A Colorful Dance - Pre School

This week I took lead and discussed with the students how color can dance. After sketchbook time,  I started off by simply asking what is color, where can it be seen which they pointed to themselves and the outfits they had on. The students also pointed to things around the classroom.  I then proceeded to ask more questions such as what were their favorite colors and why.  Then instead of going into our PowerPoint, we decided to do center play where they could experience different mediums that use color and see how it dances with each one. The four centers this week were the book center that also had colorful ribbons that they could dance and play around with, the projection center where they drew on acetate and colored their drawings in on the wall using paper and color pencil. The third center was a sculpture center using model magic and sharpies.  The students had a chance to stab the clay with the marker so it could change color. The final center used spray bottles that had watercolor paint in each one and got sprayed onto canvas to see how colors mix together.  LaMonique demonstrated the clay and paint centers. We also introduced necklaces at each center in order to keep them organized and not crowded.  Another thing we introduced was a transition dance. This week we did the chicken dance when we wanted them to come to the carpet from the centers.  It worked a little bit but it still needs work. The necklaces worked great!
Once we got them back to the carpet I showed a PowerPoint with images that concentrated on color and what the big activity was going to be, scratch art where each student got a piece of scratch paper where the black came off and color would come through.  The students were very excited seeing these images and had a lot to say.  One image was a example of scratch art and it was a Halloween seen. I asked what their Halloween costumes were and some said, "A princess that was pink, a fairy that was purple, a ninja that was black!" Then we went to our final image that as the another example of scratch art, a scene from nature. Next to it I put the same one in black and white and ask them what the difference was and which one looked better.  Autumn began to say, " The color one looks better because it is more pretty and I like colors."  Then Anja said, "The color one is better because I can see the picture and it has my favorite colors in them" which she then said all of  the colors, red yellow green blue and purple. After the PowerPoint was snack time when we showed the videos Finding Nemo, Tangled, and Alice in Wonderland.  After snack they came back to the carpet where I showed a demonstration on how to use the scratch paper. We all laid down so each student could see and I asked them what shapes I could draw that would help make a picture.  They all started to shout, "Triangles, rectangles, squares, ovals, hearts, diamonds, circles, stars..." I then showed them different lines and ask how to color a shape in.  When they showed me how I told them to make sure there here the squeak noise, that way they know they are doing it correctly.  When I was done they went back to the tables to do their own pictures.  Once they were done they could go to center play or draw on the tables.  We also introduced the Dora the Explorer song Clean Up to get them to start helping clean up their areas. It worked for some but not all and I think next week it will work more now that they know what the song is.  This week there were some tweaks but overall I think it was a great lesson and went well. Hopefully next week will go even better