Color Words and August Journals

At the beginning of the school year, we focus a lot on color words. The second unit in our reading curriculum is all about colors, so it ties in perfectly! We also focus on the sight words “I” and “see” and start thinking about sentences. I created Color Word Writing Practice out of a need to supplement our curriculum. It is based off of my Sight Word Writing Practice so that my students get comfortable with the format when we start using the practice sheets!

First, I introduce a color word using these adorable color word cards.

{Do you love how I hung my pocket chart?! Christina from Sugar and Spice shared the most creative idea and of course I had to run right out to Walmart and pick up the magnetic curtain rod!}

We talk about the words, and how we can use hints to help us figure out what each words says if we need help reading or writing it. I typically introduce one or two words a day.

Then, as a whole group, we brainstorm what objects we see in those colors. One side of the chart shows what objects are that color and the other side shows what objects could be that color. I usually do the first few charts up on the board, and then I have my students complete the charts with me. Here’s an example for the word red:

This really helps them to so that they can complete the practice pages independently.

On each color word page they practice reading the word, writing the word and recognizing the color. Then they complete the sentence using the objects we brainstormed together on the chart. I like to put up a sample page at the independent center to help guide my students. Some of my students just write simple sentences like “I see 1 read wagon” while other students are able to write a more complex sentence. It helps to differentiate so that all of my students can succeed!

I introduce the second practice page after we have learned all of the colors words as a way to review. In this center m students practice reading, stamping, writing and coloring each word.

Finally, after we have learned and practiced all of the color words, we play fun games!

This game is called Spin and Graph.

I laminate the game board and use a brad fastener and paperclip to make a spinner. Two students play with one mat. They each spin the spinner and color in the graph. The person who reaches the top first wins that color. Sometimes, I just have them play independently.

If you are interested in this product you can pick it up in my TpT shop!

I also created this fun little journal to help your kiddos with journal writing through the year! It was comes with a cover page, vocabulary page, and several writing templates to choose from!

You can find this in my shop as well!

10 Comments

Maryann on August 4, 2013 at 5:27 pm

Thanks so much for the journal "freebie". I hope you will be selling the rest of the months! For journal writing, do you use "Kid-Writing"? Just wondering and do you send the journals home after each month or save them for the end of the year?
Thanks so much!
Maryann
brennemm@carlisleschools.org