Making Traffic Signs

I decided to make "Stop" and "Go" signs with the kids. They already know their basic colours, and they know from books we read that green means go, and red means stop. They are also noticing stop signs during our walks. I figured this would be a good way to solidify the knowledge they have about traffic signs or lights, and make the print that goes with the signs (or at least the stop sign) more familiar to them. The alphabet must be overwhelming to kids, so if I can find fun, non-threatening ways for them to interact with print, I can lay a positive foundation for later reading.

I cut out of bristleboard two octagon shapes and two circles. I gave them the red paint for the octagons first. They merely dotted their paintbrushes a few times on the shapes, so I 'helped' them paint them in. It went similarly when painting the circles green. They got a little more into painting when I took the shapes away and gave them a few other colours to work with, but it was still a pretty short-lived activity.

When the painted shapes dried I glued large popsicle sticks to them. In front of them, I wrote "STOP" on the two stop signs and "GO" on the two green circles and then gave one of each sign to each of them. They proceeded to go up and down our long hallway holding both signs up at once and yelling "STOP!" (Noah's version of 'stop' is "paaaa." He seems to begin with the last consonant for some words.)

Anyway, I still have to admit they are not crazy about painting. Aidas is definitely more into it than Noah, though. They are still young though, and their tastes seem to change week by week.