We finished up our 16th week of Tot School this past week and our theme was the color Gray! This is our 11th color theme and will be our last for this year, except for a color review I have planned in a couple of weeks! This mama is having all the feels right now. We will be transitioning to shapes soon, but for now here’s all the fun we had learning about the color Gray!
Our first activity of the week was a Gray themed color sensory bin, something we have done for every color theme over the past 16 weeks. I just grabbed items from around the house and from Grace’s toy collection and placed them in a small storage bin for her to explore. She gets so excited to see a new bin to play with, and we play with this color bin all week long.
I had also made a Gray color texture card for Grace to explore made from items around the house and my craft supply stash. Grace loves to feel things, and loves to touch different textures so I figured this would be a great way for her to learn colors as well. I just hot glued those found items to a piece of card board and clipped it to a small clipboard to make it a little more sturdy for Grace to handle.
Our book for the week was One Gray Mouse by Ovi Nedelcu. While the message of this book may be a little over Grace’s head at the moment, the illustrations were awesome, and the colors are very vivid. I believe I had read when researching this book that the author had worded on projects for Disney at some point. Not only did this book introduce the color Gray, but we were also able to review other colors as well, like red, green, blue, and yellow. The message really is great, and I’m sure in years to come, Grace will grow to love the story as well, not just the illustrations.
I do like to utilize our local library to find books we don’t already have in our collection, but finding a book with “Gray” in the title proved a bit difficult. We found this book on Amazon for around $10, which to date is probably the most expensive book we have bought for Tot School, but still better than the cover price of $20 if we were to have purchased this in a store. Grace really enjoyed pointing to all the different colored mice in this book, and we also started counting some too!
Unfortunately our favorite YouTube channels do not have a color music video for Gray. However we listen to Pancake Manor’s Colors album all the time in the car. It’s free for Prime members! The last song on their album is called the “Un-Colors” and talks about Black, White, & Gray. We rocked out on all our car rides this week to this song.
Our second activity for our Gray themed week was Ziplock Painting a Gray Mouse. We have done this activity for almost every color we have focused on over the past 16 weeks as well. At this point, Grace is a pro at Ziplock Painting, so this activity doesn’t last very long. I took our black and white Crayola Kid’s Paints and mixed them together to make our Gray paint for this activity. I had drawn a mouse outline with a sharpie on a piece of white card stock, placed it in a gallon sized Ziplock bag, added the Gray paint, sealed the bag, and placed it in front of Grace on our work space for her to maneuver the paint around. After she squished and pressed the paint, covering the mouse outline, I removed it from the bag to dry, then I put it on our refrigerator for her to see throughout the rest of the week.
She likes to point at her masterpiece and gets so excited to see her Gray mouse. Since, again this is our last color theme for Tot School this year, I am going to take all her Ziplock Paintings for each color to an office supply store and have each one laminated and bound so Grace has a little reference book for all her colors. Look for a post in the next couple of weeks where we will be using this book for one of our upcoming themes!
Our next activity for the week was a loud one! We played with “Gray” musical pots and pans. Yes I do realize some of the “Gray” items we are using are technically silver, but for a simple introduction to colors, these things are Gray for the time being. At some point in the future we will go over metallic colors, but not during this year of Tot School. While Grace was napping, I moved our coffee table in the living room and placed various pots and pans, as well as a colander and stainless cup in the center of the room upside down so she would have plenty of space to explore. I placed various spoons, a butter knife (no sharp sides) and a whisk beside all the pans and waited for her to wake up! My plan was for her to find this activity on her own and figure out what to do all by herself, with no instruction. I wanted her to explore and learn independently.
Explore was exactly what she did! She went straight over to all the Gray pots and pans and picked up a spoon and a whisk and started banging away. Each one made a different sound and Grace quickly realized this and had to try out each thing to see what it sounded like with the different utensils. We did this for a while and Grace tried out many different other things to see what they sounded like, including her gray ball from her color bin this week. She also put the ball in a pot and carried it around. We turned on Pandora after a while for an official dance party and Grace continued playing percussion with the tunes and danced to her heart’s content!
Water Painting a Gray Elephant was our next activity of the week! I used a piece of Gray card stock and drew an outline of an elephant with a black sharpie (you can find a free printable if you prefer). I placed it on our dollar store cookie sheet and placed a small bowl of water with a sponge brush beside it, and Grace started painting. Water will turn the colored paper a different shade, so Grace can see where she has painted and the difference in colors. We’ve done this activity several times, and Grace loves to not only use the sponge brush but also her fingers to paint and play with the water. Grace loves water so this activity usually lasts a good while, as she can sort of splash in the water that pools on the cookie sheet, and squish the sponge brush to make the water drip onto the paper. I really like this activity too as there is minimal mess, just a little toweling off surfaces and Grace.
Our last activity for our Gray themed week was a handmade (pun intended) gift for Daddy for Father’s Day! Last year, Grace made her Daddy a coffee mug using her handprint as a fish (he is an avid fisherman) that said “Hooked on Daddy”. When thinking about what Grace could make for him this year, I really wanted to continue the handprint theme so there’s a record showing how she’s growing through the years. I searched Pinterest and found this cute idea of Daddy, Mommy, and Baby’s hand prints, and knew this was what we were going to do! I got a whitewashed 8×8 pallet board at Walmart, and 3 different shades of Gray acrylic paint. I had her Dad, make his handprint, telling him it was for a project for her to do for our Gray themed week…I’m pretty sure he knew we were up to something else but went along with it anyway…Ha! Later, I put my handprint with a different color of paint on top of his, and once that was dry, I painted Grace’s hand with the last color of Gray paint and put it on top of ours. She protested big time! This was not the most exciting activity for Grace, and because I was helping her I couldn’t get any pictures of her actually doing this activity. I added a rhinestone to the ring finger on my handprint just to add a little something extra, and signed the back of the board from Grace, Father’s Day 2019. I also added a gift tag with some silver and gray ribbon. I think it turned out great! The color of Gray paint I chose for Grace’s handprint is actually metallic, and really shows up on top of our handprints, something the picture above does not do justice. Her Daddy loved it!
Our week ended with a beautiful weekend, perfect for Grace to take her very first boat ride! All her Daddy wanted was for his family to spend an afternoon at the lake, and that’s exactly what we did. I was so anxious not knowing whether or not she would like it or even tolerate spending time on the boat. Grace LOVED it! She had so much fun and never once protested her life jacket. The only thing she was unhappy about was not being able to get in the water! We didn’t go to the lake we usually do for her first ride, choosing to stay close to home in case she didn’t like it, and unfortunately the lake closest to us doesn’t allow swimming. Now that we know she loves the boat, I’m sure there will be a lot more lake days to come this summer!
That’s a wrap on the color Gray! We had so much fun learning about the color Gray this week and loved being able to make something special for Daddy for Father’s Day! The best though, was making the first of many memories with Grace on the lake and her very first boat ride! 🐭
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 