Kindergarteners will learn the names of different shades of blue, practice their imagination by coming up with associations with blue and clouds, create an orchestra illustrating the types of clouds, and learn a song entitled “Rainbow Colors”.

Materials:

rainbow parachute, music for walking/running/jumping, tambourine, picture cards with various types of clouds, newspapers, foil, drums, plates, triangles, ball, a song entitled “Rainbow Colors”, picture cards for the song.

Activity description:

1. “Hello to those who …” – greeting – everybody holds the rainbow parachute at waist level and gently moves it. Teacher says the next sentences, and children who hold the color that teacher is talking about run under the rainbow parachute and change places. Teacher lists all the colors so that all children are greeted:

• Hello to those who have orange color,
• Hello to those who have red color,
• Hello to those who have purple color,
• Hello to those who have blue color,
• Hello to those who have green color ,
• Hello to those who have yellow color.

2. “Blue associations” – dictionary activity – teacher asks children: “What do you associate with blue?”. Children take turns giving their answers – all answers are correct.

3. “Bring something blue” – movement activity – children march, jump or run around the room to the rhythm of any music e.g ”Jump”. During a break in music, teacher asks children to find and bring something blue. Repeat the game several times – until you collect a large number of blue items in different shades. (If you have a few items of different shades of blue in the classroom, put blue items or pictures of blue things in the classroom before the class).

4. “Shades of blue” – didactic activity – teacher places all blue objects collected during the previous activity in the center of the carpet and talks with children about the shades of blue. One by one, teacher asks children to compare the shades of the collected items to other things by saying the sentence: “This is…. like….”. Pay special attention to the fact that children, when using complete sentences, use the terms: light blue, dark blue, navy blue, azure, turquoise, etc. e.g. “This card is turquoise like the sea”, “This block is blue like the summer sky”, “This book is navy blue like storm clouds ”.

5. “Jump on color” – movement activity – teacher plays a tambourine. Children walk around a rainbow parachute on the floor. When the tambourine stops, teacher says the color, and children stand on the appropriate color of the rainbow parachute. Repeat this game several times.

6. “Summer sky” – didactic activity – teacher spreads the picture cards on the carpet so that children cannot see what is on them. Then, teacher asks children one by one to select and reveal more pictures. After revealing each picture, teacher talks to children about the clouds in the picture – he/she asks children what they associate with them, what they are similar to, etc.

7. “Clouds” – movement activity – children move freely on the carpet to the rhythm of any music. When the music stops, the children listen to what the teacher is playing: triangle – the children move lightly and jump around in the room; drum/plates – hunched children find it hard to put their feet on the floor. We repeat the game several times by changing the instruments.

8. “Heavenly music” – musical activity – teacher presents the pictures that children will illustrate with the help of a sound: white feathery clouds – waving newspapers; rain clouds – slight wrinkling of the foil, gently tapping the triangle; heavy and dark storm clouds – tearing newspapers, sudden wrinkling of the foil, strong blows on the plates and drums. Then, teacher distributes the instruments and items to children. Teacher arranges the pictures in a row and indicates the pictures that children will illustrate with a sound.

9. “Blue is burning” – movement activity – teacher throws the ball to each child in turn and says the name of any color. The child must catch the ball when he/she hears the names of each color except blue. If the child does not catch the ball with a color other than blue or catches it with blue, he/she will give up the trophy, e.g. a shoe. At the end of the game, children have to buy items, e.g. by singing a song/doing an exercise.

10. “Rainbow Colors” – learning the song – children sit in a circle with their teacher. They repeat after him/her the lyrics of the song and try to sing it.

11. “Colors” – movement activity – children move around the classroom to the rhyme of the song entitled “The Rainbow Colors”. When the music stops, teacher shows one of the picture cards and children have to find and touch items in this color. Repeat the game several times.

* You can ask parents picking up their child from the kindergarten to dress their child in red tomorrow – or at least to have any red accent.

Attachments:

Picture cards for the activities entitled “Summer Sky” and “Heavenly Music”

Picture cards for a song entitled “Rainbow Colors”

Pages used:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcQJDpj5TSY&ab – a song entitled “Jump” for the “Bring something blue” activity
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLZcWGQQsmg – a song entitled “Rainbow Colors”