September 13, 2013 by Amanda 8 Comments

Color Shape River

Like a lot of preschool boys, J doesn’t sit for anything. He’s always on the go, always moving.

When it comes to doing anything educational, I know that I need to get his whole body involved. So, I came up with our shapes and color river.

The simply cut out a few shapes out of different colored paper and taped them to our floor in the shape of a river. I placed a toy on the other side of the “river” for J to rescue.

I told J that a certain shape or color is safe, like red, and he has to jump from one red shape to another to keep from falling in the water.

He jumped back and forth across the river to save his toy over and over again.

Each time he went back and forth we changed the shape or color he had to use.

These shapes stayed on the floor all day long and J had a great time playing.

It was loads of fun, great for those big gross motor skills, and educational too!

Come see more of how we play on Facebook or Instagram! We’d love to see you there!

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Amanda

I was a Mental Health Counselor who worked with children and mothers in both individual and group counseling environments before I became a Stay at Home Mom to two boys. I have a Bachelors Degree in Child Development and Family Studies and a Masters in Counseling where I specialized in Play Therapy.

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Comments

Jenna Caldwell says
September 13, 2013 at 2:03 pm

Thanks for posting! We just threw this into our school today. The kids were animals and had to jump on the triangles to get to the ark (the couch!)

Reply
Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning says
December 20, 2013 at 1:05 pm

What a fun way to practice colors and shapes! Thanks so much for sharing this idea in the Discover & Explore linky. I’m featuring this post today.

Reply
Catherine says
January 30, 2014 at 6:47 pm

VERY neat idea! You stated that you used paper… would form sheets work too? I’m thinking durability… but maybe slippery?

Love this way of getting colors and shapes into young minds through Kinesthetic approaches. Will DEF do this next week in my classroom.

Thank you – from me, and my little ones.

Reply
- Amanda says
  February 1, 2014 at 3:04 pm
  
  Thanks Catherine!
  
  Laminating them would make them more durable, but they might be slippery. I bet foam shapes would work great. I taped the shapes I used to the carpet to keep them from sliding around too much.
  
  I hope that your little ones loved the activity!
  
  Reply