Baby Sensory Color Explorations Red
Babies are constantly seeing colors all around them! The teacher in me has been saying, “That’s a blue cup!” and “Elmo is red!” to Peanut since he was born, but there is a lot of different research about when exactly babies can differentiate and identify colors. I started these Color Baskets at 8 months. I decided to do it when Peanut was crawling all over the house, room to room and touching so many new things! I wanted him to be exposed to different textures and how to handle varying objects before he discovered them along his path. He also is finally at the point where he can touch and play with his toys without putting every thing in his mouth (most of the time). So laying in bed one night, I decided to try to pair texture exposure with colors! The day of color centers included object exploration, books, a song, and an art project!
Read about Blue Day and Yellow Day for more ideas!
Radiant Red Day
The first day we explored red! I had so much fun going around my house and looking for different baby appropriate red objects. I realized that if you have an older child they could totally go on a scavenger hunt to find this stuff, but I really enjoyed doing it myself!
What I included in our red basket:
- measuring cups (3 different sizes)
- tupperware lids
- baby spoon
- boat bath toy
- dish towel- which happen to have pom poms on the edge!!
- pom poms
- popsicle stick
- plastic cookie cutters
- sock
- crocheted apple bunting
- foam block
- Elmo
- stuffed animal clothing
- Peanut’s shirt
- yarn
- streamers
- ribbon
- gift bag
- cup
- wooden monkey decoration from Peanut’s room
- chip clip
- marker
- bandana
- yarn
NOTE: A lot of these objects I would NOT let Peanut touch or explore himself if he found them crawling around. I included these types of things to expose him to touching them with my support. Always supervise babies during any type of object exploration.
Books!
I picked out some special books to read with Peanut on the color days! If you know me at all, you know I LOVE books. So any excuse to do a themed book day is a great day for me! I used books I have around the house already and shared them below!
- I Love Colors *uses real photographs which Peanut LOVES!
- Pop- Up Peekaboo Colors
Red Books- they don’t teach red but have a red object
Song & Video
Art Center- PAINT!
In order to safely let Peanut explore paints FOR THE FIRST TIME, I put a dab of red paint on the center of a paper inside a ziploc bag. He then could squish around outside the plastic to “paint” his strawberry and heart that I printed out for him. It did not go exactly as I imagined… he was much more interested in crinkling the plastic bag than smushing the paint. However, the squeezing of the bag spread around the paint anyway! Later I showed him the ziploc again and he very gently stroked the red. So it might just depend on their mood, who knows! We had fun though!
Our Red Day Schedule
In the morning: -read color books -explore red basket -watch red video
In the afternoon: -read books about red things -paint red -play with a few of his favorite items from the basket
Lessons I Learned During Red Day
- Peanut did in fact put everything in his mouth despite what I said earlier so please be careful
- He LOVED banging together the plastic measuring spoons
- Do not put the entire roll of ribbon, string, or streamers in the basket- he pulled it all apart
- He was infatuated with all of the different items and pulling them out to examine them one by one
- Despite Peanut’s constant desire to stand and crawl right now, he sat still for 40 minutes looking at this basket!
- Peanut was so interested in his regular toys at the end of Red Day because he hadn’t seen them in a while
- Peanut was not ready for non- food activities at his high chair- he just wanted to eat the ziploc. The paint activity worked much better on the floor with him sitting on my lap.
Adult Red Day Songs 🙂
So because it was Red Day for my husband and I also… after Peanut went to sleep we made it a mission to think of red adult songs. These were our favorites- enjoy!
- Red by Taylor Swift
- Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue by Toby Keith
- Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith
- Red Dirt Road by Brooks & Dunn
- Red Red Wine by UB 40
- 99 Red Balloons by Goldfinger
More Ideas
Here are some ideas for more center activities that I thought of throughout the day to try in the future or when I do this again when Peanut is older…
- eat red food
- wear red clothes
- find the word red in books
- find red things outside
- play dough to write r, e, & d
- rhyme with red
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