- color squares (various colors)
- Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? (book)
- word cards (correspond with color squares)
- color
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1a: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (e.g., taking turns in talking, listening to peers, waiting to speak until another person is finished talking, asking questions and waiting for an answer, gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
Head Start Outcomes:
Social Emotional Development/Self-Regulation: Follows simple rules, routines, and directions.
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 1: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (taking turns in talking; listening to peers; waiting until someone is finished; asking questions and waiting for an answer; gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 12: Listen to, recite, sing, and dramatize a variety of age-appropriate literature.
Play Together: “Color Hokey Pokey”
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: There are many different colors
ELA Focus Skills: Gross Motor Skills, Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Make a set of color-word cards with the printed word and a color dot at the bottom for visual reference. (see Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? by Tana Hoban)
Gather children in a circle and tell them you are going to teach them a color dance. Explain that each child will have a colored square. Say, Listen closely for your color as we sing a song. Because when you hear your color mentioned in the song, you are to do the "Hokey Pokey" dance!
Demonstrate with a volunteer how to do the dance by holding a color square in the middle of the circle and then taking it out of the circle, shaking it in the circle, and dancing the "Hokey Pokey" dance.
- Give each child a different color square.
- Hold up the <blue> word card and begin to sing “Color Hokey Pokey.” Prompt all children who have a <blue> square to hold the square in the middle of the circle and then pull it out of the circle, following the directions as everyone sings.
- After shaking the square in the middle, have children wiggle and dance to the second verse.
- Repeat with other colors until all children have been included.
Color Hokey Pokey
You put blue in,
You put blue out,
You put your blue in,
And you shake it all about. (shake square in the circle)
You do the Hokey Pokey, (wiggle your fingers and hips)
And you turn yourself around, (turn around in place)
And that’s what it’s all about! (clap your hands)
(additional verses)
Substitute other color words.
Adaptation: If you have very young children in your group, you may need to act out each motion with them side-by-side as you sing.