I love exploring colors, and today I’m sharing an adorable book about colors and the ways that they work together. In addition to exploring different types of colors and introducing color vocabulary, this funny book explores storytelling and creativity. We had a lot of fun coming up with creative color activities to bring this story to life.

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This Book is Gray was written and illustrated by Lindsay Ward. Gray just wants to be join the other colors, but they are always leaving him out. So he decides to write his own story that is completely gray. But soon all of the other colors are butting in and trying to help him with his story. When he can’t handle all of their interference, he comes clean about feeling left out.

This story is full of hilarious characters and conversations. All of the colors have strong personalities, leading to big conflicts between them. The text includes lots of funny jokes about the different types of colors and their color families, while also telling a compelling story about appreciating others and fitting in. The illustrations are adorable, and each color has it’s own personality on display.

Color Story

In the book, Gray decides to write his own story, only using the color gray. He was able to create a really interesting story out of one color, so we decided to try the same thing. I printed out this story sheet and my daughter and I created both a one color story, and a story that used all the colors. Because she is too young to write, I wrote the story down for her, then she illustrated it with her crayons. We had a lot of fun trying to come up with a compelling story with only one color. And she decided that the story was a lot more fun when we used all of the colors together.

Related Posts: Storytelling with Kids

Color Sorting

Not only does this book introduce readers to a variety of colors, but it also explores the concept of color groups. To further explore these color groupings, I laid out a variety of colorful art supplies: pom poms, pipe cleaners, feathers, etc. I encouraged my daughter to sort them into different piles based on their colors. You can also sort them into primary and secondary colors, or complementary colors. She had a lot of fun dividing them up, and we then used them to create color characters inspired by the story.

Related Post: 30+ Color Mixing Activities for Kids

Color Characters

The color characters in the book are full of personality. So, we decided to recreate some of the characters out of play dough and other colorful art supplies. We started out by creating characters right out of the book. Then she decided that she would have more fun mixing colors together and creating her own creatures. Once again, she decided that it was more fun when all of the colors worked together. I love that these activities brought the lesson of the story to life for her.

What are your favorite color activities for kids? Share in the comments below!

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