Shades of Kindergarten

Last week we continued our color exploration by doing some fun activities!

We experimented with mixing colors again!  But this time we used ICING instead of paint!  Icing tastes MUCH better!

We started with three scoops of white icing and used food coloring to make them red, blue and yellow. Then we mixed the colors together to create our own color wheel made of icing!

The best part was eating the finished product!  YUM!!

We worked together to spell the color words to make color math problems!  We are going to put these in the hall with our color wheels so we can share what we have learned with our fellow students!

(At the bottom of this picture is the word "honesty".  This is the first of (some) of the 40 developmental assets that we will be learning about this year!  More on that later...)

We also are working together to make a rainbow!  We are including different shades of the colors.  We are not finished yet but we are working on it!

Our color unit also included a discussion about shades of skin color!  During our name game, we talk a lot about drawing each person correctly.  That means using the right color shade for skin as well as hair, eyes, and more.  I've been VERY impressed with the improvement that the students have shown in their illustrations!  I love the details they are using in their pictures!  This will serve us well when we start Writer's Workshop next week!

 Table 4 working on the Name Game!

We started by mixing different colors together to make shades of skin color.  We talked about what color we need more of to make a specific shade darker or lighter.  Then we painted our blank faces!

Next we read the book, Two Eyes, A Nose and A Mouth.  We really focused on the way faces are really shaped.  We talked about how to draw eyes and noses and mouths.  We also talked about the correct colors to use.  No one has a purple nose!

Finally, we used little mirrors to look at our faces and then we drew what we saw on the faces we had painted.  

 

 

Our finished faces will on display on our classroom door!  I will post a picture of that as soon as we get it finished!  

It's been a busy few weeks working on our color exploration!  We have leaned a LOT about color!  We continue to work on spelling our color words!  You can find our color word songs on Youtube by searching Kindergarten Color Word Songs.  Your child can tell you which songs are the ones we sing!  

Stay tuned for updates on our math stations, literacy stations, fall exploration and the 40 developmental assets!  

Color, Color, Color

We have been very busy learning in Kindergarten!

At the beginning of the school year, I asked the children what they wanted to learn or do this year.  Here are some of the responses, I got:

* I want to learn how to read.
* I want to learn how to hang pictures, drive a car, and share.
* I want to learn about Star Wars.
* I want to learn how to do things by myself.
* I want to be nice.
* I want to learn how to cook.
* I want to learn about blocks.
* I want to learn about the outside.
* I want to use playdough.
* I want to go to recess.
* I want to learn about colors.
* I want to learn to read and how to stay in the lines.
* I want to learn about kangaroos.
* I like animals.  I want to learn about them.
* I want to learn about plants and flowers.
* I want to learn about how flowers grow.  And how kids grow, too.
* I want to play games.
* That's a really good question!  I already know almost everything.
* I want to learn how to run fast.
* I want to learn how to count super high.
* I want to learn to eat healthy.
* I like cars.
* I want to learn about ice cream.  And eat it.
* I want to learn how to draw.
* I love colors and rainbows.
* I want to learn anything.  Maybe some science.
* I want to learn about cooking.
* I want to learn to read and about Dr. Seuss.
* I want to know about colors.
* I want to learn about plants and animals.

At the ECC, we believe in project based learning.  We work together with the children to create different kinds of projects and inquiry opportunities based on what the children would like to know.  Since many children said that they wanted to learn about colors, I decided that would be a good place to begin!

First, we learned about the rainbow and how the colors are always in the same order.  We used this order while making "rainbow" names!

Tearing all that paper was really hard work and good practice for our finger muscles!

We read the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh and decided to explore mixing colors.

We began with the primary colors of red, blue and green.  We mixed paint to make the secondary colors of green, purple, and orange.

Trial and error was part of our process!  We talked about how the purple was too dark and what could we add to make it lighter??  WHITE!  We talked about how the green was too dark and we needed to add more yellow.  Each grouped decided when they thought their colors were just right!

We explored different color wheels and made our own out of the shapes we painted.  We then labeled the colors.  We have been working on reading and spelling the color words so this was great practice for us.

We also learned about the tertiary colors like yellow-orange and blue-green.  We realized that we have lots of these colors in our crayon containers!  We have been observing the differences in these colors and reading the color words written on our crayons!

We are not finished yet!  We have lots of color word books that we will be reading in class and bringing home!  We also will be working together to make a giant color wheel for our classroom.  We want to include all the colors in it!