The teacher will only speak in Spanish for the duration of this class for a more immersive language learning experience.

Materials needed: Tape or clothespins, clothesline, music, paint swatches in the vocabulary colors, storybook, poster board.

This workshop is intended to take place as a part of an outdoor educational experience. The activities in this workshop can be adapted to take place inside if desired. 

Workshop Activities:

Vocabulary and Reading

1) The teacher will introduce the vocabulary using choral repetition and showing students the 

paint swatches. 

Tip: Students will often mimic the manner in which a word is being presented to them so try whispering, yelling, cheering, etc the vocabulary to get learners more engaged!

Vocabulario: Rojo (Red), Azul (Blue), Verde (Green), Amarillo (Yellow), Anaranjado (Orange), Morado (Purple), Cafe (Brown), Rosado (Pink)

2) The students and teacher will work together to hang the paint swatches using clothespin and clothesline. 

3) The teacher will play music and dance, skip, etc. around encouraging students to join in through gestures. The teacher will occasionally pause the music and call out the name of a color encouraging the students to run to the correct color. This will repeat until all of the animals are called.

Storytime

1) The teacher will read a story, in Spanish, to the students surrounding the theme of colors. Eric Carle’s books El artista que pintó un caballo azul or Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo, Que ves ahi? are good options surrounding this topic. 

Nature Color Match

There are two possible versions of this activity depending on the age of the group being taught. 

Version 1- This version of the activity may be better suited for younger students.

1) The teacher will tape or use clothespins to attach the paint swatches to the posterboard. See example. 

2) Students will be tasked with finding an item in the surrounding area that matches with the colors on the posterboard. The teacher will ask students to find an item with each color (Ex. ¡Encuentra algo rosado!) and bring it back to her. The teacher will attach the item to the posterboard on the correct color. 

3) At the end of the activity the teacher will call the students to her and finish attaching any items that still need to be. She will then go over each color and the items of that color using choral repetition.

Version 2- This version of the activity may be better suited for older students.

1) This activity can be made individual or small group oriented if desired. Each student/group of students can be given one color swatch to match an item with or a group of students can be given their own poster boards with color swatches to work together to find matching items.

2) Students will be asked to find items in the area that correspond to the colors they have.

3) At the end of the activity, students will show their work to their classmates and the teacher will go over the colors in Spanish using choral repetition. 

Libros:

For more language practice at home check out the following books from the library’s Spanish collection

Ojo, Oso! By Nicola Grossi, Salí de Paseo by Sue Williams, Su Propio Color by Leo Lionni, Tren de Carga by Donald Crews

Citation:

Girolamo, Isabelle, “Los Colores de La Naturaleza (The Colors of Nature),” Spanish and Hispanic Studies Digital Gallery at HWS, July 2024, https://galeriahispana.omeka.net/exhibits/show/spanish-for-children/los-colores-de-la-naturaleza.