Blue B's, Purple Collages, and Rainbow Rice

I decided to lump together our last couple projects that we did for our Color unit last week. They are very simple and didn't seem to need their own post. On Thursday we discussed the color blue and also our letter of the week was B. So I printed out a big B from my computer and traced it onto paper for the kids.

Then I put out three shades of blue paint and different brushes and foam rollers.

The bowl without any brushes was for finger painting. The kids had a great time decorating their B's!

Friday was Violet/Purple day. I found a bunch of random purple things from my craft drawer.

The kids glued whatever they wanted on their paper.

I also made rainbow rice for our sensory tub. I've wanted to color rice for the longest time and this was the perfect time to do it. There are directions out on the web which say to use something like 2 tbsp rubbing alcohol with a few squirts of food coloring and 2 cups of rice. But I never measured. I just poured some alcohol into a big ziploc baggie, added some food coloring and poured in some rice. If it didn't seem to cover it all or if the color wasn't dark enough, I just added more alcohol and coloring. I mixed up the rice just by squishing it around in the bag. I used neon and regular food coloring. Then I dumped the bags out onto cookie sheets that were lined with paper towels so the rice could dry. (I didn't have to drain the bags like I did when I dyed pasta.) I was in love with the vibrant colors!

(My first photo collage!)

I mixed all the pastel colors together first (those from my neon pack) and really liked that combination. It would be great for a spring or Easter project.

Then I added the rest. I could tell immediately that I didn't have enough. When I got to school and dumped it in the sensory tub, it was just a thin layer that barely covered the bottom. But it will do for now and someday I'll make more. I added some little bears that the kids could bury.

Then we used a spinner from our Candy Land Bingo game. Whichever color it landed on was the color of bear they had to find in the rice.

So yes, more rice would have worked better so the kids could dig around a little more. I also put our sand toys in there so the kids could just play.

They really liked that!
So that is the end of our Color week. I hope you got some good ideas!