From simple saffron and almost almond to rowdy raspberry and arrogant auburn, it's a colorful world out there. Whether it's deciding what dress fabric to buy or how to arrange a platter of raw vegetables on a platter, I enjoy playing with color. This lesson (26) in Book 1 of our creative writing work books is no exception. This lesson focuses on playing with colors, attributing personalities to colors, and working with alliteration. Come along as we dive into the world of color.
We've all considered the question before, what if the whole world was brown or neon green? What then? God is creative and delights in bringing us every possible color to tease and tickle our sense of sight. To begin the class I like to remind the students of the joy of colors. I hand out colored pencils for them to use instead of normal pencils. The extras are scattered down the middle of the table and they may pick up a different color on a whim if they'd rather.
I ask the students to go around and say one of their favorite colors. Then I share my favorite color (which is green. Almost any shade of green except spring green. I like dark teal green, sage green, medium green, grass green, pine green, you name it. :-). I also like to list off some not as well known colors and have them guess what the color is. Taupe, ochre, chartreuse, sapphire, jasmine, and cerulean are on my hard to determine color list. I love when the students are constantly learning new things even while they work with words.
I tell the students to pick up their pencils and write as many colors as they can think of in five minutes. If they're stuck, they can browse an encyclopedia or look in a crayon box.
Time to move on and do the next exercise. Explain (or refresh their memory) on what alliteration is. Alliteration: the repetition or occurrence of the same letter or sounds at the beginning of closely connected words. Look at the examples together. Discuss how you can give colors personality by putting an adjective in front of a color. Thinking of a tiptoeing tan around a blundering beige gives us the sillies. Maybe its the morose maroon watching the smoldering salmon, and from out of nowhere comes the thundering turquoise! It's almost a game to think of a primping persimmon and a satisfied sage getting caught by a chastising charcoal.
Students dive into creating their own versions of color personalities using alliteration. I tell them for every color they get one point, but if they come up with alliteration for a color starting in O, K, or W they get two points. Whoever gets the most points wins.
Some fun ones from my fifth grade class are the following:
Watchful white, yelling yellow, billowing black, grasping gold, bossy blue, grimy-geeky green, open olive, winking white, mad mint, spunky sky-blue, back-away blue, big-boy bronze, padding pink, and jumping jade.
Sigh of satisfaction, another lesson well done. Good job students!
Currently, in my husband's classroom, this lush green arrow head plant just put out some rousing red blooms with yellow centers. Quite a cheerful color for January.
Have a good rest of your January, and do be sure to try out this fascinating lesson with your students. You can buy our books by clicking over to the products page, or order from Christian Light.
-Jennifer Yoder
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