The Colored Ghosts

My aunts used to tell me this little story when I was young, about ghosts that changed colors when they eat something colorful. They had little puppets or something to go along with the story, and I just loved it. Honestly, I had forgotten about it for years as a teacher, and for some reason it came to my mind this year when I started planning some ghost activities. So I decided to bring it back and try it out with my preschool kids. I may not have remembered it exactly right, but it was fun to share something that I had loved as a kid. Maybe you remember hearing this story, too?

I made little stick puppets for the ghosts, and selected 6 food items from my play food collection that coordinated with the story. During the story, each student held one piece of food and held their matching colored ghost after they changed.

Anyway, the basic story goes like this....

Once there was a family of ghosts that lived in a house full of human food. Their Mama taught them that because they were ghosts, they could only eat food that was the color white, otherwise they would get sick. So one day they ran out of white food, and the Mama ghost was getting ready to go to the store to get them some more white food. She warned them not to eat any of the other human food while she was gone, and, like all good ghost children, they promised they wouldn't. But as time went by they grew more and more hungry, and also a little curious, and one by one forgot their promise.

The first ghost saw a basket of yellow food on the counter (and at this point, one of the students holding a piece of food shouted out- bananas! That's my ghost!) and said "Boo!" to scare the peel off the banana, and ate it all up. Then her tummy started to hurt and something strange started to happen...she turned yellow! (Then I hand the yellow ghost to the student holding the banana)

All the ghosts move through different foods, trying just a bite here or eating it all up, until they are all different colors. One even eats some chocolate chips, and becomes brown and spotted. When the Mama Ghost gets home, they all complain of their new colors and sick tummies, and she gives them some white food to change them all back. (Here, I had the kids help me brainstorm some food they could eat- milk, cauliflower, ice cream, etc.)

After the story, I set the ghosts out at a table with a tray of play food as an invitation for story retelling and color sorting.

We also explored ghosts and colors in this sensory bin full of packing peanuts and colored water. Not only did the ghosts change color in this bin, but they started to shrivel up and disintegrate from the liquid, which led to some interesting science inquiry.

The ghosts and some matching foods have been available since then, and it's been fun to watch the students continue to interact with the story.

Exploring Colors and Numbers

We have continued to be explorers this month is preschool, and I have been taking the opportunity to introduce basic topics that we will expand upon as the year goes by. This gives me the chance to get a better idea of the student's interests, needs, and abilities in those areas so I know where to take things in the future. Last week we spent some time thinking about colors.

We read Bear Sees Colors, and passed around different colored bears as we read the story. Then we looked around the classroom to see if we could find the same colors as Bear.

We explored using colors in art and in the sensory table with a little experiment using baking soda and colored vinegar.

We also explored the different shades of skin colors that people can have.

We read another Bear book called Bear Counts, along with starting our Math Bags routine. So we added a counting element to the colored bear table we had set up. For this simple game you just roll the colored dice and add a bear (or bears) to the grid. I let the students interpret how to add the bears, which gave me a chance to observe some of their number sense and counting skills.

Rainbow Play

I think I will always love activities that involve rainbows. So while I try to mix up certain focus topics from year to year, rainbows will probably always make the cut. But there are so many different ways to explore rainbows, that it's not hard to find something new to try.

Rainbow Towers 

This simple fine motor activity was a big hit. 

All you need is fruit loops, spaghetti noodles, and playdough.

It also encouraged some engineering thought and experimentation. 

Will a small base support a large tower? 

Can I build a tower sideways? 

Color Scavenger Hunt + Rainbow Table

Roll the dice and find a colored item in the classroom to add to the rainbow table. 

Walking Rainbow Experiment

I read about this experiment in this awesome book, The Curious Kid's Science Book and was really excited to try it out. First we made all the colors of the rainbow using food coloring (and some improvising with markers since some of my food coloring ran out. Oops.)

Then we put in paper towels. We approached this activity with a couple of questions about color. Which color would absorb the fastest? Which color would be the brightest? 

Since I wasn't able to use food coloring for all the colors, my personal question was, will the marker colored water work as well as the food coloring? :) 

Then we waited...

Within a few minutes we could see some of the color starting to spread.

But then we left it and went on with other activities, checking on it periodically.

I realized that I should have started the activity sooner because the progress was pretty slow after that. By the end of the day, it hadn't changed a whole lot.

But when they came back the next day, it looked beautiful!

And interestingly enough, the blue, red, and purple water had all been colored using markers, but the blue one was the only one that didn't absorb very well. Curious...

Anyway, the bright colors inspired us to do some rainbow art. 

Although they looked enticing, they did not make very bright paint colors. 

So we ended up using crayons instead. 

Kid-drawn rainbows are my favorite!