Kindergarten Color Days: Green Day

Yesterday, I sat in a circle on the grass with 16 brand-new kindergarteners.  The little girl with a cute blond braid to the right of me was so expressive.  "Look!" she exclaimed, "I never knew there were little yellow flowers in the grass!  And what's this big piece of wood stuck in here?  And a teeny, tiny black bug!"  She had been very excited when we were preparing to go outside. "Is this science?  I don't know what science is but I can't wait to do it."

The "big piece of wood in here" is a tree root, of course:)

I love beginning the school year with Color Days.  Most incoming kindergarteners know the basic colors so they are comfortable with the content.  This allows me to teach all sorts of procedures and skills without also teaching content.  Since we follow the methods described by the Wongs in their book, The First Days of School, tying the colors into our lessons makes a lot of sense.

Here are some of my activities for Green Day.  First of all, I've encouraged all of my parents to send their children to school wearing as much of the day's color as possible. I do reassure them that it's still acceptable NOT to wear the color of the day.  I provide them with a calendar like this one below.

                                       You can get a copy of this calendar HERE.

During Morning Meeting, we pass around Share Bear and tell what we are wearing that is green.  I introduce the idea of using a complete sentence when it's your turn to share, ex: "I am wearing a green shirt."  

For our shared reading time on Green Day, I have written a song about the color green. There are a lot of songs about green available on the web, but if you'd like to copy my song, here it is below.  After Color Days, I will try to pull out the Green song when it relates to other subject matter, for example, St. Patrick's Day.

We sing this to the tune of "London Bridges."

We also sing an alternate version of "Mary Wore A Red Dress" with the "Red" or "red" words covered up with "Green" and "green."  A number of years ago, I found a paper doll set that featured a little girl and boy and clothes in various colors.  I'm sure you can still find a similar set.  If you laminate them and attach a little Velcro, your kindergarteners will enjoy changing the outfits, for sure.  I've also set out the chart, the paper doll clothes, and the words in a popular literacy center.

We actually did two science lessons about the color green.  The morning lesson followed the reading of Leo Lionni's Little Blue and Little Yellow.   Since we are learning about the sun in our science curriculum, I had prepared blue and yellow ice cubes for the children to observe melting. In past years, I've also had them mix little balls of blue and yellow playdoh, or blue and yellow paint.  

The afternoon science lesson is what took us outside and into our circle on the green grass. Before we went outside, like good scientists, we asked the question, "What is in the green grass?" and made some predictions (bugs and dirt were most mentioned.)  And after we shared what we observed outside, we came back inside to record our observations.

As this is my retirement year, I did "have a moment."  We ended Green Day by watching a youtube video of Barney singing "The Green Grass Grows All Around."  Then we re-enacted the song ourselves.  I've led groups of children in singing and enacting this for 23 years now and this was my final time doing so.  I told the class this was a "celebration" for their teacher and we all did "sign language applause!"

Note:  I really enjoyed a post on Nerdy Book Club, under A Picture a Day: Green, about a book entitled Green:  Please check it out!