Shade Matching

This is a little tricky for small children, there are some adults who can't do it so I think it's a great skill to learn at a young age. Shade matching is fun for little ones, but it doesn't seem to last too long in my house. Little Man usually plays for about a half hour with this activity.

I went to Walmart (you can go to any store that has paint samples) and grabbed two of each color shade that I wanted to do. I picked the basic colors, blue, red, green, and yellow. You will need some clothes pins (I didn't have enough to do every color but I will get more soon) cut out a rectangle shape of each shade and glue (I used a hot glue gun) it to a clothespin.

 Then give the clothes pins and the other paint sample piece to your child and explain how to match the shades. Once I explained it little man started doing it on his own and he has played with it many times since.

I didn't take pictures when I made them so I'm sorry I don't have step by step pictures. But this is the finished activity.

This activity also helps to strengthen finger muscles in little children, which will help with buttoning their own pants and holding pencils properly. Its a fun little activity that is cheap and doesn't take too much time to put together.

 

Enjoy!