Our True Colors

Somehow this post never got posted in September....hmm, not sure how that happened.

Colors! Love teaching about them and that is how I start my year! In fact.... we learn about colors the entire month of September during which time we also talk about our citizenship, names {both our own and our classmates} and of course, apples...this explains how/why the color extravaganza lasts all month.

Every once in a while I have a parent inform me that their child already knows all of their colors to which I respond. Yes,  I think most of the friends in our class know their colors, but we start the year with something familiar to them as they learn about this new school and environment. Plus we work on reading the color words, writing them, finding them in text and more!

This is when I introduce tracking. We read these simple poems:

We sort things by color as well:

Not only are we working on classifying objets, but we are also learning how to use scissors, glue and crayons in one activity {oh my} AND we are learning how to work in  a center like environment independently...or sorta on the road to maybe being independent soon {right!?}

My most favorite thing we do for every color is create a color book. Each one is shaped as an item appropriate for that color.

 Here is our pink book... and in case you can't tell - it is in the shape of a pig!

The books have three pages in them with text followed by one blank page {shown above.} Although you can put as many blank ones in there that your little ones can handle.

You can download the Yellow book for FREE right HERE!

Another favorite is the Color Mixing experiment! It is a BIT hit with the kiddos. 

We read the story Mouse Paint {and maybe Little Blue and Little Yellow} AFTER we have had fun doing this ...What is that? A little shaving cream and food coloring! Plus my Color Unit includes color mice cards and a recording sheet for the little ones to build color equations after they gather their data.

And if you want to put a little more of that non-fiction in your color unit...you know, all that Common Core focus on Informational text!? Well, you can show {This Video} on how crayons are made. I wasn't sure how this would go over because the speaker is the manager of the crayon facility and although he is knowledgeable, I am not sure he is captivating to kinders. The kids were interested though!! I will say that I was talking during the whole video too... trying to explain it to them... not sure if that was the best plan?? Maybe next year I will show it on mute...because apparently I think I am a crayon expert? {Sidenote: You can go old school and show a Mister Rogers on Crayon Making - link here... I have watched the video, but never shown it to a class...and last note, Crayola's site itself has a short video, but I felt it was more of a commercial than informing kids.}

There is also this book:

My entire All About Colors Unit INCLUDES all of the color shape books shown above and many more activities...

Or you can just get the Color Shape Books on their own:

And one last MUST have for teaching colors is this CD. Click on the image to go to Amazon.