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Shades of colour names - ideas?


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I'm doing some work with my class around building colour vocabulary. The Y1s will be writing some autumn leaf poems at the end of the week and I want them to try and use more 'interesting' words. I've got some activities planned to help them develop their understanding of what different colours are.

The bit I'm stuck on is the actual words! Having a mental blank so I'm asking for help - think paint colour strips! So, any additions for my lists?

Red

scarlet, crimson, ruby

Brown

chestnut, russet, bronze

Orange

?

Yellow

golden,

Green

emerald, jade

Blue

turquoise, navy

Purple

violet, indigo, lilac

Grey

charcoal, silver

As I'm doing autumn things the ones I'm most interested in are the autumn colours but I'm sure I'll be using the others at some point in the future. I'm thinking of helping them to make a kind of colour dictionary they can refer to.

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How about picking up some colour paint swatches from DIY shop

Already got them! ;) I didn't want to use many of their actual names as they are often two words (celestial sky!). Given the number of wallpaper samples/paint swatches I've acquired over the years I can foresee a time when I am banned from DIY shops! xD

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Think you want gold rather golden as a colour name. I think golden is more of a description?

If you are going to use golden, how about using bright, dark, light, snowy etc?

I thought that when I was re-reading my list, thank you! The children I am working with are fairly good at using dark/light to describe a colour (with a little encouragement!) bright would be a good modifier to introduce them to.

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have you done the activity outside where you give them a selection of paint swatches and they have to try and find something that colour in the garden/forest woods etc (think browns/greens and oranges rather than primary colours!!) or you can make superhero cuffs from tape turned inside out and wrapped around wrist...they have to collect different colours or textures to stick to their cuffs.

 

colour suggestions copper/vermillion/(presumable they have already got light/dark/pale etc????)

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have you done the activity outside where you give them a selection of paint swatches and they have to try and find something that colour in the garden/forest woods etc (think browns/greens and oranges rather than primary colours!!) or you can make superhero cuffs from tape turned inside out and wrapped around wrist...they have to collect different colours or textures to stick to their cuffs.

 

colour suggestions copper/vermillion/(presumable they have already got light/dark/pale etc????)

Part of the week is going to be collecting leaves of different colours then sorting them into basic groups (brown, red, yellow) and then refining them. I was planning to give them a colour swatch with a name so they can start to get a sense of what 'rust' looks like. I realised last year (when I had some very able Y1s) that I was expecting them to use 'adventurous' vocabulary but not giving them the knowledge of it first! :( I try to use a range of vocab myself but it can be really easy to find yourself describing everything as sad/happy/cross without any flavours in between. This year I'm trying to read some 'old-fashioned' versions of fairy stories (my own copy of the Ladybird book of fairy tales) as they often seem to have a more complex range of vocabulary and make a conscious effort to teach them the words too! Be warned - I may be back here in weeks to come with words for different sizes! ;)

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You could of course use the synonyms in the thesaurus - just right click on the word you need synonyms for; unless of course you are using a thesaurus book!

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I must admit I am a sucker for the older style fairy tales, but I do like some of the re-worked ones, for instance at the moment ours like 3 Billy Goats Muff, which is quite funny and cute, less like to give them nightmares, although I do think children quite like to have the odd scary character, just depends on how scarily it is voiced.

 

It is a lovely day in Kent to do autumn leaf poems - there is a fair breeze up and blue skies (at the moment) and the leaves are doing all those acrobatic movements we would like the children to use to describe what they do!

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It is a lovely day in Kent to do autumn leaf poems - there is a fair breeze up and blue skies (at the moment) and the leaves are doing all those acrobatic movements we would like the children to use to describe what they do!

and write them on a leaf with a sharpie!

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I must admit I am a sucker for the older style fairy tales, but I do like some of the re-worked ones, for instance at the moment ours like 3 Billy Goats Muff, which is quite funny and cute, less like to give them nightmares, although I do think children quite like to have the odd scary character, just depends on how scarily it is voiced.

 

It is a lovely day in Kent to do autumn leaf poems - there is a fair breeze up and blue skies (at the moment) and the leaves are doing all those acrobatic movements we would like the children to use to describe what they do!

I'm so sorry but my naughty sense of humour has had me crying at the title of that book Panders,

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Ohh pretty colours here

Fantastic list Sue - thank you! I love colour names/words. In fact, I love colours - one of my favourite things to look at is all the carefully graduated shades in a display of embroidery silks or sewing threads!

As for all your great suggestions - thank you. I'll let you know how it goes down!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for that Suer. The children did enjoy it and was a bit of an eye-opener for them in terms of moving beyond "reddish-yellow" or "yellowish-red"! They will obviously need lots of practice to get some different colour names to stick - I think I might pick a few out myself and make a conscious effort to use them. One did take their fancy though - sienna as we have a child with that name this year!

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