Throughout the school year, kindergarten students at the Fitch Elementary School in Waltham focus on beginning reading and math skills, as well as developing appropriate study skills and social behavior.
One of the first units of study for our kindergarten students is about color and shape. This is in line with Literature Standard 8 of the Massachusetts English Language Curriculum Frameworks which states that, "Students will decode accurately and understand new words encountered in their reading materials, drawing on a variety of strategies as needed, and then use these words accurately in speaking and writing".
Students learn, through a variety of activities, to identify the following colors: green, red, yellow, brown, black, orange, white, blue and purple. Similarly, they learn to identify the following shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, crescent, star and heart.
One activity that makes use of their growing recognition of color and shape names is an art project where the students create brightly colored fish after discussing the names of the colors of their crayons.
In another related art activity, the students use the color red to make a nose as part of a clown drawing, complete with a poem about the color red at the bottom of their drawing.
During Center Time, students at the computer center use Kid Pix tools to draw shapes in various colors. As a culminating activity, students create their own color books. They also read and write the color words as they work on reading and writing skills.
Click here to listen to our circle poem
Last revised 10/15/99