Sunday, September 20, 2015

Learning Our Colors!

Hi there!! It's Elyse from A is for Apples! This afternoon I want to share some fun ways to practice color words with your kiddos. Most of my students seem to know their colors, but I love showing them that they can learn to read color words too!

Last week we used one of my favorite read alouds and an activity of mine to practice our color words!

We started off by reading and listening to Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. (I could listen to those Pete the Cat songs all day...they are so catchy!!) YouTube is sometimes blocked depending on how the WiFi in my building is feeling that day, so I found this video version of the book on TeacherTube.
Reading Pete the Cat to practice color words

After Pete the Cat, I pulled up my colors emergent reader on my interactive whiteboard, and we went through the book together. We practiced pointing and reading each sentence and used the picture clues to figure out the color words. I had them put a dot of that color in the hand.
Once we finished reading the whole book, they had to go back and write the sentences. There are 5 different versions of the emergent reader in this pack depending on your students' writing needs.
This year, I chose to use the book with boxes for each letter. It helped them with the sizing of their letters. (I have some kids who are writing really huge and all over the place!)
I did have 2 students who used the tracing version since they are still struggling with their fine motor a bit. All they had to do was trace each sentence instead of write it on their own.


Using emergent readers to practice reading and writing color words

Once the writing was done, we got to coloring!!! Since we already went through the book together, they knew all of the colors for each page and could fill in the rest of the pictures. This activity did take awhile, so I let them leave the books at their seat all day if they didn't finish or if they just wanted to read it again.

Using emergent readers to practice reading and writing color words


I created these differentiated emergent color readers last year, and I'm so glad I did! They hit so many important, beginning of the year skills. We can practice one-to-one correspondence by pointing and reading the text, review color words, and practice handwriting. I told my kiddos to take this book home and read it to everyone in their house!!
Click HERE to see these in my store!
Differentiated Emergent Readers for Colors

I created a freebie to go along with the emergent readers. This book is in color so it can be printed, laminated, and put together to go in your classroom library! Students can also take it home to practice reading it. Grab it HERE!
Colors Emergent Reader


If any students are still struggling with color words after this, I always make sure they know where the "color wall" is. This year I'm using brand new color posters from my good friend and fellow Pack member Elyse of Proud to be Primary. I love the black background of these posters because it makes the colors pop!
Click HERE to see these in her store!
Color wall for a Kindergarten classroom


This week we will be continuing our color word review by using my Colors Write the Room activity! I just updated this pack by adding 2 more versions of the activity as well as additional differentiated recording pages. I'll post pictures of it in use this week, so be sure you're following me on Instagram!



That's it for me today! I try not to think about school too much over the weekend, so I'm off to go relax a bit and watch my Miami Dolphins try to win a game!! Have a great week!


2 comments:

  1. Love this! I'm new to smartboard so I have a question. How do you get the book on the smartboard for the kids to see?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have the file downloaded on my computer and just open up the PDF. Then it projects onto my interactive whiteboard so I can model the activity. I do this all the time!! :)
      -Elyse @ A is for Apples

      Delete