Greetings!
In the lovely song, "Colors of the Wind," from The Walt Disney Studios' movie, "Pocahantas," the writer talks about painting with "all the colors of the wind." For years, writers have used unusual and exotic words for colors in their writing. Helping students learn new vocabulary for color words improves both their reading comprehension and their word choice as writers.
Try this engaging activity to begin to discuss new words for colors with students of all levels. This is one way we can help students begin to use unusual, specific, picture-painting language.
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 1. Purchase a box of Crayola ® crayons with 96 crayons in the box.
2. Divide the crayons in baggies with all crayons of the same basic color together; i.e., a bag of blue crayons, a bag of red crayons, a bag of green crayons, etc. You might end up with a miscellaneous bag of unusual shades.
3. Divide your students into groups--have one group for each bag of colors. Provide each group with a large sheet of chart paper.
4. Have each group go through their bag of crayons and read the color label on the side of each crayon. Have the group make a list on the chart paper of all of the color names that are used to represent that color.
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BLUE |
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turquoise
cerulean
robins' egg blue
navy
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indigo
denim
azure
periwinkle
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5. Have the group turn the chart paper over, and write three sentences using alternative words for the color from their list.
6. Share the charts, and have the students continue to add new color names to the appropriate chart as they come across them in their reading.
7. A follow-up lesson might be to have students go back through some of their past writing and look for times they have used color words. Are there new color words they might substitute to make their writing more descriptive? |
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We are busy putting the finishing touches on our newest module, The Write Tools for Descriptive Writing. This module will help students of all ages improve their word choice as they learn new vocabulary and apply it to their writing. Look for more information in the future about our Descriptive Writing training.
Sincerely,
The Write Tools, LLC |
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