This post was inspired by the second session of our online How to Teach Young Learners Course which started on 9th May. Trainees really enjoyed the „colour warm-up / ice-breaker” activity and highlighted its features in promoting student interactions and having an activity that generates interest and engagement instead of the usual „good” or „not bad” students respond with when asked the question, „How are you today?”. The activity below can also be easily adapted to face-to-face classes, see our suggestions under Extensions and variations and face-to-face classes.
Why the first few minutes of a lesson are important
The very first few minutes of any lesson are really important in setting the tone for the rest of the session. If there is energy and interaction to begin with, then chances are that the rest of the lesson will also carry on and over the excitement, which can be even more important if teachers are planning to have a lesson heavier on systems (grammar, vocab, functions) that will require students to pay attention for a longer period of time. Sometimes, if not frequently or often (!), we ask students how they are doing, and while some might react enthusiastically and respond in full, others might simply say „good” or „not bad”, or sometimes even „Don’t even ask…”. To avoid such responses and to keep momentum, we recommend choosing an alternative start to a lesson and one that genuinely makes students interested and eager to participate. In stand-up comedy – which is very similar to teaching in a number of ways! – Steve Martin recommends that instead of asking the audience, „How are you today?”, just remind them that the peanuts are running out in the shop, and that he gets a commission on each bag, too!
What colour are you feeling today?
Instead of the usual questions of „How are you today?”, teachers can ask a variety of things ranging from what animal do students feel like today (and have students act these out) or prompt students to show a number on their fingers (1 to 10, or possibly fewer if you are teaching English for Specific Purposes to a class of lumberjacks!), to ask them the question, „If your emotion and mood was a colour, what would it be?”
There are many benefits to such an activity:
- The lesson is off to a slightly unusual start which can often interest, engage and energise students.
- Students’ emotions and feelings can be redirected to an activity, and while they may not necessary feel secure or confident to share their actual feelings verbally, they might feel comfortable to just pick a colour first that reflects their mood.
- Choosing a colour is the first step. Once all students select a colour, encourage them to work in pairs or smaller groups and guess why the other is feeling that specific way. Encourage students to then share their actual emotions and the reasons behind. This helps students to bond and practise empathy.
- Group reflection in open class to finish the activity will promote group cohesion and further language practice.
So how do you set up such an activity?
Step 1. Find an image of a colour spectrum or range of colours. We personally recommend choosing a scale / circle that has section so students can select areas quickly. Then demo the activity: choose an area yourself and encourage students to guess what you’re feeling that day, and why.
It could look something like this or similar:
Step 2. Ask students to use annotation tools or similar (e.g., markers on a Google Slide) and mark which colour they are feeling like today. With a few students present – there might be overlaps in arrows and that is fine, this would look something like below. Remember to take a screenshot for everyone if you are not using a site that lets multiple users use annotation at the same time.
Step 3. Put students into breakout rooms of pairs or smaller groups and have them guess why the other students are feeling this way. E.g., student with blue and red arrows in the image would try to guess what makes red arrow students feel „greenish”, while red arrow student would guess what is making blue arrow students feel „reddish”. If you have more time for this activity, swap students in breakout rooms and encourage them to guess more. You could also design a find-someone-who type of activity and turn into a race of which student can guess everyone’s colours, as well as their feelings and emotions.
Step 4. Ask students what they learned from and about each other in open class feedback, and ask them to report back on what the others said. If this is the first time you are doing this activity, discuss with your students how they felt during the activity, what they liked about it, what they may have found difficult. As you will be discussing colours and emotions anyway, it is a straightforward extension of the task.
My reflections on the colourful activity
The activity works especially great with teens and (young) adults be we would love to have feedback on your experiments with older or younger groups, too! Whenever a group is introduced to it for the first time, there tends to be an initial curiosity about what we are doing, some great guess work on how the teacher is feeling and why, and it is a great way to elicit more and more meaningful responses than „good”. It also generates some good and meaningful discussions between students as it acts as an information-gap exercise – students have to find out information they do not know: how the others are feeling and why. In terms of drawbacks, remember to set some time aside for students to experiment with annotation tools to begin with, and then be able to screenshare or look at screenshots from the chat in their breakout rooms.
Extensions, variations, and face-to-face classes
There are a few variations that you could experiment with, and if you do so, please share your experience(s) and reflection(s) with us:
- You could pre-name all the colours. I personally enjoy students guessing that my mood represents a Flirty Flamingo Pink, or if I play music during this activity, I often feel Mango Melody Yellow.
- You could experiment with items like moods, verbs, animals, sports, etc. Ask students to imagine they feel like a certain object or living thing, or even something abstract, and encourage students to guess
- In a face-to-face environment, you could place a very colourful rug on the floor and ask students to go to the section they feel like. You could also bring in a lot of colourful pencils or crayons and have students pick one.
- If you are doing this activity online, ask students to find something with the colour that they feel like, or choose an object that best represents their feelings and emotions. Then follow the same steps as in the procedures above.
Overall comments
I really enjoy this activity and find it a great way to bond with students. Let us know in an email ([email protected]) if you have any questions or suggestions and how your students enjoyed this colourful activity!
This post was contributed by David Juhasz, Director of Teacher Training, and Managing Director of International House Budapest. He is currently teaching the How Teach Young Learners Online course. You can find out more about the course by clicking here: https://teacher-training.hu/trainings/young-learners/
