Today’s play activity was made possible by frozen yogurt and mini crème brûlées.
How you ask?
Well, I graduated from college in 2013 and lived in a college town hyper-focused on dating for 7 years. What did this equal? Lots of frozen yogurt dates. I’m not complaining because YUM - the frozen yogurt craze of the early 2010’s was practically made for me. I’m not sure why, but I started collecting all of my used frozen yogurt spoons. At one point I think I had it in my head that I’d use them for some sort of art project but I’ve since decided I don’t really want all of the “dates” from my past hung up in our house (haha).
I came across my bag of spoons the other day and got them out to count them - about 50 spoons in total! My 14 month old daughter caught sight of them and she was so excited that we made up a game with them. We added in some empty jars once filled with crème brûlée (I couldn’t throw them away, they were so cute)! The jars were actually repurposed for a second time because I had used them previously for baby shower decor. Needless to say, the game was a hit! So, although it is a bit silly, I thought I’d share it!
THE MATERIALS
- 5 (or more) small, clear jars or bowls
- Colorful objects to sort - frozen yogurt spoons in my case, but you could try:
- Colored popsicle sticks
- Colored straws
- Colored pipe cleaners
- Repurposed objects around your house
THE PROCESS
Separate the colors into jars - I combined a few because I only had 5 jars.
Talk together about each color and point out some things around the house that are also that color.
Practice saying the colors (if your child is ready for this). My daughter is currently only able to say “buh” (blue) and “puppa” (purple) so we are practicing the rest!
Take out all but one color in each jar. Model how to put the same colored objects in their respective jars. This was fun for about 10 minutes and then she was more into just putting spoons in jars! And that’s ok!
It’s really as simple as that! While sorting colors isn’t necessarily a new idea, repurposing objects can be a fun and stress-free way to do so! Have fun!!
