For our 10th week of Tot School we worked on the color Purple!
Our book for the week was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. We picked this gem up at our local library. Having a library card has really saved us some money when it comes to books! We read the book daily throughout the week often more than once most days. Grace really enjoys story time.
I had made a Purple textured sensory card to use during the week as well since Grace likes to feel things. I just hot glued some items I had in my craft closet to a piece of cardboard. Those little hands love to feel around and attempt to pull things off.
We danced to Pancake Manor’s Purple YouTube video and enjoyed dancing to the Purple People Eater Song on the Kidsongs YouTube channel – wow talk about a walk down memory lane. This version of the Purple People Eater song is the same one I watched when I was a little girl! We had some bonus media time this week too, as Amazon Prime had the original 7 minute Harold and the Purple Crayon movie that is word for word exactly like the book, as well as a series based on Harold and the Purple Crayon for prime members.
Our first activity of the week was our traditional start to a color theme, a Purple sensory bin filled with items collected from Grace’s toys and items found around the house.
Grace plays with the purple bin all week long, sometimes in the living room, at the kitchen table, or even outside! At the end of most of our color theme weeks, I’m looking under furniture trying to locate lost items that were tossed at some point during all the fun Ha!
Our next activity for the week was Ziplock Painting a Purple bunch of grapes! We also do one of these mess free finger painting activities for all our color theme weeks, and after we finish all the colors I have planned, I am going to make a little flip book so Grace can reference all her colors. I just drew an outline of a bunch of grapes on a piece of white card stock with a sharpie, placed it in a gallon sized Ziplock bag, added some purple paint inside, sealed it and handed it over to Grace. Since this is now the seventh time she’s painted like this she knows exactly how to maneuver the paint around to paint her picture. I choose to draw the outlines for these activities, but you can certainly find a free printable to use. I also use card stock for its thickness instead of regular printer paper since the paint we use is pretty thick as well.
We ventured outside again for the next day’s activity! I made Grace some taste safe purple moon sand from items I had in our pantry. I placed the moon sand in a purple bin that I happened to have that usually contains our paint supplies, added a sand castle mold, and a large play fork and shovel we already had as well.
While we are excited to add a sandbox outside sometime in the future, I have not been comfortable enough to let her play with sand yet since she still likes to put stuff in her mouth. After a quick Pinterest search for a taste safe recipe, I was able to tweak one I had found based on what I had on hand.
To make our purple moon sand, I mixed 8 tablespoons of olive oil with some purple food coloring. Now the olive oil did not turn a bright color in the oil but did darken. The food coloring I have in our pantry is not oil based, therefore it doesn’t mix super well with oil but I just stirred until the color was mostly even throughout, then added this mixture to 2 and 3/4 cups of flour. I used my hands to mix everything making sure to squish all the clumps. Using your hands for this will ensure the oil mixture evenly colors the flour. The Color I ended up with is not a deep shade of purple. I tried to add more coloring to the mixture, but that did not work out. I recommend adding more coloring to some oil, then adding to your sand, and adding more flour as needed for the right consistency if you want a deeper color. This recipe is taste safe, meaning if your little one(s) happen to taste or put their their hands in their mouth while playing with this sand it’s ok! However, I do not recommend eating handfuls of this stuff and I’m sure it doesn’t taste good either, so that will help deter eating the moon sand. As far as saving this sand for future activities, the original recipe I found said it could be saved in an air tight container for a couple of weeks, but being so easy to make, I plan to make as needed.
The consistency was great for the sand castle mold we used and feels more like wet sand than regular sand. I have to admit, I had fun mixing this stuff together with my hands too!
Grace had such a good time scooping and shoveling out the moon sand and grabbing it by the handfuls! Of course a purple tutu just added to the fun! This is definitely a messy activity. Another reason I choose to do this outside. I used her pack and play thinking I could just vacuum up the moon sand. It took a lot more time to clean up than I expected, Ha! Clorox Wipes were definitely my friend, as well as the vacuum and the broom, and there is still residue on the patio. So next time we play with moon sand I’ll probably just set it up in the grass! Grace required a bath afterwards as well. One final note on this activity, it is possible the food coloring will stain, so clean up should be done as fast as possible!
Our next activity for our Purple theme went along perfectly with our book this week! Grace has been more interested in coloring with crayons recently, especially when we go out to eat and they give her crayons. She inevitably wants to chew on the crayons, so I watch her closely to help deter her from doing so. For this activity, I taped a piece of white paper to our trusty little cookie sheet, just to protect the surface she was using, and handed Grace a Purple Crayon from our pack of Crayola Jumbo Crayons. We enjoyed watching some more of Amazon’s Harold and the Purple Crayon series while Grace colored.
Our last activity for Purple week was a color sensory bath! I mixed a blue and red tablet from our Crayola Bath Drops to turn the water purple, and added all the things from her color sensory bin that was safe for the bath. I also threw in a purple funnel I had and Grace was mesmerized! She loved filling the funnel and watching the water come out the end! I believe this is the last color we can make with our Crayola Bath Drops, so I’ll have to come up with some other water activities for my little water bug for future themes!
We had bunches of fun learning about the color Purple this week! 💜
If you’d like to see a sample of how I plan out themes for a week check out the Tot School Schedule 🍍 page!
You can also see a list of this year’s themes on the Tot School Themes ☂️ page!
EVERYDAY a little Grace 🌷
Everyday a Little Grace 