- black construction paper rectangles
- glue sticks
- construction paper circles (red, green, yellow)
- caution
- color
- light (n)
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).
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.3.c: Recognize one’s own name and familiar common signs and labels (e.g., STOP).
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.
Sing Together: “Traffic Light”
© 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: Environmental Print, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Discuss colors people see every day that help keep them safe. Make a paper traffic light by gluing red, yellow, and green circles in a vertical line on a rectangle of black paper.
Display the traffic light and talk about what children know about traffic lights. Ask questions such as,
- How do you think traffic lights help drivers? Do you think traffic lights are important? Why do you think that?
- What color means to "go" for drivers? What color means "stop"?
- What do you think the color yellow tells us to do? Review that yellow means caution, or be careful. Yellow lets people know that the light is about to turn red.
Tell children you are going to teach them a song about traffic lights, but first they will make their own light. Give each child a black rectangle and a red, yellow, and green circle. Encourage children to look at your traffic light to help them position their colors in the correct order.
- Once the traffic lights are ready, sing the song “Traffic Light.” As you sing, have children point to the respective colors on their traffic light. Then invite children to sing the song with you and point to the colors as they sing.
Take It Further: Take children on a neighborhood walk to look for traffic lights and safety signs. Talk about each sign’s color, shape, and what it tells us to do. Discuss how drivers and pedestrians react when they see the traffic sign/light.
Traffic Light
(sung to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)
The colors on the light turn
Green, yellow, red,
Green, yellow, red,
Green, yellow, red.
The colors on the light turn
Green, yellow, red
All around the town.