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More fun with pompoms! Two fun activities to practice colors

LAST YEAR I SHARED TWO ACTIVITIES using pom pons, a counting activity and one with colors. Fall is back and my Kindergartners are knee deep in our color theme once again. Since my classes had such fun last year, I naturally brought back the pom pons again this October, but some new ideas. UPDATED ACTIVITY FOR 2016! See below!


*'LISTEN & GRAB' is an easy listening activity which could work with any vocabulary set, provided you have enough manipulatives/objects/pictures to grab. Enter the pom pons, perfect for practicing color vocabulary! Having a large amount of them makes for quite an impact when you dump them all over your floor!  Materials & set up: a large bin of pom pons, a set of bowls or containers, and a label for each bowl or container.  As you can see in the above picture, I also put down an outdoor tablecloth- this makes for easier pickup with the pom pons and reduces the dirt and fuzz they collect if you dump them on your rug or bare floor.  Dump the pom pons in the middle of the space, and place the bowls strategically around the room as "stations". Assign 3-4 kiddos to each bowl and review each color word. I started with only 4 bowls so that groups would get turns every 30 seconds or so- antsy kindergarteners do not make your life much fun lol

NOW FOR THE FUN! Call out a color word and instruct kiddos whose station is labeled that color to come to the center and grab 1 pom pon of that color and put it in their bowl. So, if there are 4 kiddos at a station, there will be 4 pom pons in the bowl. Call out another color, and so on. Start predictably, going in order around then the stations, then mix it up, keeping them on their toes as they need to listen carefully to which color is being called. I love to call the same color twice in a row every now and again as they find that hilarious. Keep the pace moving to be sure kids are engaged and not sitting around- I have to remind kiddos to grab quickly, no searching endlessly for that one 'perfect' pom pon! I usually set a time limit for this activity- 10 minutes is just about right.

VARIATIONS:
*Once kiddos have gotten the hang of the game, after a few rounds, switch the groups, moving them to another station and start again. This keeps them listening and practicing multiple color words!
*Have a tally sheet next to the bowl. Before you end the activity, have each group count (in Spanish, of course!) how many pom pons are in the bowl, write the number down, and then report out to the class.


*GRAB & SORT: This is an easy and fun activity to practice reading and speaking skills with a partner. Materials & setup: empty tissue boxes stuffed with pompons (they don't have to be full), color sorting page- you can download ours for free here. Hand out a box and a sorting page to each partner group (or groups of 3-4) and instruct them to take turns pulling a pompon (without peeking!) out of the tissue box and placing it on the correct star that matches the color. As they place the pompon, they need to say the color word out loud. Kids love the surprise element and the whole class is engaged at once! You can set a time limit at the end of which kids can report out how many of each color they have, or simply count together in their groups.

*PUT THOSE POMS IN YOUR CUP! NEW in 2016, spread out the pom poms (I recommend a tablecloth to corral them), hand out a plastic cup to each student, and instruct them to grab one green pom pom and put it in the cup- or two red ones, or five purple ones! Check the cups before starting another round for comprehension and have fun! Here is a short video of me giving instructions for this activity



HAVE FUN WITH THOSE POMS!

 And, if you liked the fishy color cards shown in the first picture collage, you can get them along with our printable minibook & activity pack 'Arturo y la bota', perfect for teaching colors in context. You can get it in our store here. 



https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMk0RMH8MFmOB_yJMuvVMH7xBx_qfLl8oqOQXbA

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