What Color Was Your Day?

Writing for an authentic purpose motivates students to truly think about their work. Today students were given their first Hutch assignment, creating a submission for the magazine. The theme of the next issue is moods, which can often be challenging and personal for any of us to write about. When thinking about how to best support students with their task I met with our art teacher. Collaborating with the art teacher helped me clarify my thinking and model to students that working together can help with idea generation.

I happened to pull out the Dr. Seuss book Many Colored Days. 

Together the art teacher and I discussed how we could have students think about what color or colors identify their moods and express ideas around that. I sat down with students and explained the purpose of our writing project, discussing how we are integrating reading, art, and writing. Students were thrilled to learn their work would be considered for publication in an international creativity magazine, inspiring them to think BIG! We read through the Dr. Seuss story and began discussing what moods could be represented by colors. Students had insightful ideas! One shared we could be green. Students added green could represent peace, envy, or liking the outdoors. We repeated this exercise with other colors.

Our conversation extended to understanding that when we hear a color different words come to mind. I shared the word red and asked students what word came to mind. None of us had the same word! Anger, frustration, embarrassment, and anxiety were shared. Then I said I thought of love. A student mentioned he thought pink was for love, which prompted me to ask if we all look at colors the same way. So what color describes you? Are you one color? Many colors?

I encourage parents to share their colors and moods with students. What kind of color day did you have today? I know mine is yellow. I feel great about the work we are doing in our classroom. Students are growing every day like flowers in a garden with me as the sun, shining down on them all and facilitating their growth.