Colors

                                                    Red





Literature relating to the color "red":

Big Red Apple

Big Red Barn ~ Margaret Wise Brown

Big Bird's Red Book

Clifford, the Big Red Dog ~ Norman Bridwell

Hello, Red Fox ~ Eric Carle

Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? ~Tana Hoban

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear

The Little Red Hen ~ Paul Galdone

Little Red Riding Hood

Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers ~ Merle Peek

The Red Ball ~ Joanna Yardley

Red Balloon ~ Alber Lamorisse

Red Is Best ~ Kathy Stinson

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf ~ Lois Ehlert

Ten Red Apples ~ Pat Hutchins

Who Said Red?

Red Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)
R    E    D,    R    E    D.
Red, red, red, red, red.
Apples, cherries and strawberries.
All are shades of red.

Clifford ABC Chant
A   B   CDE
I can't find Clifford. Where can he be?
F   G   HIJ
Maybe the dog catcher took him away.
K   L MNO
I wonder where Clifford might go.
P   Q   RST
Isn't there anyone who'll help me?
U   V   WXY
I think I'll sit down here and cry.
Z   Z   ZZZ
Look, he's sleeping under the tree!

The Clifford puppets are made by rounding the edges of a red triangle, making a face and folding the ears over.



After reading "The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear", we made strawberry hats hats and a strawberry cookie.



                                                 Yellow





Literature relating to the color "yellow":

The Big Yellow Bus

Curious George
Little Blue and Little Yellow ~ Leo Leonni
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf ~ Lois Ehlert
Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? ~ Tana Hoban

Yellow Ball ~ Molly Bang

Yellow Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)
Y    E    L   L    O   W
Yellow is the sun.
Lemons and pears
And golden hair,
Yellow is such fun.

Make a yellow sunflower by flattening out a yellow cupcake paper and gluing sunflower seeds in the center. Draw some lines to make petals and glue or draw on a stem and leaves.

Read Curious George, the book about the monkey and the man with the big yellow hat. There are many books in this series. Cut out big yellow hats and have the children illustrate pictures from the story on sentence strips. Make headbands from the sentence strips and attach the hats to the headbands.

                                                 Orange





Literature relating to the color "orange":

The Big Orange Splot ~ Daniel Pinkwater

The Carrot Seed ~ Ruth Krause

Each Orange Had 8 Slices: A Counting Book ~ Paul Giganti

Orange in My World ~ Janne Winne

Orange Juice (Science Emergent Readers) ~ Betsey Chessen, Pamela Chanko

Runaway Orange ~ Felicity Brooke, Jo Litchfield

The Mystery of the Flying Orange Pumpkin ~ Steven Kellogg

I Feel Orange Today ~ Patricia Goodwin

Orange Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

O   R   A    N    G    E.
Orange is just right.
Carrots growing,
Pumpkins glowing,
Shades of orange so bright.

Here's a cute project for making the color orange:

Give each child three small pieces of paper towel and a small container. I pass around a container

of yellow bio color paint and one red bio color paint, (you can also use food coloring) each with an eye dropper. Using the eye droppers, they put some of each color into their container and then mix it with a tongue depressor. It's great because we get all shades of orange. After their color is made, they take their pieces of paper towel and dip them into each of the three colors: red, yellow and orange. Next, they paste them on a piece of paper where the red and yellow are placed on top of one another and their new color on the other side. Sometimes we make it into an equation:

Red + Yellow = Orange

The Big Orange Spot is about a neighborhood where everything is the same until one day a bird
drops a bucket of orange paint on the roof of one house. The owner then paints the house to reflect his own uniqueness. Each neighbor then paints
their house to reflect each of their own uniqueness. I gave each child a house pattern to decorate and an orange spot to glue on to the house. It works great at the beginning of the year with colors, self awareness, and acceptance of others.

After reading The Carrot Seed, plant carrot seeds in milk cartons and compare lengths of various carrots before they eat the carrots.

                                                 Brown





Literature relating to the color "brown":

Brown Bear, Brown Bear~ Bill Martin, Jr.

The Gingerbread Man

Chocolatina ~ Erik Kraft

The Big Block of Chocolate ~ Janet Slater

Brown Rabbit's Day ~ Alan Baker

Brown Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

Brown, brown, brown.
Brown, brown, brown.
B    R    O    W    N.
Kangaroos and beavers, too.
All are shades of brown.

Act out Brown Bear or The Gingerbread Man.

                                                 Pink





Literature relating to the color "pink":

Best Friends Wear Pink Tutus

Little Pink Pig

The Pink House

The Pink Party

Pink Pigs Aplenty

Think Pink

The Three Little Pigs

Pink Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

Pink, pink, pink.
Pink, pink, pink.
P    I    N    K, pink.
A baby's toes,
A bunny's nose.
Shades of pink, I think.

Pink Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

Cotton candy, fat pink pigs.

Girls with socks and bows.

P-I-N-K, P-I-N-K.

That is how it goes.

Bubble gum, valentines.

These are all pink, too.

Pink icing and pink balloons,

We can spell, can you?

                                                     Gray





Literature relating to the color "gray":

The Greedy Gray Octopus (Rigby)

Gray Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

Gray, gray, gray,
Gray, gray, gray.
G   R   A   Y, gray.
An elephant's knees,
A mouse with cheese.
Both are shades of gray.

Make Green Grouches in Gray Garbage Cans.

Literature relating to the color "blue":

The Blue Balloon ~ Mick Inkpen

Blueberries for Sal ~ Robert McCloskey

The Blue Ribbon Puppy

The Great Blue Grump ~ Jill Creighton

Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? ~ Tana Hoban
Little Blue and Little Yellow ~ Leo Leonni

Little Blue Ben ~ Phoebe Gilman

Mrs. Toggle's Beautiful Blue Shoe ~ Robin Pulver
Sue Likes Blue ~ Barbara Gregorich

Blue Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)
Blue, blue, blue,
Blue, blue, blue
B L U E, blue.
Blue birds that fly.
Rivers and sky.
All are shades of blue.

Recite the nursery rhyme, Little Boy Blue

Eat blue jello jigglers

Read Blueberries for Sal and make blueberry muffins

Read the story "The Blue Balloon" by Inkpen. Then give the children a piece of blue paper, have them cut out what their blue balloon turned into, and take dictation.

After reading the story, "The Blue Ribbon Puppy", the children dictate what they are the best at and draw it. Each picture then gets a blue ribbon.

Color a bluebird and glue several real blue feathers on the project.

Make a large Blues Clues dog:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/cartoons/blue/bigblue.htm

Literature relating to the color "green":

Go Away, Big Green Monster! ~ Ed Emberley

Green Eggs and Ham ~ Dr. Seuss

Green Wilma ~Tedd Arnold

Pickle Things ~ Marc Brown

Small Green Snake ~ Libba Moore Gray

Franklin series books

Froggy series books

Green Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)
Green, green, green.
Green, green, green
G R E E N.
Grass and leaves,
Beans and peas.
All are shades of green.

Did You Ever See A Lizard?
(Tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie?)

Did you ever see a lizard,
A lizard, a lizard?
Did you ever see a lizard
All dressed up in green?
With green eyes and green nose
And green legs and green toes.
Did you ever see a lizard
All dressed up in green?

(You can use post-it notes to cover up
green with other color words.)

Green: Green eggs and ham, we compare on a graph: our favorite kind of egg and make green eggs and ham.

After reading “Little Blue and Little Yellow” by Leo Leonni, band a blue and yellow crayon together with a rubberband and let the kids color on white paper. Another idea is to let the kids fingerpaint with shaving cream to which a little blue and yellow liquid water color has been added.

Make Green Grouches in Garbage Cans.

Make green by fingerpainting with vanilla pudding and adding a small amount of blue food coloring.

Make a paper plate turtle with a green shell.

Make Oscar the Grouch. Using 35 mm film canisters, have the children cut a little square of newspaper (approx. 3X3") put a drop of glue in the bottom of the canister and then put the newspaper in so some sticks out of the top. Glue one green pom-pom on the newspaper and glue two tiny

squiggle eyes on the pom-po

Literature relating to the color "purple":

Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse ~ Kevin Henkes

Harold and the Purple Crayon ~ Crockett Johnson

Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut ~ Margaret Atwood

I Love You the Purplest ~ Barbara Joossee

Mr. Pine's Purple House

Purple Is Best

Purple Hair? I Don't Care!

Purple Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

P U R P L E
Purple is just right.
Grapes and plums,
Jack Horner's thumb.
Shades of purple bright.

After reading Harold and the Purple Crayon, make a class book, "Kindergarten Children and the Purple Crayon". Each child contributes a page with a drawing and could only use a purple crayon. They dictate a story about their picture and the teacher prints it in purple underneath. Later in the year they would be able to print their own story. Each child has a turn to take it home and share it with family members.

Teach the Purple Cow poem, then make "purple cows" (grape soda and ice cream floats).

Purple Cow

I've never seen a purple cow.

I never hope to see one.

But I can tell you this right now.

I'd rather see than be one!

Read this purple poem:

I saw a purple cow.

I one him

I two him

I three him

I four him

I five him

I six him

I seven him

I eight him!

Then eat "purple cows", which are grape soda ice cream floats.

After reading Lily's Purple Plastic Purse make purple purses out of purple paper and put purple things inside them.....purple grapes, purple crayon, purple popsicle, purple koolaid, purple lipstick, and a purple monster character for the purple people eater. After making the purple things we took each one out and discussed whether that item would be a good thing to carry in a real purse or would it be best kept somewhere else? Why would it not be best kept in a purse? Sort the items into those that would be kept in a real purse thing and those that would be best in a make-believe purse.

Teach the Purple People Eater song for fun.

Literature relating to the color "black":

Ten Black Dots ~ Donald Crews

The Kissing Hand

Black Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

Black, black, black.
Black, black, black.
B L A C K.
A witch's hat,
Her cat and bat.
All are shades of black.

Read "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" by Trapani; then do a directed drawing of a spider web and add a die cut spider.

Recite Little Miss Muffet, play act it, and do a cut and paste sequence. You can also made spider hats using a black circle and four long black legs taped in the middle to make eight. Then accordion-fold the legs.

After reading Ten Black Dots, have them make their own version. A shortcut would be just to give every child 10 black dots (punch out black paper with a hole punch if you don't want to buy black stickers) and make only one page with all ten dots.

Do a crayon resist picture of the night sky, then paint a black wash over the

top.

Eat Oreos and graph which way they like to eat it

(separate first and lick off the filling, eat it all

together, etc.)

Teach them a rap of the color black:

Black is the night. Black is a bat.

Black is a big scary Halloween cat!

Make a large black crayon out of butcher paper. Using chalk to write, brainstorm everything they can thing of that is the color black.

Literature relating to the color "white":

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

White Song
(tune of Jingle Bells)

White, white, white.
White, white, white.
W H I T E.
A nurse's clothes.
A cloud that blows.
Shades of white to see.

After reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk, drop a small amount of white paint on blue paper and complete this sentence, "It looked like spilt milk, but it was really _________________."