Books

“Mouse Paint” by Ellen Stoll Walsh
“Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes” by Eric Litwin
“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr.

I Have a Crayon

I gave each child a crayon before we began the rhyme, when their color was called they came and stuck it on the flannel board. I have had most of these children for at least a year and they all know Miss Michele’s rule –  I don’t take special requests, I just pass out the colors and you get what you get. This rule has worked surprisingly well, I have only had 1 child in 3 years cause a stir over the color they received and in the end another child was kind enough to switch!

I have a crayon, I’ll give it to you.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of blue.
I have a crayon, a lovely little fellow.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of yellow.
I have a crayon, it’s here on my head.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of red.
I have a crayon, I found it in town.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of brown.
I have a crayon, we can draw a circle.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of purple.
I have a crayon, what do you see?
Here is my crayon, an orange one for me.
I have a crayon right in my sack.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of black.
I have a crayon, I think it’s just right.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of white.
I have a crayon, the best ever seen.
Here is my crayon, my crayon of green.

Color Game by Jim Gill

Old Shoes, New Shoes

Old shoes, new shoes
(child’s name) is wearing (description) shoes
1, 2, 3, 4
Now (child)’s stomping on the floor

Rainbow Stew (Tune: Jimmy Crack Corn)

I must say that this was pure story time magic…literally! I had numerous children oooh and ahhh and declare it was magic. One child was extremely baffled (I blew this poor child’s mind), I am officially a story time magician! Basically I had a pot (or in my case a left over Halloween basket) with the felt rainbow pieces already inside, next I put up the fruits and vegetables (you can use any that are the right color, I just had these from other flannel boards) and we went over what they were and their colors. After the color red they quickly gasped the concept and were able to chant along with me. I will definitely be using this again!!

Take an apple, put it in the pot
Stir it, stir it, stir it at lot (mixing motion)
Take it out now (take out matching rainbow color)
What will it be?

The prettiest red you ever did see!

(repeat with other food and colors until you have your rainbow!)

Source: Storytime ABCs

Rainbow Colors

I used the rainbow we made for this next chant.

Rainbow purple,
Rainbow blue,
Rainbow green,
and yellow too.
Rainbow orange,
Rainbow red,
Rainbow smiling overhead (arms above head)
Come and count the colors with me.
How many colors do you see?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!

Craft

I laid out all of the materials (the rainbow, tissue paper and cotton balls) and told the kids to go to town. I was so surprised how different each one came out, some kids crinkled the tissue paper, some put them down haphazardly and others were perfectionists about the rainbow being the right colors. It was a great moment for me when some of the kids called me over all excited because they had the light bulb realization that overlapping some of the colors created a new color, just like in “Mouse Paint!” I love sneaking in educational aspects and them not even knowing it muahahahah *evil laugh*

How it Went: I like to try to use a mix of books that the kids know (and hopefully love) and ones they most likely don’t know but this week I just went with books that I know are always a crowd pleaser.  The second I held up the books I received a chorus of “I own that book” “I love that book” “My teacher has that book,” the children were able to tell each story with me which was a really neat experience. Jim Gill is usually a big hit with this group so I thought I’d give “Color Game” a try. Basically the song calls out colors and tells the kids to find the color and put it on a different body part. 25% of the kids looked frantically around the room for colors and placed the bean bag in the appropriate place, 25% just put the bean bag wherever I put mine and 50% just stared at me blankly. While I love Jim Gill I think I might skip this song next time. “Old Shoes, New Shoes” was a big hit, kids loved describing their own shoes and their friends.