Provide a large piece of newsprint paper for each child. Instruct preschoolers to paint the entire paper with blue water colors or craft paint. You may have the children finger paint if you prefer. When the paintings are dry, help children turn the background paintings into a themed picture. For a sky picture, instruct the children to glue on some cotton for clouds. Encourage the children to stretch and form different cloud shapes with the cotton. They may add pictures or stickers of birds, airplanes, kites and hot air balloons, if desired. The preschoolers may also create a sea scene. Provide pictures, stickers or foam shapes of fish, sea creatures and boats for children to glue onto a blue background. The children can also glue a printed copy of the nursery rhyme "Little Boy Blue" and some real straw pieces to create a haystack. They may also add pictures of sheep, cows and the boy's horn.
Play a blue egg hunt game. Hide blue plastic eggs around a play area. Stick a small prize inside each egg. The children will hunt for blue eggs. Limit the number of eggs each child can find so everyone has a fair chance. You can also play a circle time game. Tell the children to sit in a circle. Say something blue the children may have, like blue eyes, blue shoes or a blue hat. Those with blue will quickly stand. Mention other colors to try to trick the children. Or, play "Don't Get Caught without Your Blue." Play some music while the children pass different colors of blocks, including blue, to the next person in the circle. Play quickly. Stop the music and see who has blue blocks. Play several times.
Recite the nursery rhyme "Little Boy Blue" several times with the preschoolers. Each time they come to the end of rhyme, tell them to fall down and pretend to be sleeping. Or, teach this rhyme to the preschoolers: "Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, too. But my favorite kind of berry, is blue, blue, blue." You can lead the children in singing a song to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" Sing, "I see blue, I see blue. There it is, there it is. Sammy [a child's name] sees some blue, Sammy sees some blue. Here it is. Here it is." Ask the child to find something blue in the room and go touch it.
Make easy bluebirds with the children. Each child should roll a blue strip together to form a loop then tape the seam to hold. Help children tape or glue on a small blue triangle for a beak and a larger blue triangle for a tail. Or, let preschoolers create blue suncatchers with tissue paper. They should tear pieces of blue tissue and glue them onto a piece of clear transparency. Hang the finished crafts in a window for the children to see.