Instead of one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish how about one leaf, two leaves, red leaf, blue leaf for a fun fall kindergarten readiness learning activity? This post has been inspired from reading the fun book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. And the activity? Going out to look for a blue leaf.
Leaves change color in the fall. Did you know that learning colors is pretty complicated for young thinkers? In order to learn even one color, kids have to see many, many items of that color and hear the name at the same time. Yellow is a good color for fall, so just think of all the variations there are of yellow: butter, fall leaves, bananas, lemons, grapefruit, egg yolks, and the sun. Plus, kids have to learn that all the other colors are not yellow. Each color group will have countless objects that are that color and there are endless shades, tones, and hues for them all. What a huge amount of information for the brain to sort out just to learn color! More than this giant pile of yellow leaves.
Whether kids get the joke or not that there is no such thing as a blue leaf, they like to look for leaves. We can talk to them about the colors, the sizes, and the shapes. Are there some big leaves? Any small ones? How about the colors, are they the same or different? Some leaves are almost round like a circle and some are very pointy. Count the leaves too for some practice with numbers. Bring some home and “leaf” a few between two pieces of sticky contact paper.
While kids won’t find a blue leaf, they will have fun looking for one. They’ll also pick up leaves, throw them in the air, and watch them fall. They’ll have the opportunity to use words for color, shape, size, and number, and will possibly learn some new ones. The experience will definitely be hands-on and, come to think of it, can’t it only go from the ground up?