The Color Poem Activity :: A Bright Project for Kids of Any Age

It’s spriiiiiiiiiiiiing! People can talk all they want to about sweater season, pumpkin spice lattes, and Christmas music, but to me, nothing beats all of the vibrant colors that spring brings to life! 

For the first time in forever, I will say that I am thankful for this past winter. I somehow managed to clean out our storage, and thank goodness I did. One, we have a clean storage room. Two, I purged countless amounts of dusty items I haven’t touched in years. And three, I found my pride and joy from my teaching years :: Color Poems.

This project was always one of my favorites to do with my classes each spring!

I loved it.
Students loved it.
Parents loved it.

I have taught 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th grades, and each year this project was a huge hit!

Let me share this favorite with you – parents & teachers. 

The Color Poem Activity

First – Read an age appropriate book to introduce colors & discuss their relation to our world.

Then – Have each kiddo choose a color. Brainstorm items associated with it & create a graphic organizer. 

  • Preschool
    • Have them color one (or a few) simple things.
  • Lower Elementary
    • Write these items down either in a list or using a simple graphic organizer.
  • Upper Elementary
    • Create a graphic organizer. My students always made “color webs” on a plain sheet of paper, and I found that their ideas could be much more abstract at this age. For example, gray could be a ferocious storm/tornado, pink is the the peppermint taste of Christmas, or blue is skating on ice. 

Next – Lead students in a Color Carousel.

  • Upper Elementary
    • TIP :: Have each student make a list of all of the colors before you start the carousel. They will use this as their “cheat sheet” for the activity. Spend about 10 minutes allowing them to silently brainstorms items/ideas that relate to each color. When they take part in the “color carousel,” they can take their cheat sheet along with them to help spark ideas at each station so that you don’t find kids staring into space trying to think of ideas since they are at each station for only a few seconds. 
    • Within a classroom, show each student who to follow in a rotation around the room. Kids leave their graphic organizer and crayon on their own desk. Spend about 15 seconds at each desk listing ideas to help each other come up with ideas for that color. I always liked to play/pause music to keep this as an organized activity. When students get back to their own desk, they should have many more ideas to help them create a color poem. 

Now – Make a list of favorite things & start to rhyme. 

Using the graphic organizer, have students select their favorite items that they wish to use in their color poem. Help students come up with a way to connect the items by rhyming. Do some examples together, and explain that it’s quite a bit of trial and error. Some work well, some have to be thrown out. 

  • Lower Elementary
    • I had my 2nd grade students play around with all of the items on their list, and try to come up with a way to rhyme just two. That was their poem. For advanced kiddos, they chose more items to add. 
  • Upper Elementary
    • Some of my 5th graders blew me away with this! They were able to use multiple items and create a full poem with multiple stanzas. Some were quite simple, and some were long. By this point in the project, I just let them go and have fun with it!

Finally – CREATE!

This is when students have the most fun. Let them create a final draft and draw pictures to tie it all together. I always made sure to remind students that in order to keep it a “color poem,” to try and use shades within that color for all of their drawings. We then displayed them in the hallway for everyone to enjoy, and always had so many compliments on the vibrant feel of so many colors! It was the perfect project for spring vibes! 


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Erin Hughes
Born & raised on a cattle farm just west of Salina, Erin has grown to love the city life that Wichita has to offer. She & her husband, Nathan, are raising their family on the east side: Blakely (Dec 2013), Rowen (Apr 2015), & Lincoln (Jun 2017). Erin formerly taught elementary for 6 years. When the chaos of 2 under 2 happened so quickly (oops!), she decided to leave teaching for now, and work-from-home as the premier photographer of Erin Kata Photography. When the calendar allows breaks from the multitude of children's activities, photo sessions, editing & teaching workshops, you will more than likely find Erin & the fam somewhere outdoors: dancing in the rain, playing in sunshine, and even tromping through the snow!