Crazy Color Creatures
I’m always on the hunt for activities and lesson plans that last the test of time like my Crazy Color Creatures Unit.
My favorite plans have singing and dancing for a little learners.
When Crazy Color Creatures first came into my life, I knew I found a keeper.
This lesson is one that students are truly engaged in and remember throughout the school year and beyond.
Whimsical, silly, and educational, the Creatures are there to make color words fun.
As a kindergarten teacher, most of my students come to school knowing the majority of the basic color words but very few are able to recognize and read words.
The Creatures love being able to teach color sight words and rhyming!
Want to see more fun items for the classroom? Check out Caroline’s favorite things for teachers here.
A Most Crazy Color Creatures Week
Like I do with every big book that I use in the classroom, Crazy Color Creatures is turned into a one-week unit. I teach this five-day lesson plan at the beginning of the school year as a partial review and introduction of new sight words. No matter when it gets taught, I look forward to it every year. When I taught students with moderate to severe disabilities, I used a similar approach for when the Creatures would come out to play. The students enjoyed and benefited from the lessons. My classroom assistants for special education who were with me school year after school year would always check my curriculum map to see what week the Crazy Color Creatures debuted for that school year.
Music for Fun and Memory
So what makes this unit so amazing? First of all it’s the fun tune to set to Skip to My Lou. Then the beautiful clip art pulls the students (and adults) in to a new group of welcoming friends. Next the audience gets to see these new friends do the most silly things while making rhymes and learning some new vocabulary. This features a homemade big book printed on legal sized paper that is paired with a smaller student book. Each child gets their own copy to take home to add to their personal library. Also, the Creatures pull in lots of other fun activities related to colors throughout the week. Let’s do a snapshot of a few of the great activities my class does.
Snapshot of Crazy Color Creatures Lesson Plans
Monday with the Crazy Color Creatures
- Have a color parade with another classic song found on YouTube. Pass out Crazy Color Creatures student books and work on coloring and writing for the colors red, orange, and yellow. Start the predictable chart for favorite colors.
Tuesday
- Read and sing Crazy Color Creatures while going on a rhyming word hunt. Have students use wax craft sticks to circle the rhyming words on each page. Add students to the predictable chart about the their favorite colors. Work on the Crazy Color Creatures student books for green, blue, and purple.
Wednesday
- Sing and read Crazy Color Creatures while identifying the color words on each page and clapping out the syllables in each color word. Finish coloring and writing in the students’ personal copies of Crazy Color Creatures for book response time.
Thursday
- Teach the students the game Riddly, Riddly, Ree by writing about it during morning message. Play a few rounds of the game. Use the Crazy Color Creatures puppets to act out the story while reading.
Friday Wrapping up the Crazy Color Creatures
- Complete the predictable chart book for colors. After reading Crazy Color Creatures aloud in whole group, put the students in pairs or trios to read and act out the book together.
Creating Lifelong Learners
Thinking back to when I was little and in kindergarten myself, I don’t remember a lot. I do remember the day one of the letter people popped and how he was duct taped together for the rest of the school year. While this probably wasn’t what my kindergarten teacher was hoping for me to remember, it’s the highlighted day in my memories of kindergarten. I’ve had older students in the building come back to visit me and ask to see the Creatures again. Seeing their faces shine when they visit with their old friends tells me that this lesson gave them something every good book does: a lifelong desire to be a happy learner.
Just curious the last set I had gray. Day gray likes to play. Any way you might have that one also
Hi, Elizabeth! I’ve never seen a gray page but I’ve heard from one other person that it exists. If you have an old page, I’d love to take a look and see about adding it to the set.
Smiles,
Caroline