Neutral Colored Glamster Gerbils for Kindergarten

I will post this cute book I bought at our school book fair called,"Glamsters". It is about 2 sister gerbils who wish to be "adopted" or bought at the per store. Harriet tries to fix herself up and look glamorous so she will be noticed. We will make big hamsters and create a funny hat for our hamster. I chose this book and created the lesson to teach kinders about Neutral colors. I have a little song we sing as we learn about neutral colors, and look at lots of animal colors. I made it up to piggyback on the tune of Twinkle Twinkle. It goes:
 Black ,White Brown, Tan and Gray,
Neutral Colors show everyday.
Gray for an elephant ( make a trunk out of arm and swing by nose),
Brown for a Bear( make hands into claws and growl),
 Neutral Colors are everywhere.
 Black ,White, Brown,Tan ,and Gray,
 Neutral Colors show everyday.

The first day we read the book, sing about neutral colors, and practice draw gerbils selecting  neutral colors from the crayon box. I have kinders for 45 minutes at 2:00. They are so tied by then that I have to break down classes into little increments. they then enjoy a relaxing "free draw" time, if they finish early. More on early finishers per grade level on another post.

The next class I make paper plate pallets of liquid tempera. There are 5 puddles: black, white,brown, white with a drop of brown for tan, white with a drop of black for gray. I like to demonstrate using my document camera and the big  pulldown screen. The kinders love to watch the "art show live on T.V."! I show how to mix the puddle to make tan and the puddle to make gray, stressing not to mix the whole plate!!! Then I paint thickly on 12x18" light weight tag, I paint a 3" strip of a color and dot or strip with another color, then use texture combs to create fun lines in the paint. The trick is thick paint and quick painting on their part.  Cover the entire paper.  These will dry for  the next class.
More after Christmas break.