First I stuck some velcro stickers on the back of a shoebox lid, and glued the lid to a slightly larger piece of poster board.
Then I glued paint chip pieces around the edge of the poster board.
I glued corresponding paint chip pieces to clothes pins.
And I got this. A thingambob that sticks to the flannelboard and juts out enough for tiny hands to attach the color match.
There are a few kinks to work out. The two blue colors are too similar and confused my beta tester (the cutest almost 2 year old in the entire world), the Lily Lavender up in the top left corner fades into the background and that's to say nothing of the fact that I don't have any red up there. For the most part, though, I really like this new match game and the hand eye coordination skills that it will help build. I'm thinking of eventually expanding into different shapes and for a real challenge colors on the same paint chip/color gradient, but for now there's a small problem...
...So here's my problem and where I turn to you guys, oh great collective brain of Flannel Friday. I don't have a delivery system. No song or rhyme or anything other than "Here ya go, find your match" once I pass out the clothespins. I need something catchy, something they'll remember, something to draw them in and make it an actual game.
What'dya say? Got any ideas for me?
Flannel Friday is hosted this week by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime and as always you can find more information about Flannel Friday and browse past round-ups at the official website.
Well, you can always leave it out and have the kids use it in the children's room as an early lit activity (motor skills=strengthening hands=writing skills). You can also write upper case letters on one squares (maybe the ones on the board) and lower case on the clip ones and have them match that way. We do an early lit program where parents and kids come in and use our stuff (hey, they love playing with the flannelboards) and you could also do something like that. I know it isn't quite what you were looking for, but maybe it will spark someone else! :)
ReplyDeleteWhere, oh where, has my blue square gone? Where, oh where, can it be? I'm searching and singing my color song. Where, oh where, can it be?
ReplyDeleteLove this idea! Does the shoe box lid stay on the flannelboard pretty well, even with little hands clipping?
Very creative idea! I'm sure your storytime friends have fun with it!
ReplyDeleteI love fallingflannelboards song idea!
I think I would tweak the song and your box if I was using it with younger preschoolers though. I would cut the paint pieces into different shapes like a blue butterfly, red cat, purple fish, green turtle (just really simple outlines) and sing "Oh where, oh where has my green turtle gone." Most little ones will be able to match the simple animal shapes even if they aren't matching or recognizing colors yet. The shapes help insure success and will allow a child who doesn't know his colors yet to still participate easily...
This is definitely going on my TBM tot be made) pile! Thanks for the inspiration!
Awesome idea!
~ K ~
I agree with K about adding shapes, especially since you have more than one of the same color (unless you want several kids coming up at once) and they will not know the difference between lime green and green.
ReplyDeleteYou could do a song like 'If you're happy and you know it':
If you have a yellow duck, please come up,
If you have a yellow duck, please come up.
If you have a yellow duck, please come up and match it up,
If you have a yellow duck, please come up.
And you could point to the shape on your board and have everyone sing along so they are still involved while waiting for a turn.
I have a matching activity each week. The only thing I do, though is sing-song "Who has the (one) that looks like this?" while making my piece dance around. They are so eager to bring up their piece, I wouldn't make it through a song.
ReplyDelete