Musical Book 1 „COLOURS” and flash cards ideas

Musical Book 1″COLOURS” za 35 zł w Promocji Świątecznej na www.edusensory.pl

First of all, prepare the flash cards, by carefully ripping them out of the pouches so you have all the 45 cards in a pack. Note, that there are 3 action cards; the “eye card” is to show the children to look around; the “circle” card is to put a gnome on it (or any object of the appropriate colour), and the “arrows” card is used to show the line in the song : “bring it here”. These three cards are used as prompts, especially for very young children.
Sing each of the five verses from Recording 1 (”The Colour Song”, version 1) on the attached CD, or the first three to start with.
On ”something ….. (colour)” place the appropriate gnome (or if you haven’t got them, one or more of the flash cards, or any smallish object of that colour) on the floor;
Now, in the instrumental interval between the verses, ask the children to go round the room (classroom) and bring objects of that colour (*note, that it’s important for the child’s aesthetic development to realize that colours have various shades; i.e. light blue, dark, pale, etc. For that reason all the drawings, either in the book, or the flash cards are of various shades). With big groups of children you may pause the CD to give them more time to bring the objects in. Lay the next, and the subsequent verses, so in the end you will have a fantastic arrangement of 5 colours on the floor.*Note that to start with you don’t need to do the 5 verses; you can do three for example, like in the photo below taken by the author during the Musical English session with 3-4 year olds:

Now, at this point you can either play version 2, so that you have all the 8 colours, but that may take an awfully long time. Another option is to omit the last colour-black-so you just have the rainbow colours. I would only suggest using one version in one session/lesson.
You can use the instrumental version however, its then it’s entirely up to you what colours you do. The recordings actually gives you a free hand.
Now it’s time to do the last double page: object picture pages 14-15. These pictures represent objects, which children of nursery, or pre-school age may usually find in their room/classroom. There are corresponding recordings 4, 5 and 6, which deal with clusters of two words; i.e. a green car, a red car, etc. This is very important, as the child will first hear the colour, and then the particular word. In a few cases (one per each of the recordings), the clusters demand acute concentration, for example: “a blue dog”,” a blue duck”. This is done on purpose in order to develop good sound recognition and the best possible pronunciation right from the start in the teaching process of the child. You can use the recordings as you like, or you may want to say the words you choose. The idea is for the child to hear the cluster and then point to the correct picture. Variations and possible activities for this group of pictures include :
Calling out clusters which are not there.
Extending the questions to “can you see a….?”, “can you find a….?””can you show me a…?”Is there a…”, It’s then useful to say missing clusters and elicit answers which tend to be difficult to elicit from children; i.e.: “No, I can’t”, “No, there isn’t”.
Rather than you saying the words, ask older children to be the teacher and ask others, i.e. “Igor, can you see a…?”
Can YOU think of any more activities? Try them out.

Now, you may want to concentrate on the flash cards. The set consists of 42 cards, two of each picture, so 21 pairs (there are also, as already mentioned three additional action cards used before). There are 3 recordings, Recording 7, 8 and 9 (Cards). Again, the idea is listening comprehension, so when using the recordings just give out cards to however many children you have, either one per child, two, three, or more if you prefer. Play the recording (pausing after each cluster if you wish) and the children show the cards with the picture they hear. You may choose to do other flash card activities such as:
Only give out cards which the children will hear (each recording has 7 clusters).
Just say the words without the recordings.
Using the book, choose one colour, and ask the children to say their corresponding card, for example: using “red”, a child may have “a red doll”. Note, that there aren’t enough cards of every colour for each child.
Use a variety of question/sentence forms, according to your age group and abilities of the children, i.e. “Who’s got a…”.
Play the classical flash Show a card very quickly and hide it immediately. Let the children guess what they saw. Repeat if necessary.
Go and find game. Spread 21flash cards round the room. Depending on the age of the children with younger ones, ask a child to come up to you by saying: “ Felix, come here, please.”. Say “go to the (red) van”, with very young ones you can mime the word as well. Always remember to praise the children by saying “good”, “well done!” great!”, With older ones you can say: “go and find a…”. Praise as well.
Colder/warmer. This is another classic. Simply choose one child to close their eyes and meanwhile hide one card. The child tries to find it, and the group has to help, so if the child is further they say ”very cold, cold!”, etc, and the opposite for closer- “warm, hot, boiling”. It all depends on the level of the children. Make sure you direct the game so that not only the loudest ones shout out, but the quieter children can have a chance too. With lower levels you may choose to do sounds: “brrrrr”, for cold, “Phewwww”, for hot. The child finally finds the card and she/he hides it for the next child.
Play an “I spy with my little eye a…” Give out the cards to the children (either one per child, or more), who place them on the floor face up. Now play the game, and the child with the corresponding card shows it to everyone. You can also ask other children to do so in turn.
Use pairs of cards to play snap;
Play “shop” with the cards, practising “Can I have a …”, “Here you are”, “how much is it?” and so on.
lay any of the memory games, such as “count to 5” when you spread a number of cards on the floor, ask the children to remember what they are, then ask the children to close their eyes go up to the wall turning their faces to the wall, and count to 5. Then hide one card and the children have to guess which one is missing. The one who guesses correctly can now hide another card.
Create a rainbow with the cards. Sing the song.
Questions practice. Choose a number of cards. The children sit in a circle. Pass the first card to the child on you left and ask: ” Do you like dolls?”Make sure the children use the whole answer: “Yes, I do”, or “No, I don’t”. Then the card is passed on to the next child on the left, and the next… The cards are done on purpose to elicit some negative answers, like you would expect from boys and them not usually liking dolls. This game is good for the sense of achievement for the quieter children in the group.
Create This is a simple variation of a well-known game “ I went to the market and I bought…”. Each child has one card. The first one says their card, for example: i.e. “W’ve got an orange dog” (“we” is used because in this game the children work as a group). The next child ads on their card and says: “We’ve got an orange dog and a green sock”. The next one will say: “We’ve got an orange dog ,a green sock and a red fish” and so on. To make it easier the children put the cards in front of them- face up, to make it difficult with older children you may want the children to put the cards face down.
Chinese whispers. Better with older children of course. You can either tell the fisrt child the word, or show the card.
Put the cards in a pile face down; the children tak a card and say what they can see. If they say it in English correctly, they can take it, if they don’t the card goes on the bottom of the pile.
Play “Mystery bag”, or “Mystery Box” game. Prepare a simple fabric bag, or a cardboard box with a lid, or even better make a “peek-a-boo” box with a fabric curtain covering the hole. Put a selection of cards inside. If you play with a bag, sit the children in a circle, and according to the rhythm of the rhyme pass the bag round. On the word “hide!” the child who’s holding the bag, opens it and takes a card. They say what it is and either keeps it, or puts it back, whatever the rules you choose to follow. The rhyme goes like this: “Mystery bag (or box), what’s inside? Show me what you try to hide! If you play with the box, just place it in the middle of the circle and say the rhyme with one child at a time putting their hand inside.
“Hide and seek”-just hide some cards, and the children have to find them- a teaching classic;
Slowly, slowly. In this game you will need two flash cards facing each other. Prepare one facing the children, but don’t show it to them, and the other card facing the first one, so as to cover it from the children. Slowly uncover the first card by moving the second one, and let the children guess what it is. This can be played with quite small children as the colour of the object is obvious from the coloured band of the flash card.
Run and touch. In this game you want the children to move around. Stick some cards around the walls and furniture. The object of this game is to shout a name of a child and a card you want them to touch. This is a good game if you know who’s got problems with which clusters, so you can make sure you choose the cards and names carefully. The children run and touch the appropriate card. As an alternative you can play run and fetch.
Lip reading. This game is good for slightly older children. Stick 6 cards on the board/wall. Elicit their words, just use the words only without the colour, for example: “car” (not “a green car”). Now, pretend you say a word, but the children can only see your lip movement, as you don’t say the word, they cannot hear it. By lip reading the children develop very useful skills in understanding speech.
With older children you may want to play a variation of a game called charades. A child picks a card, and has to mime/act it out. Choose from cars, busses, cats, etc.
Also with older children, you can divide the group into smaller groups, or pairs, and assign a certain card to each group, for example dolls, cats, gnomes, etc. Now call out actions for particular groups, i.e. “dolls touch your head!”, “gnomes touch your knees”, etc.
Another good one with older children is a game based on the old 3 cups game. You will need three cards and 3 big cups, or better 3 identical plastic bowls (not see-through, the same colour, from IKEA for example). *if you play with younger children it might be helpful to use three different coloured bowls. Place the cards on the floor, let the children remember the pictures (either just the pictures, or the whole clusters) place the cups/bowls on top of them and shuffle. Slowly for the younger children and faster for the older ones. Now choose a child and ask them where the particular card is, or ask: ”Where is the fish?” and ask the child who puts their hand up.
Basketball game– a team game for older children. Have a basket (*you can use a play basketball set, or simply an odd basket on the floor), and a soft ball. Line two lines of flashcards on the floor for two teams.
Bean Bags. Spread some flash cards on the floor and let a child throw a bean bag. They have to say the cluster which the bean bal lands on.