Color Sorting And Fine Motor Skills {School At Home}

Remember this School At Home post where I pondered the next step for our inquisitive preschooler? I wondered if Alina was outgrowing our old routine of storytime at the library and playdates with friends. And although she may benefit from a program outside the home, I expressed that after a busy year of buying a home and having a second child, the budget just doesn’t allow it. I started a School at Home Pinterest Board to formulate a list of activities we can do at home to foster a love of learning and work on specific skills…

First up: color sorting. There are days where I think Alina totally knows her colors and she lists them on command. She’ll voluntarily assign them while taking a walk outdoors, and is always correct on the first try. Then were are days where I think she’s color blind; like seriously. Color blind.

This simple activity helped me assess that, no, Alina is not color blind. In fact, she recognizes the differences in colors quickly and sorts them efficiently. Naming them isn’t 100% spot on, however. For some reason “red” gives her issues, and she does mix up color names in English and Spanish. Fine tuning this knowledge is all in the fun of the activity, which is simple and low stress. I’m happy just knowing that we are deliberately learning while at home.

We had five of the same, small red bowls. We traced the bowls and cut out circles on five pieces of felt. I bought a pack of these multicolored felt pom pom balls in Target’s $1 section awhile back. After placing a felt circle at the bottom of each bowl, I showed Alina how, although appearing to be the same, each bowl matched up with a different colored pom pom. She got the idea very quick. Without much more instruction, and within 2-3 minutes, she had all 100 pom poms sorted into their appropriate bowls…

After the initial sorting practice, I upped the challenge by asking her to sort the colors in a grouping, as in all of one color as a time. This made her sort through the pile, looking for all of one color, before proceeding to the next grouping.

We then sorted with a focus on naming each color {we made up a song to names of the colors, since Alina loves music} and we also practiced our Spanish. Changing the focus made it seem like the activity was a new game, although we continued to work on color sorting skills.

In order to incorporate development of fine motor skills, and bring another element of fun into the activity, I handed Alina a pair tongs. This was another great idea I got from several pins I saw on Pinterest. Alina loved this part! And I loved knowing that her little fingers were getting a work out of their own…

Teaching Alina at home hasn’t been as hard as I thought. The activity doesn’t have to be an intensive craft or super expensive. And I’m pretty sure Alina’s favorite part was having my undivided attention {tv was off, phone was upstairs, and other than shooting a few pictures, we were free of technology}. Now that we’ve done this activity a few times, Alina asks for it and sorts on her own. Even at the kitchen counter while I’m making dinner.

School at home success!!