Friday, October 15, 2010

A Different Kind of Color Lesson (and Book)

No, he's not in pain.  He was actually having a lot of fun! 

I keep thinking we're almost done with our color "unit" in preschool, but then I find another book that is just too awesome to skip.  This week the kids an I ventured to one of the bigger (compared to here) cities to do some shopping (Wal-Mart, Dollar Store, and Goodwill) about 45 minutes away.  Little Brother and Sweet Pea were awesome beyond belief for such a long shopping trip.  While we were there, I thought I'd take the opportunity to go to their library for a little variety.  (Our library is awesome...but tiny.)  We happened to be there just on time for story time.  (Yeah!)

And while I was browsing their children's books, I found this one.  I was feeling a bit rushed knowing that Little Brother and Sweet Pea have a limit to their patience and we hadn't even made it to Goodwill or Wal-Mart yet, so I didn't even open it, just through in the stroller.

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria is definitely a different book about colors.  Every page has raised illustrations, but they are completely black except for the text.  (Don't let the cover fool you...the pictures are black not grey.) It's written from the point of view of a blind child and their description of how they hear, smell, touch, and taste the colors around them.  Both kids were really intrigued by the illustrations and loved the book.
For the "preschool" activity, I Little Brother close his eyes (He wanted nothing to do with the blindfold.) while I put something he'd recognize in his mouth and then asked him to tell me the color.
Sweet Pea has a cold and was cranky and not interested, but I did this later with Firecracker and she LOVED it.
I used: strawberry (red), mandarin orange slice (orange), banana (yellow), apple (green), chocolate (brown) marshmallow (white).  I would have done a few more if I'd thought of this more than 10 minutes before doing it.  I think a pickle would be even better for green, but we were out.  Blueberries would be a good addition to, but we didn't have them.  If you have any color suggestions of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments for others.  You could also do a sensory bin of sorts to have them feel these things first...but my strawberry was a frozen one that had thawed...yuck to touch...orange was canned...again not great for touching, but if I'd planned ahead more and used fresh ones, they could have touched as well as felt them.

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5 comments:

  1. What an GREAT lesson! I'm gonna borrow this for my littles! Thank you for the inspiration.

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  2. Sounds like a very cool book. What a fun lesson for the kids, and one that opens them up to other perspectives.

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  3. That is an AMAZING idea! I love that book too, makes kids think about other kids with differences too. I might have to look into that book! THANKS FOR SHARING!

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  4. This is the post that brought me to your blog tonight. But the 1st day of school, Kindergarten post was what brought me here the first time. I was going through your blog like I normally do, super fast, only looking at the cratfy stuff. Then I saw that fathers day pictures, and I thought that kinda looks like Bro. Mayer, but pushed it aside and moved on. Then I came to the Burns FHE Board. I thought to my self, "Hey I know them." So then I really started looking and realized Hey I know you. Needless to say I LOVE you felt food and more.

    Keep up the good work. I am glad to have some one I know out there in blog world.

    Melia

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