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My Colors, My World /
Mis colores, mi mundo
by Maya Christina Gonzalez
In” Spicy Hot Colors” (BETWEEN THE LIONS Episode #702), Cleo makes a purple
piñata and reads Leona a book about nine colors that zing, sizzle, and dance
to spicy Latin rhythms.
BOOK TALK
Before you read My Colors, My World
Start a conversation that will help prepare children to enjoy the story with you.
You may want to provide a simple introduction, such as, This story is about a
girl named Maya who opens her eyes wide to see the colors around her. Asking
questions is a great way to get children involved. Try these to get started:
• What is your favorite color?
• Look around you. What colors do you see?
As you read My Colors, My World
Encourage children to look closely at the illustrations, ask questions, and listen
for the color words. Point out that the words are in both English and Spanish. If
a word seems unfamiliar, help children think about its meaning in the story,
then define it for them using simple terms.
Word Watch:
• desert: a place that is dry and sandy with very little rain
• Papi: a way to say “daddy” in Spanish
After you read My Colors, My World
Ask children whether or not they liked the story and find out why. Help them
make personal connections with the characters or setting by asking questions,
such as:
• What is Maya’s favorite color?
• Maya has a special animal friend—
a bird—who helps her find the colors in
her world. What color is the bird? Do
you have a special animal friend
like Maya?
• Where does Maya live? How is your
home like Maya’s? How is it different?
My Colors, My World, p.2
FUN THINGS TO DO
Doing a hands-on activity after reading a book aloud gives children a chance
to be creative and makes the story experience more personal and memorable.
Each of these activities is easy and uses common materials. You can try one or
more, adapt them, or make up your own!
Idea #1: Show children the illustration of Maya framing her eye with her
fingers. Have children make “glasses” using their fingers to frame their eyes like
Maya. Play “I SPY.” Silently choose an object in the room and describe it:
“I spy with my little eye something that is small, red, and shiny.” Have children
use their “glasses” to help them focus as they look around the room for the
object. Children can take turns choosing and describing an object for others
to find.
Idea #2: Maya lives in a sandy desert. Invite children to create colorful
sand art. Pour a cup or two of sand into several sandwich bags. Give each
child a bag. Let children choose a food coloring and add just a few drops of
one color to each bag. Have them shake the bags until the coloring is evenly
distributed. Empty the sand onto trays by color. Then give each child a piece
of construction paper and glue in a small bottle. Have children draw a
picture and outline it with glue. Let them choose colored sand to sprinkle
onto their pictures.
Idea #3: Watch colors dance in “Spicy Hot Colors,” on the BETWEEN THE LIONS
Web site at pbskids.org/lions/stories/spicyhot.html. Then give children
different colored scarves. Play jazzy music and let them twirl their scarves and
move freely to the rhythms.
Bonus Ideas
• Maya loves the hot pink sunsets over her desert home. Ask children to close
their eyes and imagine the sun setting over their homes. What colors do
they see? Give children paper and watercolors and have them paint a sunset.
• Sing the song “Mary Wore a Red Dress.” Create new verses. Begin with a
verse for Maya—“Maya wore a pink dress, pink dress, pink dress. Maya wore
a pink dress all day long.” Then create verses based on what children are
wearing—for example, “James wore a blue shirt,” and so on.
• Put slips of different colored paper in a bag. Let children select a color from
the bag. Then have them hunt for objects in the room that are the same
color. Make a color museum by organizing the objects by color on a table.
Or write a color list poem together. Provide a starter line such as “We see
(green) all around us.”
• Read other book about colors, such as Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh,
Red is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong or The Colors of Us by Karen Katz.
BETWEEN THE LIONS is produced by WGBH Boston, Sirius Thinking, Ltd, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. BETWEEN THE LIONS is funded in part by The Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready To Learn grant, and by the Barksdale Reading Institute. National corporate funding is provided by Chick-fil-A. Development of the contents herein was funded in part by the Park Foundation and the Civil Society Institute. This document was developed in part under a
cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Education, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Public Broadcasting Service for the Ready To Learn Initiative,
PR#s U295A050003 and U295B050003. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement
by the Federal Government. ©2002, 2009 WGBH Educational Foundation and Sirius Thinking Ltd. All rights reserved. BETWEEN THE LIONS, Get Wild About Reading and the BTL
characters and related indicia are trademarks or registered trademarks of WGBH Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Funding for the original development of this fact sheet was provided by the AT&T Family Care Development Fund.