Friday Book Project (Lemons Are Not Red)

Just For Fun has this wonderful feature in which they do a book-related craft every Friday, and welcome readers to post theirs as well. I love the idea so much that I keep wanting to join in, but I find it a little bit of a challenge to think of crafts that engage a 15-month old, last longer than 5 minutes, and are original enough to warrant a post. The activity we did today accomplished the first of those three, at least.

I've been casually working on teaching colors to the little bookworm over the past few weeks. For the most part, we just repeat colors often when playing with blocks and reading books. I drew a rainbow a few weeks ago, and we'd play with putting appropriately colored stickers on the right rainbow color (he'd never do it himself, but I'd make a big deal out of sticking it in the right spot).

Anyway, I think he finally has all of his rainbow colors down pat, and today's activity was a way to test/reinforce that. I just grabbed a tupperware bin and told him we were going to play a color scavenger hunt game. I announced each color of the rainbow in turn and we walked around the kitchen together until he found an item of the correct color. Here is what he came up with:

Red: raisins box
Orange: lego-type block (I had set by the sink for washing)
Yellow: box of egg replacer
Green: toy cup (also by the sink for washing)
Blue: bag of rice flour
Purple: box of straws

The activity ended there, because he then had to unpack the entire box of straws. I was really proud of how he "got it" right away.

Here is our companion book, which we got from the library this week and he's really been enjoying. I requested it after I read a review of the book on another blog recently (sorry, I can't remember where to give credit -- tell me if it was you and I'll add a link).

Lemons Are Not Red (Hardcover), by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. This is a beautifully original book about colors. Cutouts in the pages play a key role in the flow of the text. "Lemons are not / red," the book says, as a red lemon adorns the page. As the reader turns the page, the left page explains that lemons are yellow, and the red page on the right (that had made the lemon appear red through the cutout) is now a large apple ("apples are red"). I don't know if I've explained that very well, but the design is effective, and the images simple but appealing.

Excerpt:

"Flamingos are not / GRAY / Flamingos are PINK / Elephants are GRAY"

Bookworm's interest at 15 months: When I saw the book, I thought he'd be too young for it, but not so; he loved it right away. We generally do two or three reads in a row. I'm not sure he REALLY gets the concept at this point. He enjoys shaking his head whenever I say the word "not," and he has recently taken to signing for "apple" when he sees the image. There is a dog at the end of the book that he also loves to spot, sometimes skipping the whole middle of the book to get to the end to see the dog again, and sign for "sleep" as the dog lays down. I love this kind of book, that he gets some enjoyment out of now, but that he'll clearly grow into more as he is older too.

You can read other reviews we've written about books that teach colors here.