Color Me Kinder

A WebQuest for Kindergarten Whole Language

Introduction:

Have you ever seen a rainbow? What color was it? That's right! It was many different colors. Can you name any of them? We are going to learn to identify colors and their names. We will learn to pick out colors in pictures and to find matching colors. When we have done all of these things, we will practice using our colors by coloring a picture for your parents with your favorite colors. You can take these pictures home for your parents. They will be so proud of you for learning your colors.

The Tasks:

In order to learn how to identify your colors and color names, there are several tasks that you will need to complete. You will need to:

learn to identify colors,

learn to identify color names,

match colors with their color names,

learn to recognize colors in a picture, and

group match colors.

The Process:

Here are the games that we will play in order to reach our goals of learning colors and color names. You will need to play each game in the order given. Your teacher may have to read some of the instructions to you.

1. Do you know the Colors and Their Names? You can learn the colors, their names, and see some pictures of things that are typically that color.
2. Would you like to play the Colors Game? We will learn to recognize colors and color names. It will be lots of fun!
3. How many colors can you get right? Let's look at the Book of Colors. In this book there will be pictures of familiar things to help you decide on your answers.
4. Have you ever seen a frog? What color was it? Come see the frogs in the game "A Rainbow of Frogs" to see what colors they are. You may see some similarities in them.
5. Have you Learned Your Colors? With the help of your teacher, you can pick out a picture and color it with your favorite colors. When you have finished you can take the picture home to your parents. They will be so excited that you have learned your colors! You've done a great job!

The Evaluation:

Below you will see a rubric. A rubric is simply a way to check how well you did in learning the colors. It will show you the areas that you mastered and the ones that you need to work on. Your goal is to score a four on all of the tasks listed.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
Color Identification	Unable to name the colors, without prompting.	Able to name some of the colors.	Able to name most of the colors.	Able to name all of the colors.
Color Name Identification	Unable to identify color names, without prompting.	Able to identify some of the color names.	Able to identify most of the color names.	Able to identify all color names.
Color Identification by Color Name	Unable to identify colors by their color names, without prompting.	Able to identify some colors by their color names.	Able to identify most colors by their color names.	Able to identify all colors by their color names.
Color Recognition	Unable to recognize a chosen color in a picture, without prompting.	Able to recognize a chosen color in a picture some of the time.	Able to recognize a chosen color in a picture most of the time.	Always able to recognize a chosen color in a picture.
Color Matching	Unable to recognize matching colors, without prompting.	Able to recognize some matching colors.	Able to recognize most matching colors.	Always able to recognize objects that are the same color.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You have completed my WebQuest on colors. You should be able to recognize your favorite colors and know their names. You can also tell if two colors are the same. There are so many different things that you can do with colors. Now that you can identify colors, you might want to learn how to identify Colored Shapes. If you choose to play this game it will teach you this skill. If your teacher will read the story, you can even find out which color is the best and most important by reading The Story of the Colors.

Credits & References:

I would like to express my appreciation to the web sites that I used to collect the images for this WebQuest. Animation Factory had many great animated images. My bullets and some images came from A-Z Free Clipart Graphics. A few images were provided by Crayola, so I would like to thank them as well as Binney & Smith. And finally, a special thanks goes out to Davy Crockett and Tamie Rogers for all of their help. Without all of their help I wouldn't have been able to complete my WebQuest. Thank You!

Teacher Advice:

Color identification is a basic skill that is important for young students to learn. This WebQuest is geared toward Kindergarten classrooms due to the importance of learning this skill early. Because of the simplicity of this lesson it could be extended to additional grades or subjects who are ready to learn this skill. If there are some preschoolers who are advanced in their learning, this WebQuest could be beneficial to them.

Prior to beginning this lesson, the learner should have some concept of what a color is. This could be covered in pointing out some colors in your classroom before you begin.

The learners will be taught color recognition, with increasing difficulty. First they will learn colors. Then they will learn color names. They will then be asked to identify these colors by their names. This is a combination of learning the first two skills. After they have accomplished this, they will learn to recognize the colors in pictures. And finally, they will be asked to pick the images that are the same color. This order is important for the development of critical thinking skills. It will not only teach the learner colors but it will also allow them to apply this skill to recognizing colors in their environment. This integration is important.

This lesson should be taught in one period a day, for several weeks. You may need to teach them one skill at a time and stop the WebQuest and do some activities in class to insure that they have grasped the first skill before moving on to the next one. This lesson will probably take several weeks to complete. This skill would fall under "whole language" so it will be tied into several of your other lessons.

The only stumbling blocks that you may encounter are the possibility of a learning disabled or color blind child. In the event of having a learning disabled child, you may need to spend a little more time on the individual game and a little more individual help may be required for them. An aide would be of great benefit here. With a color blind child, this WebQuest would be of little benefit. Although I do recommend that they complete the lesson with the other learners.

This lesson should be simple to teach. All that you need are basic computer and internet skills and a decently fast modem. The teaching skills are very elementary.

If your classes are divided into ability groups (A group, B group, C group, etc.) you may need to increase the time it takes to complete this lesson. My suggestion would be to increase the time by one class period for these groups. But the extra time allowed to complete each game would be left up to you. You know if your students are ready to move on or not.

One teacher in the classroom should be sufficient to complete this lesson. However, an aide would be beneficial in that they could walk around to make sure that the learners are answering the question correctly. The games will not give you a final result of correct and wrong answers. The best learning environment would be one student to one computer. But if need be, the lesson could be projected onto a screen and the entire class could go through the lesson together.

If the majority of your students do not score in the accomplished and exemplary sections of the rubric, you may need to do the lesson again.

Created by Cristi Greenway for EDU 506 @ FHU School of Education by Dr. Bruce Lewis on December 11, 2001.