prime right now so we put those two items plus some cinnamon sticks in a heavy pot and let it simmer on low all afternoon.  It made our apartment smell so good!  The key to glühwein is serving it in festive ceramic mugs so I pulled out our pair usually reserved for hot cocoa and we enjoyed a nice warm pre-dinner treat.  Once the girls went to bed, my husband and I added a nip of bourbon and enjoyed a second mug.  Totally not German mulled red wine but we just couldn't let this mulled cider go to waste.  Just in case you needed some ideas for leftovers, too.  Wink, wink.

Another popular German street food is soft pretzels.  They are very dense and chewy and delicious.  There are quite a few recipes available online for replicating these at home but you know how I like to keep things real simple...We just used a tube of Pillsbury pizza crust to create our own pretzels.  I divided the dough into 4 pieces -- two for Mia & two for me.  We worked on rolling them out into long snakes and then I showed her how to fold it up into a pretzel shape.  I dissolved about 2 tablespoons of baking soda in 2 cups of hot water and we gave the pretzel shapes a quick dunk and then laid out on a baking sheet.  We sprinkled them with some coarse salt and baked in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Once they were done, I brushed them with some melted butter.  They were yummy!  Although, I'd say our pretzel rolling & twisting skills need some work!  Ha!

On one of my many visits to Germany, I picked up some traditional children's books for the baby growing in my belly (Mia!).  This week we pulled them out and read them together.  Mia's favorite is Der Struwwelpeter written by Heinrich Hoffman in 1845.  It's a collection of 10 short stories with morals, one being about the title character Der Struwwelpeter (or Shockheaded Peter) who doesn't keep himself groomed and gets teased.  I'll warn you that they are a tad morbid as was the style when it was originally written.  If you've read any of Grimm's Fairy Tales, then you won't be surprised by this style (the brothers Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm were German, too).  Since this book is so old, I was able to find it online with the original illustrations so you can check it out for yourself (find it here).    

Our own last name is German and after doing some research, we learned that a schlosser is a locksmith or one who works in a castle (a schloss).   Last year we made a lock & key charm necklace so this year we thought we'd try a castle art project.  My plan was to cut out various shapes and let Mia piece together her own castle but she wanted to draw with me so we ended up collaborating on a castle.  I drew it out under her very careful art direction and she watercolored it.  During the whole process, we were able to talk about shapes and different types of lines & patterns.  It was really nice to work on this so closely together and I think it turned out quite well.  You could do a German castle art project, too.  Did you know that the German castle Schloss Neuschwanstein (translated as New Swanstone Castle) was Walt Disney's inspiration for the design of Sleeping Beauty's castle?  And lastly, we did our usual Children of the World art project and watercolored the German flag (you can find country flag coloring sheets here).  

Until next week, tschüss! (said like juice with a ch- instead of j- and means bye!)

A summary of all Oktoberfest week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Learned a few German words and the translation of our own last name

ART PROJECTS: Drew & painted our own schloss (castle) by using different shapes, Painted the German flag (find the printable here), Made a schlussel (key) charm necklace after learning that our last name means locksmith

OUTINGS: Attended the Denver Oktoberfest and sampled different types of German food while listing to traditional music

SNACK: Made non-alcoholic glühwein with apple cider and soft pretzels

BOOKS: Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Farms

Fall makes a wonderful time to learn about farms because it's harvest time (Spring is great for seeing baby animals, though).  Check out what's available in your area for berry picking or apple picking for a fun field trip.  Admittedly, we put all of our energy into farm visits this week so I'll share some highlights from our adventures.

Our first field trip was to Berry Patch Farms in Brighton.  They are open several days a week for U-pick berries, basil, flowers, and pickling cucumbers.  They also have a great farm store.  Check their website for specific operating hours and berry picking status.  Strawberries are not available for picking this year because of the rough spring weather, but we were able to pick raspberries.  Mia & I picked a couple of pints together.  I'm pretty sure Millie ate a third pint during this whole process.  Hey, whatever keeps her happy!  Then we picked several cucumbers for pickling and perhaps the best part, Mia was able to pick some flowers.  In the farm store, we purchased some zucchini bread (picking berries is hard work and requires snacks!), tomatoes, garlic, basil, kale, and okra.  

The second farm we visited is Ya Ya Farm & Orchard in Longmont.  Unfortunately, the wacky spring weather and late snow storm did damage here too so apple picking is not available this fall, but the farm is still very beautiful and worth a visit just to explore.  Plus, they sell the best apple cider donuts at the farm stand which is the ENTIRE reason I go anyways.  Ha!  I have so many great childhood memories of apple picking in the fall with my family and it's made me continue the tradition with my kids.  Those sensory memories tied to the taste of apple cider donuts & fresh apple pie and that crisp autumn morning smell on a farm really leave an imprint.  So even though we couldn't pick the apples ourselves, we had a good time making our own new memories at the orchard and we snagged a bushel of apples from the farm stand and the girls were none the wiser.  Plus, local farmers need our support even more during the bad seasons.

We've visited both of these farms numerous times but this was the first time I felt Mia really made the connection with food and where it comes from.  To further this understanding, we made some of her favorite foods with our farm goodies.  Her current favorite meal is spaghetti and meatballs so we took all of our tomatoes and made a roasted tomato sauce.  To do this, I cut all the tomatoes in half and put them cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet coated with olive oil.  While I was doing that, Mia separated out the cloves of a whole head of garlic and we added those to the pan.  All of it roasted at 450 degrees for about 35 minutes (right before the skins blacken).  Once everything was cool enough to touch, we squeezed the tomato pulps into a saucepan, discarding the skins.  Then I fork mashed the garlic and added that to the pan.  You could blend the sauce at this point if you like it smoother.  Lastly, we added a quick pour of olive oil (around 1 tablespoon) and salt to taste and brought the heat up for simmering meatballs.  We also made pickles with her cucumbers using this recipe.  And all those raspberries? ...We turned them into a simple jam with this recipe from Martha Stewart.  Towards the end of the week, we made an apple pie with our orchard haul and surprised daddy returning home from business travel.

I've mentioned Sunflower Farm in a few other posts but all for good reason -- this place is pure magic.  From 9:00-1:00 Monday - Friday, they open up their farm to children & their parents to play and explore as they wish.  All seasons, all types of weather.  There are rope swings & ziplines, hammocks & porch swings, treehouses & rope bridges, and hay bale mazes & sand pits.  Horses, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, cows, llamas, sheep, and many more animals.  Even old tractors and a bulldozer and an airplane to climb all over.  Every time we go there, we discover more things to love about this place.  And we always come home exhausted and dirty and happy.  This time around, Mia rode a horse, explored a teepee, played house with a few friends, and climbed in the treehouse.  We also got to see a baby calf born just this week.  A little tip if you plan on visiting: you need to purchase tickets ahead of time on their website (the day of is okay as long as it's not already sold out).

Some other central Colorado farms that we didn't visit this week but we love are Four Mile Historic Park, Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, and Littleton Museum.  

A summary of all Farms week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Played farm with plastic animals and farm set

OUTINGS: Visited 3 local farms: Berry Patch Farms to pick raspberries & veggies, Ya Ya Orchard to pick apples, and Sunflower Farm to see the animals

SNACK: Made apple pie, raspberry jam, roasted tomato sauce, and refrigerator pickles

BOOKS: Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter, The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

BIBLE STORY: The Parable of the Sower

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Up in the Air

This theme week is similar to Under the Sea week in that it allows us to make some scientific discoveries about life in these places versus our home, on the land.  And I tried to break this topic up into 2 parts: flying machines and flying animals.  You'll probably notice that we went a little heavy on the flying machines because both Mia and I are more mechanically-minded so it's just where our interests took us this week.  We started by pulling out our kite and flying it in the park one afternoon.  We have a delta kite which just refers to its triangular shape.  These kites are known for being easy to fly and its shape was a good conversation starter about wings and airplanes.  Before dinner one evening, Mia made some paper airplanes with her dad and we noticed that their pointed shape looked a lot like our kite.  Would they fly the same?  Whose airplane would go the farthest?  Why?  To take it a step farther, we built a balsa wood airplane with a rubber band "motor."  You can find really inexpensive kits for these at Hobby Lobby.  I showed her how we can store some energy in the rubber band and then we launched it around the park.  I made no mention of Newton's laws of motion or things like kinetic energy, but we covered all of it.  And maybe when she's sitting in science class one day, she'll think back on our fun afternoon in the park.    

Mia currently has a pretty big interest in outer space and I'm considering doing a whole Space theme week in the future, but we included a bit this week to hold her over.  If your kid is really into space too, check out the science aisle at Hobby Lobby.  They sell all kinds of model rocket kits and supplies.  For a fun space-themed snack, I gave Mia her first taste of astronaut ice cream.  Another cool Hobby Lobby find!  She was a little disappointed that it wasn't like Earth ice cream but we talked about gravity and why astronaut ice cream has to be different.  She has the movie Home and there is a part where the invading Boovs gather up all the humans and they temporarily suspend gravity.  That visual was helpful when talking about gravity together.  

Up in the Air week seemed like the perfect time to collaborate with the sun to create some art.  And we tried it a few different ways ranging from super simple & cheap to messy & more expensive.  The easiest way to make sun art is to use colored construction paper.  You know how that stuff fades so easily?  Well, we exploited that this week.  We each picked a piece of paper and set them out on a bright sun exposed window ledge.  We just arranged some small toys and blocks so their weight kept everything in place but if you use light objects like feathers and leaves, then you can lay an acrylic sheet overtop (Home Depot sells cheap precut sheets in the window aisle).  We left them out for a whole afternoon and they turned out pretty neat but we needed more.  Luckily, I also found sun print paper at Hobby Lobby and we arranged found leaves into patterns inspired by the sun.  We love how these turned out (pictured below)!  The third method we tried is with a relatively new product called Inkodye.  It's a light sensitive dye that you can use on pretty much any material.  We tested it out on some scrap fabric with a leaf design and it's very promising.  We're already making bigger plans to try it with a photo transparency design on a T-shirt. 

As a super special treat, I got Mia up really early over the weekend to drive down to Colorado Springs to see the sunrise hot air ballon ascension at the Labor Day Lift Off.  I went by myself last year and it was such a magical sight that I knew I had to return and bring her.  It was so special to not only have some alone time with her, but to also see her face as those balloons began lifting up off the ground.

And lastly, we spent some time exploring those animals in the sky -- birds.  I found a small wooden bird house in the unfinished wood section at the craft store (not Hobby Lobby this time, ha!) and Mia painted it entirely gold and hung it on our balcony.  A house fit for a queen bird!  We also made a special zoo trip with a focus on birds.  She fed sugar water to the lorikeets and we also watched the Wildlife Show featuring many different species of birds.  Her favorite was the black vulture Igor who swooped and flew over our heads.  I'm just thankful Igor didn't poop on us.  Can't say as much for the lorikeets.

A summary of all Up in the Air week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Flew a kite at the park, Made a rubber band-propelled balsa wood airplane, Learned how to fold paper airplanes, Talked about gravity

ART PROJECTS: Made sun art three ways, Painted a wooden bird house

OUTINGS: Went to the Labor Day Lift Off balloon festival in Colorado Springs to watch the balloons launch, Looked for flying animals at the zoo and fed the lorikeets

SNACK: Astronaut ice cream

BOOKS: The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola, Hello, My Name is Ruby by Philip C. Stead, Looking Down by Steve Jenkins, Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes

BIBLE STORY: Ascension

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).