concept books

ISBN-0-397-32440-5

Ehlert,L. (1990). Color Farm. Singapore: Harper Collins Publishers.

      This book explores the multiple options of learning through colors, shapes and farm animals.  It is ideal for 3-5 year olds because they will learn about different shapes and at the same time they have fun animal pictures to look at.  Children will be intrigued with this colorful book because each page uses a cutout of different shapes.
      This cutout shape and animal farm book uses simple pictures and colours to illustrate the concepts.  Children and teachers will enjoy this book because it is short, simple to view and easy to read at anytime.

Provocations:

• Introduce children to different shapes before reading the book.  For example show them a ball and an egg and ask them what their different shapes are, or show a square box and rectangular box.
• Laminate a few shapes and show the chidren the pictures to familiarize them with each shape before reading the book.

Presenting the Book:

• Read the book to the children and stop after every page to see if the children can guess the shapes and animals.
• Use a felt board to show the different shapes, for example a rooster with a square head, a duck with an octagonal head, a chicken with a hexagon head, a dog with a circular head, etc.  Then adding different felt pieces of triangles to make ears and thin recatangles for whiskers, etc.
• Use three-dimensional props to describe the different shapes.  For example, use a ball for a circle with a dog painted on it, boxes (square and rectangular) with a cat and rooster painted on, show an egg for an oval and paint a chicken on it.  Stopping after every shape and asking the children if they know the shapes.

Extensions:

• Extend the idea of farm animals and have the children explore with paints and colours. Have each child create their own picture of their favorite farm animals.
• Read the book and sing the song of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," exploring the different animals and the sounds they make.
• Place different cut out shapes of all sizes and colours of construction paper where the children can take what they want and make their own animal faces.  Recycled open ended materials can be used as well to create faces.