RED
Tune:  Are You Sleeping?

I like red,
I like red,
r-e-d,
r-e-d.
A fire truck is red.
A stop sign is red.
r-e-d
r-e-d.

PURPLE
Tune: This Old Man

P – U – R – P – L – E
Spells the color purple you see.
Like the grapes on a vine,
Or some plums in a tree.
P – U – R – P – L – E

BLUE
Tune:  The Farmer in the Dell

B-l-u-e spells blue.
B-l-u-e spells blue.
Hi-ho did you know
B-l-u-e spells blue?

The big sky is blue.
The ocean is too.
Hi-ho did you know
B-l-u-e spells blue?

YELLOW
Tune:  If You’re Happy and You Know It

Y-e-l -l-o-w spells yellow.
Y-e-l -l-o-w spells yellow.
Like the early morning the sun
When the day has just begun.
Y-e-l -l-o-w spells yellow.

Daffodils and baby ducks are yellow.
Lemonade and scrambled eggs are yellow.
I like the smiley face that≠s yellow,
He is such a happy fellow.
Y-e-l -l-o-w spells yellow.

ORANGE
Tune:  The Wheels on the Bus

O-r-a-n-g-e,
O-r-a-n-g-e,
O-r-a-n-g-e
Orange is what that spells.

Jack-O-lanterns are always orange
Carrots are always orange
Oranges are a always orange.
O-r-a-n-g——e!

BLACK
Tune:  Jingle Bells

Black bats fly,
Black cats cry,
b-l-a-c-k
Black is the color of the night
b-l-a-c-k
BLACK!

WHITE
Tune:  Little Brown Jug

W-h-i-t-e
That spells white, sing with me.
Milk is white and so is glue,
Ghosts are white and they say
BOO!

W-h-i-t-e
That spells white, sing with me.
The clouds above, the snow below,
Santa≠s beard
HO, HO, HO!

BROWN
Tune:  Bingo

There is a color we all know.
Can you guess what it is?
B-r-o-w-n, B-r-o-w-n, B-r-o-w-n,
That≠s how you spell brown.

Teddy bears and squirrels are brown,
Autumn leaves are too.
Chocolate candy is always brown.
Chocolate cake is always brown.
Chocolate milk is always brown.
I like brown, don≠t you?

GREEN
Tune:  Bingo

There was a farmer who had a snake
and it was very green.
g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n
and it was very green.

There was a farmer who had an alligator
and it was very green.
g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n
and it was very green.

There was a farmer who had a frog
and it was very green.
g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n
and it was very green.

They all lived in the long green grass
and they were very green.
g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n, g-r-e-e-n
and they were very green.

Rainbow Song
Tune: Hush, Little Baby

Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green
And yellow too
Rainbow orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow shining over head.

Come and count
The colors with me
How many colors
Can you see?
1 – 2 – 3 on down to green
4 – 5 – 6 colors can be seen!

Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green
And yellow too
Rainbow orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow shining over head.

The Rainbow Song
Tune: Jesus Loves Me

Red, orange, green, and the color blue
Shiny yellow, purple, too.
All the colors that you know
Show up in the rainbow.

Oh Rainbow
Tune: O Christmas Tree

Oh rainbow, oh  rainbow,
How lovely are your colors.
Oh rainbow, oh rainbow,
How lovely are your colors.
Purple, red and orange, too,
Yellow, green and blue so true.
Oh rainbow, oh rainbow,
How lovely are your colors.

Crazy Color Creatures
Tune:  Skip to My Lou

Fred Red bumps his head
Fred Red bumps his head
Fred Red bumps his head
Crazy color creatures !!

(Use the same format for the rest of the colors)

Mel O. Yellow plays the cello.
Jean Green can’t be seen.
Sue Blue has the flu
Merple Purple loves to slurple
Dwight White stays up all night.
Jack Black sits on a tack.
Round Brown flies to town
Linc Pink has feet that stink.
Orin Orange can dance the torange.

Wouldn’t it be terrible? Wouldn’t it be sad?
If just one single color was the color that we had?
If everything was purple? Or red? Or blue? Or green?
If yellow, pink, or orange was all that could be seen?
Can you just imagine how dull world would be
If just one single color was all we got to see?

Crayons
By Dee Lillegard

Sticks of colors
Orange, red,
Yellow, green,
And brown like bread.

Blue like water
In the sea.
Purple like bruises
On my knee.

Black like night
When I’m in bed,
Dreaming in yellow,
Orange, and red.

Paint
by Ilo Orleans

When I put YELLOW
Paint on RED,
The colors change
To ORANGE instead.

And, mixing BLUE
And RED, I get
A pretty shade
of VIOLET.

Another trick
That I have seen:
YELLOW and BLUE
Turn into GREEN.

There’s magic when
My colors mix.
It’s fun to watch them
doing tricks.

Color Cats

Red cat,
Green cat,
Yellow cat,
Blue —
Orange cat,
Black cat,
Purple cat, too!

Color Markers

Before your read the poem, place a large sheet of white paper on your easel and gather markers in the six colors mentioned in the poem. This can also be sung to the tune ≥Five Little Ducks that I once knew≈.

Six little markers all standing in a line.
They said, “Let’s draw a picture and make it mighty fine.”
Red jumped for joy as he leaped across the sky.
Orange jumped up too, but not quite so high.
Next came yellow as bright as the sun.
Green was excited as he started to run.
Blue followed boldly, then looked all around.
Purple came last, nearly touching the ground.
“Isn’t this lovely?” the markers exclaimed.
“We’ve made a rainbow without any rain!

Musical colors

Play this like musical chairs but place a piece of color on the seat of each chair. Have children circle chairs to music. When the music stops, draw a color from a hat and take that chair away.

Hop on Colors

Paint shapes of different colors on an old sheet (or use an old twister game), and as you call out the colors, have the children hop on it. Do this with small groups of children at a time, or call children’s names to hop on a certain color.

Shapes of Colors Game

Put your red shape in the air, hold it high and leave it there. Put your red shape on your back, now please lay it in your lap. Hold your red shape in your hand, Now everyone please stand. Wave your red shape at the door, now please lay it on the floor. Hold your red shape and jump, jump, jump, Throw your red shape way, way up.

Color Game

You will need color cards for each child made from the following colors:  red, yellow, green, blue, white, black, orange, and purple.

Colors are here, colors are there.
Colors are around us everywhere.
So let≠s have lots of fun at play,
Learning our colors at school today.
Show me a red card–one…two..three.
It≠s the color of an apple on a tree.
Blue is the next color, don≠t be shy.
Some people like the color of green.
Hide it now so it can≠t be seen.
Show me if you know the color of the sun.
That≠s right, it≠s yellow!  Isn≠t this fun?
Listen and get this color just right.
Quickly show the card that is white.
The next card place behind your back.
The color I≠m looking for is black.
A pumpkin is orange and round.
Hide your card so it can≠t be found.
The color purple can≠t be beat.
Put it quietly on your seat.

Color Feather Game

Place colored feathers in a paper bag. Have the children sit in a circle. Let one child at a time reach into the bag and pull out a feather. In order for the child to keep the feather the child must name something that is the matching color.

Color Hop

Play this game  like you would Duck, Duck, Goose!  Have the children hold different colored pieces of construction paper and sing to the tune of Old MacDonald.

I see something that is_____[color].
Do you see it too?
I see something that is [same color].
HOP there if you do.
With a hop, hop here
And a hop, hop there. Hurry up! Hop it up!
Hop as fast as you dare.
I see something that is [color].
Do you see it too?

Color Game

Cut colored construction paper in half–to give each child a half–making sure each will have a partner to match. Go around in a circle singing this song:

Colors, colors all around
See them here and there
When the singing finally stops
Find a friend to share.

Activities to use with the book, Mouse Paints by Ellen Walsh
1.   I have the children experiment with mixing the primary colors.  Paint a child’s hand with the color of their choice ( red, yellow, or blue)   Make a hand print on a long sheet of paper.  Put a plus sign.  Then paint the other hand with a second color and make another hand print.  Put an equals sign.  Then  add more of each color and rub the students hands together to see what color they get.  Make 2 hand prints of the new color.

2.  A painting activity that also allowed the children to retell part of the story while mixing two primary colors.

Start with a white circle cut from drawing paper.  This was the “white paper” from the story.   Put the circle in the bottom of a metal cookie tin (or old round cake pan).  Put out the color, red, yellow and blue paint in small cups similar to the paint jars in the story.  Have each child choose a color to make puddles on his/her paper using an eye dropper.  Then  drop a “mouse” (marble) into a different color.  Kitchen tongs can be used to retrieve the “mouse” from the paint cup and drop it into the cookie tin.  Move the cookie tin to make the “mouse” dance through the paint and create a new color.  Each child can tell the story as they make their marble painting.  When they finish, they can drop their marbles into a tub of water labeled CAT so the mice can take a bath.

3.  After reading the story Mouse Paint one could make mice cookies.  Take a heart shaped cookie cutter and make a sugar cookie, next cut the cookie in half, now you have a mouse shape.  Give each child red, blue and yellow frosting.  Let them mix and explore what two colors make a secondary color.  Let the child frost the cookies, add an M’M eye and
licorice tail.

Other Activities:

Making Lollipops

Cut three inch circles from construction paper (red, blue, green,yellow,orange and purple). Make three of each color. Glue craft sticks to each color circle to make a lollipop. Have the children sit in a circle. One child is “it” and skips around the circle holding the lollipops in a coffee can while the other child- ren chant.

Lollipops, Lollipops, yum, yum, yum,
Lollipops, Lollipops, yum, yum, yum,
Lollipops, Lollipops, yum, yum, yum,
Please come over and give me some,

It stops in front of a child who closes their eyes and picks out a lollipop.

If the child guesses the correct color then they may take a turn being “it”.

What≠s Missing?

Have the children sit in a circle.  In the center of the circle, line up six objects that are the same color (ie:  orange, carrot, orange crayon, etc.) and name the objects with the children.  ≥Heads down, eyes shut.≈  Remove one item.  ≈One, Two, Three…Look and see!≈  Have the children guess which item is missing.

I like……..(write a color and illustrate)
Red (or other color)  as…..

Estimation
Estimate various objects of each color each day and  count to see who came the closest.

Color Graph

Conclude your color days with a ≥Rainbow Day≈.  Ask each child to come dressed  in their favorite color.  Make an outline for a bar graph with color names listed down the left hand side and numerals written across the top.  Group the children according to the colors they are wearing and count the number in each group.  Then record the results by drawing colored bars on your bar graph outline.  Ask questions such as these:

Which group is smaller, the one wearing yellow or the one wearing red?
How many more are wearing green than are wearing purple?
Which color is the most popular?

Squirt white shaving cream inside the ziploc bag, add a few drops of food coloring and close the bag, making sure that all the air is out. This gives your children the opportunity to explore mixing colors and there is no mess to clean up.

OR

Squirt shaving cream, red paint and blue paint in a ziploc bag. The children mix it with their fingers until purple magically appears. Then open a small area on the end so that they can squeeze it out and finger paint with it on a piece of white paper or right onto their desks.  This is a great activity when the student≠s desks are a little dirty.

Blue Carnations

Place the stem of a white carnation in a bottle of water with blue food coloring added in your science area. Watch the flower change from white to blue in it’s petals.

Milk Explosion

Pour about 2 inches of room temperature milk in a glass Pyrex lid. Add 4-5 drops of red food coloring and near but not on top of it do the same with yellow food coloring. We predicted what would happen. I then added a few drops of clear dish soap between the color spots. What a beautiful surprise!!!! The colors swirl & mix into an orange firework type explosion. After watching it for awhile we took a plastic spoon & simply stirred the mixture to get a pale orange color liquid.
Rainbow, Rainbow, GOLD!!

Using only the three primary colors, create a rainbow by blending the colors.  Start with red watercolor paint.  Have the children paint a large arc of red paint on an 8 by 12 inch piece of white construction paper.   Demonstrate painting from one corner to the next.  Have the children get yellow watercolor paint in their brushes.  Paint an arc of yellow on the bottom half of the red arc.  The colors will blend to orange.  Then have him paint a large arc of yellow paint.  Add blue to the bottom half of this yellow arc.  The colors blend to green.  Paint a large arc of blue watercolor paint.  Add red to the bottom half of the blue arc.  The colors will blend to purple.  When this is finished, the colors blend to make a beautiful rainbow using only red, yellow and blue.

Red Cherry Trees

Glue twigs on sheets of white construction paper to make trees. Then, let the children attach small red circle sticker “cherries” to their papers, some as if growing on the tree branches and some as if falling off. You can use stickers, or circles from a red piece of paper and a hole puncher to glue on.
.
Color Caterpillars

Give each child construction paper circles, one for each of the 8 basic colors. Tape one circle to a classroom wall, add eyes and antenna to make the caterpillars head. Then invite the children to add a colored circle for each color they can identify.

Red Collage

Glue a red thing collage on red paper, of course. Invite the children to bring red things from home to glue on also. Hang for display.

Gold Fish

Cut large gold fish shapes out of orange construction paper. Pour glue into containers and set out brushes and precut orange tissue paper squares. Have the children brush glue on their fish shapes. Then let them place the tissue paper squares on top of the glue to create scales. When the glue has dried, let the children add eyes and mouths with black felt tip markers.

Cellophane Collages

Let the children arrange shapes cut from blue and yellow cellophane between sheets of waxed paper. Encourage them to overlap the edges of the shapes to create green. With an iron set on medium, press each set of waxed paper sheets until they fuse together (cover the waxed paper with newspaper first to prevent sticking). Then tape green construction paper borders around the collages and hang them in a window.

Orange Prints

Cut some oranges in half for printing. Press onto a sponge that has been soaked in paint and press onto paper cut into an orange shape.

Cooking and Snacks:

Rainbow Pizza

Cooking Tools: pizza pan or a cookie sheet, pizza cutter, bowl, measuring spoons, utility knife, colander, measuring cups

Need: 1 15-oz can pineapple chunks (drained), 3 sliced bananas dipped into orange or lemon juice, 10 washed, capped, sliced strawberries, 2 kiwi, 1 10-1/2 oz can mandarin oranges (drained), Other fruit that you like, 1 8-oz lite cream cheese, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 8-oz container lite whipped topping, Materials for crust

Crust Options
1 pkg. refrigerated sugar cookie dough
or
1 C flour
1/4 C powdered sugar
1 stick margarine, softened

Directions:
Crust

1. To make the crust, use the package of cookie dough, or mix flour, powdered sugar, and margarine in a bowl, and stir until it makes a ball.

2. Put the dough on a pizza pan, and flatten it with your hand until it covers the pan.

3. Turn on the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Put the crust into the oven. Bake it for about 5 minutes or until it is light golden brown.

5. Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

Filling

1. Put the soft lite cream cheese in a bowl.

2. Add 1/4 cup powdered sugar and mix it all together.

3. Take a spoon and spread all of the filling over the pizza crust when it is cool.

4. Take the little pieces of fruit, and decorate the top of your pizza.

5. Cut the pizza into pieces with the pizza cutter.

Serve it as a dessert. Or spread peanut butter all over the crust, and decorate it with the fruit.

Rainbow Snow Slushies

crushed or shaved ice to fill, 2 tall glasses
2 cups milk
optional flavor, colors or foods, such as food coloring, banana, fruit juices, berries
1/4 teaspoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons sugar
ice crusher
measuring cups and spoons
tall, large glasses
mixing bowl,
blender
fork or whisk
long spoons

Crush ice. Add 2 cups of milk to the bowl. Then, add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and 2 tablespoons sugar. Mix well with a whisk or fork. Pour the sweetened ice in a blender and blend until slushy and smooth. If desired, blend in any food color, fruit or fruit juice for additional flavor and color. Pour the Snow Slushies into 2 tall glasses. It’s fun to make several different colors of Snow Slushies, and then scoop or layer them into tall glasses in rainbow stripes. Layers of different flavors are fun to eat.

Colors by Sara Anderson
Skyfire by Frank Asch
Colors by John Burningham
Clifford ,the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
My Shirt Is White by Dick Bruna
The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle
The Birthday Cake by Joy Cowley
To Town by Joy Cowley
Fright Train by Donald Crews
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
A Rainbow Of My Own by Don Freeman
Follow Me! By Mordicai Gerstein
It Didn≠t Frighten Me by Janet Goss and Jerome Harste
Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue? By Tana Hoban
The Blue Balloon by Mick Inkpen
Color Dance by Ann Jonas
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin
Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers by Merle Peek
The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater
Who Said Red? By Mary Serfozo
Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh
Peter Rabbit≠s Colors by Frederick Warne
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow

Individual Student Color Books

1.  Each book has a construction paper cover (6×9, horizontal) with the title

Blue by ________.

Inside are 4 pages, with the following writing frame:

A ___________ is blue.

The kids draw a picture on each page, and I help them write the word in the blank.  I do this for 10 or 12 different colors, and put all the books for each color in a small basket in our reading center.  They really enjoy these books, and it helps them learn to read each other’s names, too.

2.  Make individual books based on the story, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin.  Have the children illustrate each page with something that is the color described on that page.  On the last two pages, they can draw a sun and a rainbow.

Title Page:    Raindrops, Raindrops
First Page:    Raindrops, raindrops, where do they fall?
Second Page:   They fall on a red _________ but that≠s not all.
Third Page:  Raindrops, raindrops, where do they fall?
Fourth Page:  They fall on a orange _______but that≠s not all.
Fifth Page:  Raindrops, raindrops, where do they fall?
Sixth Page:  They fall on a yellow _______but that≠s not all.
Seventh Page: Raindrops, raindrops, where do they fall?
Eighth Page:  They fall on a green ________but that≠s not all.
Ninth Page:  Raindrops, raindrops, where do they fall?
Tenth Page:  They fall on a blue _________but that≠s not all.
Eleventh Page: Raindrops, raindrops, where do they fall?
Twelfth Page:  They fall on a purple _______but that≠s not all.
Thirteenth Page: Because up in the sky, out comes the sun.
Fourteenth Page: And the rain makes a rainbow for everyone!