Description

The object of this lesson is to teach students to recognize 9 basic colors: red, orange, green, blue, yellow, purple, white, black, and brown. Learning this skill will help students make connections to real life objects.

Materials

- The book, The Color Box by Ann Dodds
- A monkey puppet
- A large, visual poster of the 9 colors
- 9 laminated color cards
- A "Monkey Box" filled with objects of each of the 9 colors
- A flashlight
- Dress-ups for your "Rainbow Cowboy" or girl
- The Greg and Steve song called "Rainbow of Colors"
- A quiet and a louder piece of classical music

Procedures

1. Begin by introducing your monkey puppet with his/her name and some personal things about him. For example, "This is Alexander. He collects buttons of all colors."

2. Say to the class, "Let's wonder! What does it mean to wonder?" (Ask the students for some of their ideas; listen and comment.) "Now students, let's wonder together. Close your eyes. Alexander and I will do the same thing. Let's imagine what the world would look like if it was only one color." (Remain silent for about 15 seconds).

3. When everyone opens their eyes, encourage the students to begin to share. For instance, "What did your world look like, Chris?" After the sharing, use one example and say something like, "What if everything was pink? You woke up and had pink cereal with pink milk in a pink bowl. You brushed your teeth with a pink toothbrush," etc.

4. Now, instruct everyone to "Close your eyes again, but this time, let's imagine a world of colors." For a second the room is quiet, but then you turn on a CD (like John Tesh's Red Rocks). As the music begins, you quickly hang up a large, visual poster of all the colors.

5. Now tell the students to open their eyes. You are dancing around the room with your Alexander monkey, looking at all the different colors! You point them out everywhere, including what the students are wearing.

6. After this, say to the students, "Alexander and I could dance all day, but he wants to show you the game we've brought along!" The Rainbow Cowboy or Girl that you dressed in the beginning is asked to come up to help with something important. Have him/her sit in a chair next to the laminated color cards (that you sat along the dry-erase board for display before the lesson began).

7. It's time to explain the game: The Rainbow cowboy is going to hold up a card and the first thing we'll do is call out the name of the color. Let's try it!

8. Ask the Cowboy to choose one person to come visit the Monkey Box. Show this helper how he/she can take the flashlight to peek inside of the box and find something that matches the card we just saw. At the same time the 2nd helper will be looking on the table next to the monkey box at the line of 9 hats and choosing a matching one to put on Alexander. When these two helpers have completed their jobs, they can sit down in front while we take a look at what they've found.

"Thumbs up if Jason found a green item from the box that matches our color card."
"What about the new hat that Alexander is wearing? Does it match the color card? Again we will respond with thumbs up or down."

These helpers will sit down with the items they are borrowing during the game. (Side note: Make sure you've explained at the beginning that the hats are part of Alexander's collection and need to be taken care of!)

9. After the game (and only try a few colors with the group, explaining that we will spend more time with it during 'centers'), it's time to involve the whole group in the music by Greg and Steve. By now, some people are holding something. Have your cowboy quickly pass out the rest of the color cards to the students. You begin to hand out instruments so that everyone has something. Explain that everytime we hear one of the colors in the song, we need to hold these high and shake them in the air for all to see!. Begin the music.

10. Afterwards, it's time to transition into a quieter mood. Turn some soft, nature music on as you and the Rainbow Cowboy collect all of the props. Suggest to the students that they are now relaxing in a green meadow, getting ready to hear Alexander's favorite book.

11. Choose a helper to hold Alexander as you read The Color Box book by Ann Dodds. (Before you begin, ask the students for some predictions. "Guess who we're going to see inside of the pages? It's Alexander!") Read and enjoy. Then get ready for Centers.

Extensions

Here are some starter ideas for some possible centers that you can design:
1) the "monkey box center" that will revisit the match game idea that you did during whole group.
2) The "graham cracker center" which will involve using the 9 colors of icing - talking, designing, and eating the tasty, colorful treats.
3) The "color poster center" where students will work on posters surrounding the 9 colors. If you have 3 centers that day, then each group that visits this center will help design 3 poster colors using construction paper and crayons of that color. All of the posters will start out white - but one group will find partners inside of their group. Each partner group will choose a color poster that they want to design. If they choose green, for example, they will use green markers, green crayons, and green construction paper, glue, and scissors to make their design. (A different color for each partner team.) Afterwards these 9 beautiful posters can be displayed around the room with the color name labels as well.