It’s official. I have taught 22 days of kindergarten virtually—something I never expected to do. However, this past week, I had the opportunity to have some small groups of kids come in for 2 hour blocks of time as a transition day to get them ready to return to in person learning next week. They were so excited to be in their real classroom!
Essentially, this small 2-hour window of time was their “first day of kindergarten” in the classroom. It felt so odd after teaching virtually and seeing them on a computer screen everyday, but the kids were so excited to come to school! Amazingly, there weren’t any tears and only happy faces (under their mask, of course)!
This wasn’t our typical first day of school and these kids were ready for some action, so I decided to do a fun lesson that would incorporate some hands-on fun! I started off by reading “White Rabbit’s Color Book” by Alan Baker (click to get it here from Amazon). After reading the story, which talks about primary colors and what happens when you mix them together, we decided to give it a try. The students gathered around me as I got out a white plate and some red, yellow, and blue paint. We flipped though the story again and discussed the colors the bunny dipped himself in, then tried mixing them on the plate to see if it really made these new colors. The kids were so amazed to see that mixing two primary colors together actually made a new color!
After our little paint experiment, I decided it was time for the kiddos to try a little experimenting of their own to make a secondary color. Each of them got a cup of white icing and a plate of cookies. They had to decide what two colors they wanted to mix together to get a new color of icing. Once their choice was made, I squirted some gel food coloring into their icing (it just take a little) and they mixed it up well until they got their new color! The excitement in the room was through the roof! They loved using their little plastic knife to spread the icing on their cookies before they enjoyed their treat (Side note: They did amazing with the plastic knife, but I wouldn't trust all groups with it 😂) !
To conclude this fun little lesson, we did one more experiment together. I saw this video on The Adley Show (my whole Kinder Team loves her and were excited to see her do something we could spin for a project at school) and couldn’t wait to try it for myself. It didn’t disappoint! Once again, the kids gathered around as they watched me perform each step of the experiment. I poured milk into a pie pan. Then I squirted some food coloring around the edges of the pan. I started with blue, then moved toward the middle to do a line of yellow around the pie pan, and then I put a lot of red food coloring right in the center. Next, I soaked a cotton ball in some Gain Laundry Detergent (I cut open a laundry pod) and placed it in the middle of the pie pan. The colors instantly started moving and you can hear the amazement as the kids watched the colors mix! Click below to watch the video of the experiment as it happens and hear their excited voices!
This was such a fun little lesson and a great way to start off the year in person with my class. I definitely recommend this experiment and think it would be a fun way to explore primary and secondary colors for various grade levels up to at least 2nd grade.
Starting Monday, all my students will be able to return in person. Of course we have no idea how long it will last, but we are prepared to take all the precautions we can and take advantage of our time together. I hope everyone else is off to a great start this year and I’m still praying for some normalcy as we get our kids back into our classrooms and ready to learn!
No comments