Paint Away Those Tired Words

Here is an easy mini lesson on word choice that I did this year with my class AND it tied in with a current lesson they were having in art class. After the students were discussing colors and hues in art class, I brought in a stack of paint chips.

Source: flickr.com via Kitty on Pinterest

Using the paint chip I wrote the word fun on the lightest color.  Together we brainstormed words that could replace "fun" and ranked them in order until we got to the boldest color and boldest word.

I partnered students up, handed out paint chips, some tired words and a thesaurus and the students went to town.  Soon our door was covered in colorful paint chips with student made signs reminding them to pick a bolder word and other clever sayings.  After a few weeks, we attached all of the chips with a word ring and hung them up in the writing station.

Later in the year when they were partner revising their Young Author's Books, I heard more than one child say, "I think you could use a bolder word here," and they would run off to the chips! 

Here is a sampling of some of the phrases the kids came up to display our paint chips.  They created their own signs by hand and I wish I had taken pictures of the whole darn thing....but I didn't!

Bold Words










While searching Pinterest for a picture of paint chips, I came across some other cool uses.  Check these out:

Source: karrie-gull.blogspot.com via Kitty on Pinterest

How fun would these be to make?

Source: readingresource.net via Tara on Pinterest

So colorful!

Source: firstgraderatlast.blogspot.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Make some jazzy Elkonin boxes.  Reading Rockets has a great tutorial for this.

Source: howaboutorange.blogspot.com via Paula on Pinterest

I can picture bookmarks with reading strategies or icons printed on them.  You could use clear address labels to print your strategy so the color would remain.

You can get paint chips for free, but if you are like me you feel a little guilty taking a class set.  I had a conversation with my nice Benjamin Moore dealer and he gave me a whole pack of chips they didn't display because one or two of colors are discontinued.  Don't be afraid to ask!

Have you ever used paint chips in the classroom?