One of the easiest ways to grasp and learn colors is by focusing on one color. This week is all about the color yellow!
This week we will do tons of color yellow activities including a craft, a sensory bins and playdough.
Wondering how to get started teaching colors? Check the Guide: How To Start Teaching Colors
This week is part of our color lesson plan series, where all throughout this month we take one full week and do activities relates to color. Check out Tot School: all about colors
Check out our videos on Instagram with the activity tutorials, tips and other ideas for this week here
Introducing the color yellow
I love to set up the stage for our week by setting up a shelf of our color theme with some toy inspiration and themes to talk about. This will allow for some inspiration for our themes and activities through the week.
I have a book about animals and I pulled up the bee page so we are going to talk about that this week. I collected a treasure basket for the color yellow and found a giraffe book and a guitar so we will definitely be doing something with that.
Always try to use what you have at home when setting up your shelf, is just about getting our kid’s excited and us too about this week.
Color shelf this week:
Manu is 30 months old, so these are the toys I have presented on the shelf. He is very much into construction vehicles and taking things apart or building things, so I customized the shelf to reflect that and highlight the color yellow as much as I could w9ith the stuff I had already at home)
Top of Shelf:
- A book about feelings (recommended for 2-year-olds)
- National Geographic book about bugs – opened in the Bee Page
- A treasure basket of the color yellow
First Cubbies
- Cars: Pick the same item in different colors.
- Building blocks in yellow
- bee-hive fine motor skill toy (recommended for 2-year-olds)
- Color reflection stacking blocks
Bottom Cubbies
- Selection of favorite books
- Build transportation cars
- Yellow musical instruments
- Yellow construction vehicle
Wearing our Color
Yellow activities also involve wearing the color of the week.
Let’s get a yellow shirt and wear it proudly! Part of getting excited and learning colors is to wear them.
This week we are both wearing a yellow shirt. It’s a simple thing, but it makes a big difference! Plus, this way you can get them excited about the color of the week and share that experience with them.
Bathtime is Playtime
Lately we have been enjoying themed baths, this week I chose to put some blue food coloring in the water and yellow ducks.
Snack and Meal Time
Learning olores doesn’t always have to be setting up elaborate activities. We took a few snack and meal opportunities to practice the color yellow.
The wheels on the bus
The wheels on the bus is a great song to use for learning but for snack? Totally! Get your wheels on the bus from the coloring pack and get ready!
Have some round cookies ready to sing and play and when you are done eating then grab your favorite art supply like a crayon or paint stick.
Making lemonade
We had some yellow lemons and because we have been talking about the lemons when we made the playdough and rice scented with lemon he was very intrigued about this fruit.
What did we do? Of course! Lemonade! And I’m happy to announce we did it 3 times already because he loved the activity!
When they love an activity repeat it often! They really enjoy it and the concept really sinks in.
Yellow rice
Lastly, I was totally in the mood of yellow everything that I added some yellow color to our rice to make our meal part of our weekly lesson.
Angelica, used one of the activities from the MY FIRST SCHOOL CURRICULUM and had a playtime snack time with jello! How fun!
QuiCk & Easy DIY Toy
This easy activity made with a gallon of milk is great for working on eye-hand coordination as well as cause and effect. I have been using this activity since Manu was 1 and he still loves it!
The colored tape is to give it a decoration element to the boring looking bottle but also to cover the hard edged form the cutout plastic to prevent any cuts or sharp edges made with the scissors.
Cut out a window with scissors 
Tape around to cover any hard edges and give it color 
Provide different size toys 
Rinse and Repeat
Art & Craft
Even though at one and two year olds are not very good with crafts. They try to eat everything or they don’t stay long enough, I still like to create some type of process art or art experience. This week we did two activities.
The Sun is Yellow
Scissor skills is an important skill to develop starting at two years old. For this activity, we used the sun coloring sheet from the coloring sheet pack and cut up strips of yellow construction paper. We also used a glue stick to glue it to finalize our craft.
ColOring With yellow
If scissor skills is too advance just provide different color yellow materials to color a page. Use simple designs for best results.
Painting circles
Art at this age is all about exploring the materials. We used different circle shapes items to stamp with yellow paint. We had, sponges, bottle caps, and foam sheets.
Sensory bin
Working with sensory bins is one of my favorite ways to add learning in the early years. All senses get activated, the imagination gets going and they become little explorers and scientists while using them.
If your little one is still putting everything in their mouth, you can do these sensory bins with cooked rice or add the rice into a gallon ziplock bag to create a sensory bag.
Search & Find Yellow Toys
Set up a tray with raw rice, a small yellow cup and some yellow toys. The toys should be small that they can fit in the cup but not too small that the kids will have a hard time grabbing or finding.
Lemon-Scented Sensory Bin
We made lemon-scented yellow rice (recipe below) and as we were doing our afternoon nature walk we found a dead bee. Manu was totally intrigued so we took out our magnifying glass to inspect it. My plan for a yellow sensory bin just took a twist to explore what he had just found. We took the rest of the day to talk about and explore all about the bees. We tried honey and played with a bee themed sensory bin. I cut up a toilet paper tube to create a flower. My initial idea was to create a beehive but my craft skills didn’t make it that far, so a flower had to be good enough.
Here are a few other sensory bin ideas we have used focusing on the color yellow.
Lemon-Scented Colored Rice
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon of Lemon extract (Found in the baking section at supermarket)
- 2 cups of White rice
- 1 Tbs of Vinegar
- 6-8 drops of yellow Food Coloring
- 1 gallon Ziplock Bag
- Aluminum paper
- Tray
Instructions
- Measure 1 Tbsp of vinegar into zip lock
- Mix in yellow food coloring into the vinegar
- Measure 3 cups of white rice and add into the ziplock bag
- Close ziplock and shake, shake, shake to mix well.
- Add in 1 Tablespoon of lemon extract
- Cover a tray with aluminum foil
- Spread colored rice into aluminum foil and allow for it to dry
- Place on sensory bin for a fine motor skills activity
Lemon Lemon scented playdough
Lastly, we did a small playdough invitation tray. We poke, squeezed, and talked about the sun and its color. I provided a couple of straws to use their hand muscles to push the straws into the playdough and strengthen their hand muscles and work on fine motor skills.
Playdough is recommended for ages 2 and up and even at this age their imagination is very limited so they must be shown what to do and all activities should remain very simple.
We used the scented playdough recipe below but exchanged the essential oils with baking scented essence.
Lemon-Scented Playdough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup All purpose flour
- 1 cup of boiling water
- ½ cup of salt
- 2 Tbs Cream of Tartar
- 2 Tbs oil
- Food coloring (color of your choice)
- Essential oil (of your choice)
Instructions
- Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl
- Heat up 1 cup of water in the microwave for 2 minutes
- Add the food coloring and essential oil to the hot water. I did about 5 drops of essential oil and 10 drops of food coloring
- Mix all ingredients with a spoon until playdough can be kneaded by hand
- If Playdough is too sticky after kneading it for a while sprinkle some flour onto tje mix and knead.
- Be careful not to add too much as it could dry out the dough. If this happens, just add a little bit of water.
- Knead for about one minute to make it soft and with a good consistency to be played with
- Save in zip lock bags when not in used as playdough will dry out if left exposed to the air
Final Thoughts
Making a full week of yellow activities and using the word yellow often will allow our little ones to recognize the colors simply. Use sensory play, craft and daily routines to implement the colors.
Check out our other Color lesson plans to help you plan your week.
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