Teaching Colors To Children With Color Rocks

Teaching Colors To Children just got a whole lot easier with these easy-to-make Color Rocks. Teaching colors to children can be a daunting task but this simple idea helps you to make it fun to teach colors to children. As a mom and a kindergarten teacher I am always looking for easy and fun ways for teaching and now thanks to this great Color Rocks idea, you can bring home this easy and simple idea and create something your children will love, that will allow them to easily learn their colors all with things you probably have at home right now.

My students love our color rocks!  We use them all the time for fun activities.  The kids have so much fun that they don’t even realize all that they are learning!  Here are a few of our favorite activities to help you use your color rocks at home too!

1. Matching game.  Pull out two rocks.  Are they the same color?  If so, then you found a match!  
2. Find the color.  Our kids love going on ‘treasure hunts’ searching high and low for colors.  This activity can keep them busy for a long time! Have them draw a rock from the bag and send them off to find an object (or objects) of that color.  If you are doing multiple items, it is a great way for them to practice their counting too!
3. Color mixing.  Use our free printable color mixing worksheet to get kiddos started on a coloring adventure.  Draw out colors to find out what combinations you will be mixing. Sometimes they are odd ones, but nevertheless, they are fun to create.  This is a great early science activity to do with kids. What colors do you think will be created? What do you notice every time you add white or black to a color?  Will the colors get lighter or darker. Early scientific method use at it’s finest! 

Supplies:

1. Rocks
2. White acrylic paint 
3. Acrylic paint of your choice of colors 
4. Black Sharpie marker
5. Mod Podge 
6. Paintbrushes 
7. Yarn
8. Thick upholstery style needle 
9. 2 pieces of felt 
10. Hot glue 

Instructions:

To make the rocks: 

1. Collect your rocks!  The number of rocks will depend on how many colors you wish to have.  I did rocks in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black and white.  Because I wanted my kids to be able to play the matching game, I made two of each color for a total of 20 rocks.  
2. Wash the rocks and let them dry.  Kids love to help with this! 
3. Once the rocks are dry, paint them white.  This is optional, but it makes a HUGE difference in making the colors nice and bright.  
4. Paint the rocks in your choice of colors.  I like to do two coats of paint on my rocks for a nice pretty color. 
5. Once the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write out the color words on the rocks.  This is an optional step, but seeing the words written with the words is a great visual for early learners.  
6. Seal with a thin layer of Mod Podge.  This will keep the paint from chipping and help to protect through lots of play!  Plus, it gives them a nice shiny look!
7. Let dry.  Your rocks are ready to play! 

To make the bag: 

1. Choose a color of felt for the bag and one for your decoration.  
2. Lay your ‘bag’ color felt landscape ways (hamburger) on your table.  Fold the top part down about 1 ½ inches. Pin into place.
3. Using yarn (or you can use embroidery floss or regular thread) sew across the top creating a little flap. 
4. Cut a long piece of yarn about 1 ½ times the length of your bag.  Tie the ends together to make one long loop. 
5. Slide the loop of yarn inside the flap, folding the felt over the yarn. 
6. Stitch the flap down making sure not to stitch the yarn into place.  This will become your drawstring.
7. Fold the piece of felt together (hotdog style!)
8. Decorate the bag however you wanted.  We cut out paint ‘blobs’, a paintbrush and letters to write the words colors on our bag.  But the decorations are up to you! Hot glue your decorations in place on the front of the bag.  
9. Starting inside the bag, just underneath the drawstring area that you stitched, stitch around the sides and bottom of the bag leaving the top open.  I did a blanket stitch, but you can use any stitch!
10. Add your rocks inside.

Simple and easy, our Color Rocks offer endless possibilities and allow you to have as much fun as the kids. Always remember, the child who has fun learning will be a success!  What other ways can you think of to use our Color Rock idea for?