This Mama Needs Grace

This week was all about the color purple!  It was fun to get back into our color unit after taking a couple weeks off from color-themed activities.  

Purple has always been my very favorite color, but for some reason, I found it to be a bit challenging to think of good purple crafts and activities that Hudson would enjoy.  

We kept things pretty simple this week, but it still was a fun week exploring this beautiful color.

Week 6: The Color Purple

This is what our week of purple looked like:

Purple Book of the Week:

The World Needs More Purple People by Kristen Bell and Benjamin Hart

This is the perfect book for purple week and also the perfect book for our world right now.  

This book is fun, colorful, and bright! And it is also packed with content that speaks really well to young children about what it looks like to be a kind advocate in our current world.  The book explains how “purple people” ask great questions, laugh a lot, use their voice, work hard, and are true to themselves.  

I love this book for not only teaching about the color purple, but also for teaching about being curious, kind, inclusive, and standing up for what is right.  This is a beautiful book and I am thankful we have it on our bookshelf (thanks mom!) 

Monday: Purple Sensory Bin 

This week’s bin consisted of: purple pom poms, popsicle sticks, big lego blocks, wooden letters, an elephant, plastic shapes, foam shapes, pipe cleaners, and feathers! 

Like most weeks, we spent most of our time building tall towers with the items in the bin! 

I have noticed that creating these color sensory bins have been a great way to have his eyes concentrated on a specific color.  While he quite honestly does not spent a ton of time playing with the bin, it sits out in our playroom all week and I can’t help but believe that it’s mere presence is helping his mind form ideas around each respective color.

Tuesday: Mix Red + Blue Paint in a Bag

This activity is perfect if you are looking for a quick, no-mess paint experience with your baby or toddler.  

All you need is:

• Red paint
• Blue paint
• Paper
• Ziplock bag 

I simply put a piece of paper and wrote “purple” on it.  I let Hudson squeeze some red and blue paint into the ziplock bag.  He enjoyed incorporating the colors into the bag! While his interest in it did not last long, he was still amazed to see how the red and blue mixed together to create purple!  

Wednesday: Toilet Paper Octopus Craft + Ocean Wave Sensory Play

We love using toilet paper rolls for crafts!  This purple octopus turned out so cute and it was super simple to construct.

All you need is:

• Toilet paper roll craft
• Purple paint 
• Purple construction paper cut into a small circle 
• 2 big googley eyes 
• Scissors 

First, paint the toilet paper roll purple.  I let H do this and helped fill in the spaces when he was done.  Add eyes and smile to to construction paper circle and attach to the top of roll.  Let dry.  Once fully dry, make 8 cuts of equal distance to right below the octopus head. This will create the 8 tentacles. To make more octopus-like, I curled tentacles upward. 

To keep the play going, I used the octopus craft as inspiration for another sensory bin.

All you need is: 

• Blue tissue paper (a few sheets) 
• Bin 
• Octopus craft

This bin turned out to be a big hit for Hudson! I simply took the tissue paper and twisted and curled it to make it look wave-like.  I threw the “waves” and the octopus in a bin and let Hudson play freely. It was a bit different than I expected, but Hudson was occupied for over 15-minutes and really enjoyed playing with the tissue paper. 

Thursday: Purple Lavender Rice + Epsom Salt Sensory Play 

There is nothing quite like the smell of lavender.  Adults love it and kids do too!  This sensory bin is the perfect set-up right before naptime or bedtime.  Hudson really enjoyed it and definiely seemed more relaxed afterwards. 

All you need is:

• Rice 
• Water
• Purple Dye (or red and blue dye) 
• Lavender essential oil
• Ziplock bags
• Epsom Salt (ours was already lavender-scented) 
• Bin
• Purple flowers
• Spoons, cups, funnel, bowl 

Most colored rice recipes call for vinegar, but I found that adding just water worked! Add rice, water, dye, and essential oil to ziplock bag.  Fully incorporate colors into rice and set out to dry. I found that it seemed to be dry pretty quickly and after a few minutes, I poured purple rice into the bin.

For epsom salt, I did the same process, except NO water. Just add salt and dye to ziplock bag and incorporate the color fully. Let dry and then also pour into bin. You can have the rice and salt separated so your little one can mix together. I pre-mixed it because our salt looked more blue-like than purple.

I then added purple flowers, a funnel, a bowl, and a wooden spoon and Hudson immediately began to play. Sensory bins are not always a hit for H, but this particular one was very successful! He played with it multiple times throughout the week.

Friday: Grape Pom Pom Counting Activity 

This is the perfect counting activity to pair with learning about the color purple!  

To be sent the printables I created for this activity, subscribe below and I will email the PDF version! 

Send Me The FREE Worksheets! 

All you need is: 

• Printable worksheets
• Purple pom poms
• Grapes for snacking (optional, but always a good idea!)

We worked with one number at a time and I had Hudson count out the correct number of pom poms.  I intentionally made the circles on the worksheets extra large to make it extra clear for our little learners! 

Hudson is not quite at the stage where he sits down and is super focused in a counting activity like this. And that is totally okay! I still believe me sitting down to intentionally model what it looks like to count out the pom poms and practice numbers 1-5 is important for him. He will eventually get to the point where he will sit down with me and be more focused.

Saturday: Purple Collage 

Like the end of every color week, we end with a collage activity. 

For this collage, we used the following purple materials: paint, construction paper cut up into shapes, pipe-cleaner, popsicle sticks, feathers, and  pom poms. 

This was the first week, that Hudson was actually interested in really sitting down and gluing items on paper! This was exciting to me because it shows the value in staying consistent with activities, even when at first your child might not seem as interested. We made this collage a bit more special by adding purple paint + glitter. Instead of taking out and dirtying a paint brush, I picked a purple flower from our yard and had H use it as a paintbrush! This is a fun way to mix up the painting experience.

Bonus Activity Idea

H really enjoys going on “nature hunts.” This week, we went on a purple flower hunt!  He immediately grabbed his binoculars and basket and was eager to find some purple flowers in our front yard.  This is a great activity to get outside and one that requires no set-up.  Hudson is instantly happy and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he was able to identify the different colors we saw in nature!