With the summer winding down it is time to start thinking about getting back into the school season swing of things. To do that we are trying to focus on some fun activities to do with the kids that in turn helps them turn on those brains and do a little learning. Painting rocks is a great art activity that we have done a few times this summer but today I am sharing how we are using those beautiful painted rocks for playing and learning.
Create Your Own Color Rocks
Use the tutorial below to create your own color rocks and tote bag to keep your rocks in. This tutorial is full of steps that your kids can help you with to keep them involved in this activity from start to finish!
Collect your rocks! The number of rocks will depend on how many colors you wish to have. I did rocks in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black and white. Because I wanted my kids to be able to play the matching game, I made two of each color for a total of 20 rocks.
Wash the rocks and let them dry. Kids love to help with this!
Once the rocks are dry, paint them white. This is optional, but it makes a HUGE difference in making the colors nice and bright.
Paint the rocks in your choice of colors. I like to do two coats of paint on my rocks for a nice pretty color.
Once the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write out the color words on the rocks. This is an optional step, but seeing the words written with the words is a great visual for early learners.
Seal with a thin layer of Mod Podge. This will keep the paint from chipping and help to protect through lots of play! Plus, it gives them a nice shiny look!
Let dry. Your rocks are ready to play!
To make the bag:
Choose a color of felt for the bag and one for your decoration.
Lay your ‘bag’ color felt landscape ways (hamburger) on your table. Fold the top part down about 1 ½ inches. Pin into place.
Using yarn (or you can use embroidery floss or regular thread) sew across the top creating a little flap.
Cut a long piece of yarn about 1 ½ times the length of your bag. Tie the ends together to make one long loop.
Slide the loop of yarn inside the flap, folding the felt over the yarn.
Stitch the flap down making sure not to stitch the yarn into place. This will become your drawstring.
Fold the piece of felt together (hotdog style!)
Decorate the bag however you wanted. We cut out paint ‘blobs’, a paintbrush and letters to write the words colors on our bag. But the decorations are up to you! Hot glue your decorations in place on the front of the bag.
Starting inside the bag, just underneath the drawstring area that you stitched, stitch around the sides and bottom of the bag leaving the top open. I did a blanket stitch, but you can use any stitch!
Add your rocks inside.
Jude and Teagan love our color rocks! We use them all the time for fun activities. The kids have so much fun that they don’t even realize all that they are learning! Here are a few of our favorite activities to help you use your color rocks at home too!
Activities Using Color Rocks
Matching game. Pull out two rocks. Are they the same color? If so, then you found a match!
Find the color. Our kids love going on ‘treasure hunts’ searching high and low for colors. This activity can keep them busy for a long time! Have them draw a rock from the bag and send them off to find an object (or objects) of that color. If you are doing multiple items, it is a great way for them to practice their counting too!
Color mixing. Use our free printable color mixing worksheet to get kiddos started on a coloring adventure. Draw out colors to find out what combinations you will be mixing. Sometimes they are odd ones, but nevertheless they are fun to create. This is a great early science activity to do with kids. What colors do you think will be created? What do you notice every time you add white or black to a color? Will the colors get lighter or darker. Early scientific method use at it’s finest!
Sounds like fun right? And the best part is that these color rocks are super easy to put into the tote bag and take with us on day trips or road trips. Great distraction for the kids while in the car.
What fun learning and playing activities do your kids enjoy doing?
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