Black and White Colour Lesson Plan

Hello! Rainbow lesson plans utilises colour as a vibrant and natural vehicle to teach young children in a fun way. If you are looking for a free lesson plan for your children's group, then you have come to the right place. Here you will find lots of proven ideas and resources on the theme, black and white colour. We often use black and white background colours against which many other colours are paraded, bringing depth and contrast not only to pictures and works of art, but the thoughts and imaginations of any child. It signifies "no fuss" and "to the point" and lends itself to additions of other colour later on. This lesson plan can grow with your group of children, as you allow their imagination to run with your own and incorporate surprisingly many ideas born from nature itself. These colours might also remind the children of the difference between being afraid of something (black) and being in the light (white) and this can give opportunities later on to sensitively talk frankly about their feelings.

Introduction- Making Shadows

To introduce your childrens group to these colours, set up a corner of the room where you are making shadows, using a spotlight shining onto a white cloth/sheet. Make shapes with your hands behind the cloth, such as butterflies, birds etc and see if the children can guess what they are. When they answer correctly, they could go behind the cloth and make shapes for the others to guess.

You could even turn it into a shadow puppets theatre and tell a story.

Look at a book of colours and look at each colour except for black and white. See if they can tell you which colours are missing.

Does anyone have any old black and white photos to show?

Funnybones by Janet & Allan Ahlberg

Sit the children on a large blanket and begin reading the story as follows:

This is how the story begins..........at which point sit the children under the blanket.

Until-p2- SOME SKELETONS LIVED!!....at which point pull blanket quickly off children and then stand them around the outside

Continue to next page-

............wake up and stretch

They leave the dark dark cellar........................start walking around blanket

Until- they went into park.................at this point you can sing the following rhyme with the children (to the tune of Hickory Dickery Dock):

"What's the weather today, what's the weather today

It's dark and cold, dark and cold (or change according to how it is), what's the weather today.

Let's put on our wellington boots, let's put on our wellington boots

It's dark and cold, dark and cold, put on our wellington boots"

Story continues with The big skeleton scratched his skull. What shall we do now?

Rhyme continues with: Let's play on the swings etc.... and then add other verses such as Let's now feed the ducks.

Continue in this way alternating the story with the song as you add verses connected with what they do and act out as much as you can, until you end the story.

All sit around edge of blanket as if it's a bonfire. You could throw some orange/red tissue paper into the centre for effect! Get the children to help and thereby build up their imaginations of it becoming a bonfire.

Chat about how the children felt about the skeletons in the story. Ask them questions such as:

What did the skeletons do to everybody? What things are you scared of? What things worry you?....

Older children could write them on pieces of paper and then throw them onto the bonfire.

What would they like instead of those things that they have thrown on the bonfire?

Who could help them?

Here are some suggestions to inspire them to experiment with these colours.

1. Paint white spotty shapes using cotton buds onto black background paper.

2. Make doillie snowflakes by folding a sheet of white paper several times and cutting out shapes along the folds. Open to see a beautiful snowflake. Stick onto black paper.

3. Stick cotton wool snowmen onto black paper.