Colour and number play mat

Using buttons to sort and match colours

My little one is just beginning to talk about colours and knows some colour names, although is not yet applying them appropriately, instead he usually calls everything green!


However, he is very good at colour matching so I've made this play mat so he can collect and sort coloured objects and in time he will be able to name them correctly too.

He loves playing with buttons as most little ones do and this selection of different shapes, colours, tones and sizes is perfect for lots of sorting activities.

You could also try a random selection of bits from around the house and put them together in a little basket, like this.....

Provide a selection of colourful objects

Sort the objects onto the appropriate coloured square

So that's one side of the mat but what about the reverse side?  

It seemed a shame to have just a plain backing on it so I thought some numbers might be nice to provide counting opportunities.

I cut and stitched numbers 1-5, each in their own box so we can count out objects.  

In the photographs you will see we used discs for counting but you could easily use buttons, cars, shells, pom poms etc, whatever you like!

We used discs for counting but you could
use shells, buttons, pom poms,
 cars....anything!

To make the mat I cut and stitched colourful scraps cut into squares to make a mat roughly A3 size and then cut a large plain piece for the back.

Onto the plain piece I stitched some ric rac ribbon to divide the mat into 5 sections and then appliqued some bright numbers.




To complete the mat, stitch right sides together, turn through and slip stitch the opening closed.

Autumn is on the way.....

Much as I love the colours associated with autumn, it marks the end of summer and a step toward winter with dark, chilly evenings and shorter days....not the best for a sun and light lover like me!

But it really is on the way, the trees are just beginning to change and a few leaves have already started to fall, so what better excuse do we need to start some autumn play?

So today I cut out some leaf shapes to make a garland and then cut some extra ones just to play with.  Monty loved when I threw them up in the air and they fluttered down on top of him.  We'll need to try this outdoors soon too with real fallen leaves.

He was really quite taken with the garland when I hung it up and kept looking up at it, so now I'm even starting to get a little excited about what Christmas might bring!  We talked about all the colours of the leaves and sang a little song I used to sing to the children at nursery and then blew the leaves to make them flutter. He loved this and every now and then when he's playing, he has a little look up at them again.  (I'll add the song at the bottom)





As we were talking about the colours we started to look for other things the same colours and soon had a basket full of red, yellow, brown and orange objects.  








He is still too young to sort, but you could try sorting into colour groups with older toddlers. You could also put numbers on the leaves and order them.






If you want to make an autumn garland you will just need some coloured paper, a hole punch and some string.  I punched two holes in each leaf as when the string is threaded through both holes it seems to secure the leaves in place and stops them from slipping down at an angle. 

I folded the paper too just to give the leaves a little dimension - it's also much easier and quicker to cut them out on the fold.

5 little leaves so bright and gay,

Were dancing about on a tree one day,

The wind came howling through the town,

And one little leaf came a-tumbling down.

Repeat for 4, 3, 2, 1 using your hand as a tree and fingers as branches

More autumn activities to come soon!