Materials
- Variety of different-colored foods and drinks (see below)
What to do
1. In conjunction with a unit on colors, ask the children to help prepare and cook foods to go with the corresponding color of the day or week.
2. Some examples include:
- RED to fruit punch, strawberry smoothies (strawberries, milk, vanilla ice cream)
- ORANGE to fresh-squeezed orange juice, carrot slices, orange sherbet
- YELLOW to banana milk shakes (bananas, milk, vanilla ice cream), lemonade
- GREEN to lime Jell-O, pistachio pudding (from a mix), green eggs (mix green food coloring into a bit of milk and use it to scramble the eggs)
- BLUE to blueberry muffins (from a mix), sugar cookies with blue icing (white icing and food coloring)
- PURPLE to toast with grape jelly, grape Popsicles
More to do
Serve the Rainbow of Foods for snack or have a Rainbow Picnic on a special day. To involve families, send a note home suggesting that parents and children brainstorm color food ideas to bring in and share with the class.
- Art: Make playdough to go along with the corresponding color of the day or week. A simple recipe is: 1 cup (125 g) white flour, 1/2 cup (125 g) salt, 1 cup (240 ml) water, 1 tablespoon (15 g) cream of tartar, 2 tablespoons (30 ml) oil, and food coloring. Mix together all the ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool.
-Suzanne Pearson, Winchester, VA
Instructions
1. Stretch out a long rope in a straight line on the floor.
2. Ask the children to stand behind the rope, then ask them to jump over it.
3. Tell them to put their right foot behind them. See if the children can walk
while straddling the rope.
4. This is a good way to help children learn right and left, as well as listening
skills. Repeat step #3, asking the children to use their other foot or one of
their hands.
More to do
Leave out the rope for a while to help the children learn right and left and make
patterns.
Song
"The Hokey Pokey"
