Learning for Little Ones: Matching Colors

Enter the puzzles my mom brought in May. At the time they were way over Tornado's head, so they got stashed for "later". After playing with a puzzle during our vacation in Michigan, I decided he may be ready for me to bring them back out. One of those puzzles has 8 music notes, all of different colors. Under each piece the puzzle looks the same, except it also includes the color written out. The word really doesn't matter at this point, but the puzzle is wonderful. Instead of sorting by color, Tornado has learned to match by color! Genius! He may not know that the one in his hand is pink, or green, or red (though I tell him with each one), but he has learned that the one he has in his hand is different than all the rest, and that it matches the space on the board of the same color.

What can you do if you don't have a puzzle? Make the matching parts yourself. A friend of ours made a matching game for her little ones several years ago... I just never put the pieces together in my head (until this very post as a matter of fact.) Color (or have your little ones do it) a different color on different pieces of paper -- as small or large as you like-- then make a matching set. Lay one set down and help your child to match them up. I may do this with Tornado too... just to reinforce the idea. In fact, the same principle can be done to teach sorting shapes, and perhaps even numbers or letters.

Has anyone done something similar??? I'm all ears!... or eyes anyway! :)

Labels: Learning for Little Ones

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 7:13 AM