One of the first things I teach is colors and shapes so students are able to use them to describe people, places, and things from famous works of art!

Our opening routine includes the song of the week.  The song is an introduction and a hook to what we will be learning.  Here are a couple of my favorite color songs.

After the song is a quick warm-up or bell ringer.  I prefer to use personalized questions and answers. So for this lesson I would ask what is your favorite color? Tu aimes quelle couleur? ¿Qué color te gusta? We do a quick whip around while tallying the results on the board, or sometimes we bar graph the results.

Other personalized questions could include: What color are your eyes? De quelle couleur sont tes yeux? De quelle couleur est ta voiture?  Ta maison? Ton chien?  There are ready made French surveys for colors and more on teacherspayteachers.com. Students could also walk around and ask each other their favorite color, the color of their house, room, or car and then analyze their data, and present to class.

I like to start my color and shape introduction to art with the children’s book Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo or Ours Brun, dis-moi.  I read aloud while they color along using these worksheets.  Oso Pardo  Ours Brun

You can get the book at Amazon.com or you can use videos from Youtube.

This website has 7 activities to use with the book, oso pardo activities.

Have students make this free book to practice retells or to read to younger siblings.

Check out this resource, it has comprehensible input lessons.  This Spanish website with printable animal drawings is cool.  Here is an animal wheel for retelling the story Animal-wheel-with-words.  This site has templates for making puppets.  Here is an Oso Pardo powerpoint Oso pardo, Oso pardo you can use for review. Check out my pinterest board for more resources.

Ours brun, dis- moi…they have it at Amazon.com.  Our check out this slide share I found on pinterest.

Check out this website for free Ours Brun ideas.  This Quizlet provides flashcards and practice.  Here is an Ours Brun powerpoint you can use the next day as a review and another  Ours+rouge+dis-moi.

For additional practice try the Color Circle Game.  Place chairs in a circle with one less chair than students participating.  Pass out pieces of colored construction paper use shapes and colors like a blue star, a green square, a blue triangle etc.  Make sure there are at least two students with each color and shape.  One student or teacher starts in the middle of the circle.  The teacher or student calls out a color or a shape. Students holding that color get up and change seats.  The person in the middle tries to get a seat no matter what color or shape they are holding.  The rule is you can not go back to the seat you just left on that turn.

I found a video I use with shapes called El Circulo Hambriento on Youtube.  There is a student booklet from Teachers Pay Teachers.com to use with the video.

Check out this Shape search from Jenna Harvey at Mount Vernon High School in Washington state.  The students search the campus for certain shapes and post on instagram.

Here are a couple of shape and color worksheets, this one in Spanish, shape-and-colors-spanish, and french-shape-and-colors.

I have students create original art work using at least 6 different shapes and 6 different colors.  They then write a paragraph about their masterpiece in the target language.  We display them around the room and discuss which we like best and why.  You could also separate the paragraphs from the artwork and have students try to match the descriptions to the artwork.

Have students identify all the shapes and colors they see in famous art work!  Then discuss with a partner to compare results.

Have students write a short description as if they are the one of the people in a famous work of art. Have them include personal details: name, age, nationality, physical traits, colors, shapes, and personality traits.

Have them write about the art to practice describing other people.

Elle s’appelle Mona Lisa.   Elle a 32 ans.   Elle n’est pas jolie, mais elle n’est pas laide.   Elle a les cheveux longs et bruns.  Elle n’est pas triste.  Elle est contente.

Finally, explore colors as they relate to emotions and phrases in the target language involving colors.  After all, as the song by Bacilios says…. the world would be boring and sad without colors!

Leave a comment or share your ideas below.  Please help me build readers by liking me on Facebook or following me on Twitter #JohnstonL60.