Span1 ch05

5.

Los colores

5. Los colores Colours Learning to identify the different colours in Spanish can be very satisfying for pupils of primary school age. Painting and colouring activities, relating to many subjects in the curriculum, provide plenty of opportunities for practising the names of the colours as part of everyday classroom life.

VIDEO section 5 The opening sequence shows each colour as it appears in a child's paintbox: rojo, amarillo, blanco, negro, azul, verde, naranja, rosa, gris, marrón, morado Out and about in the streets of Calahorra lots of different colours are identified: Pedestrian crossing: rojo, verde Peppers on a market stall: rojo, verde.

Customer: “Muy bien. Gracias, hasta luego.”

Flowers at the market: rosa, blanco, amarillo, morado.

Sweets: amarillo, verde, rojo, negro.

NEW WORDS AND PHRASES

rojo amarillo blanco negro azul verde naranja rosa gris marrón morado

red yellow white black blue green orange pink grey brown purple

Scenes from video section 5: Los colores.

Colours game: The teacher calls out the name of a colour. Pupils run to touch anything they see which is that particular colour: Teacher:“A ver ... preparados ... (Right ... ready?) naranja ... amarillo ... blanco ... azul.

Bueno, muy bien.” (OK, very good)

HOW SPANISH WORKS At this early stage, all the games and activities in this section focus just on the names of the colours.

Spanish becomes a little more complicated when you use colours as adjectives to describe individual objects. All Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine and colours ending in “o” change when they are used to describe feminine nouns. An “a” replaces the “o” at the end of the word: negro / negra rojo/roja blanco / blanca amarillo / amarilla morado / morada All the other colours stay the same.

If you use the activities outlined in this chapter, you will not have to worry about whether or not the endings change.

Scenes from video section 5: Cutting coloured paper.

38

5.

Los colores ❑ Echoing: Make flashcards to represent each colour. You could paint large “blobs”of colour or use sheets of coloured paper. Alternatively use coloured transparencies on the OHP. It is a good idea to avoid writing the words in colour at this early stage. This way you can be sure that pupils are really associating the sound of the word with the colour itself.

Say the name of the colour as you show each card. Pupils echo the word.

Introducing the written word

The colours are repeated with the words superimposed over the pictures. The words are written in the appropriate colour. You may choose to omit this part when pupils are watching the video for the first time. You can show it at a later date when they have had plenty of opportunities to practise the colours orally. They will then be ready to try and build up connections between the written word and pronunciation.

KEY SOUNDS

❑ Give each pupil a flashcard representing a colour. When you call out “rojo”, for example, all the pupils with red cards hold them up for everyone else to see, and so on.

rojo /naranja introduction to“j”- like the “ch” in “loch”.

La Rioja is another example.

azul

❑ Play “jump to the colour” Divide the class into two teams. Each team has the same number of coloured cards. When you call out the name of a colour, the pupils holding that particular card try to be the first to jump up and call out the name of the colour.

introduction to“z”- like the “th” in “thin”

amarillo

reinforcement of “ll”

gris reinforcement of “i”

❑ Play “run to the colour” If you have plenty of space, you can play the game shown on the video. When you call out “azul”, for example, pupils run to touch something blue, and so on. If the environment you are working in is not very colourful, you could attach coloured flashcards to different parts of the room.

Activities Before watching video section 5, it is a good idea to have a brief “warm up” session to remind pupils of the Spanish words and phrases they already know. Play one or two of the games from earlier sections.

You could also talk with pupils about why it is useful to be able to say the colours in Spanish. Ask them to think of situations when they refer to colours in their own language.

❑ Play “which colour?”

Put the coloured flashcards face down on a table or conceal them in a bag. Ask a confident pupil to select a card. Make sure that the others cannot see what colour has been chosen. (At this early stage, it is worth checking that the pupil knows the name of the colour he/she has selected).

The rest of the class has to guess the colour on the card. When they guess the wrong colour the pupil says “no”; when they guess the right colour he/she says “sí”. This game helps pupils to remember the names of the colours without the visual prompt.

❑ Watch video section 5: “Los colores”.

As are arepeat lot of colours to learn, Youthere can then the activities in you find itgradually easiest to focus at latermay sessions, introducing first on a smaller number of colours, the other colours. e.g. the primary colours and black and white.

39

5.

Los colores

❑ Play “swap colours” Pupils arrange their chairs in a circle. Give everybody a coloured flashcard, making sure that there are several children holding each colour. When you call out “verde” for example, the pupils with green cards swap places. As they do so, you run for an empty chair. The pupil left without a chair becomes the caller.

❑ Play “colour lotto” Before the game starts, each pupil draws a grid as they would for “noughts and crosses”. They fill the grid with coloured blobs without repeating any. You call out different colours in Spanish and they cross them of their grids. The first pupil to have crossed off all their numbers calls out “¡Yo!”

❑ Play “hide the colour” 1 This game works best if you use the OHP. Alternatively, you could attach flashcards to the board and ask pupils to shut their eyes when you remove a card.

Place coloured transparencies on the OHP so that three or four colours can be seen at the same time. Point to the different colours and ask the class to name them.

Now remove one of the colours. Point to the colours again. The class calls out the names of the colours including the “missing” colour. See how much of the sequence the class can remember as each visual prompt dissappears. Repeat the activity with different combinations of colours.

❑ Play “the four corner game” Place coloured cards in different corners of the room. Pupils choose a corner. You shuffle a set of coloured cards and place them face down on the table. Turn over a card and call out the colour - pupils in that corner are eliminated.

The game is replayed until only one colour is left.

❑ Play “hide the colour” 2 Place the coloured transparencies on the OHP. Pupils name the colours they can see. This time, when you remove a colour, rearrange the order in which the remaining colours are displayed on the OHP. The class has to say which colour has disappeared.

❑ Working in pairs: When pupils are familiar with the names of the colours, they can play a version of “noughts and crosses”. Each pair draws a “noughts and crosses” grid and puts a coloured “blob” in each square. They must say the name of the colour before marking it with an “O” or a “X”.

40

5.

Los colores

❑ If you would like pupils to learn to recognise the written word for each colour, make word flashcards from enlarged copies of the activity sheet at the end of this chapter.

Attach the original coloured flashcards to the wall and set out the word flashcards on a table.

Point to a colour; and ask a pupil to select the appropriate word flashcard, say the colour, and attach the word-card to the colour-card.

Talking point FAMOUS SPANISH PEOPLE

Pablo Picasso : Artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was born in Spain, but lived most of his life in France.

His early paintings were done in a “naturalistic” style. He painted life-like portraits of people. He worked mainly in two colours, blue and pink. This is why the pictures Picasso produced at this time are referred to as paintings from his “blue” and “pink” periods.

Later, Picasso met a French artist called Georges Braque. Together they developed a style of painting which became known as “cubist” art.

This was a completely new way of looking at objects. In his paintings, Picasso represented objects as if they were composed of geometrical forms such as cubes, triangles and circles.

Picasso then went on to change geometrical shapes into patterns and to add stronger colours to them. He created “abstract” art - that is, abstracting or selecting specific features from any scene or object.

Picasso held strong views about politics. One of his most famous paintings, “Guernica”, was a memorial to the people of the town of Guernica in northern Spain which was bombed by Fascist aircraft during the Civil War (1936-9).

Picasso produced paintings, engravings, ceramics and sculpture right up until his death at the age of 92. He was always surprising people with new ideas.

❑ To make it a game, give some pupils wordcards and others the colour-cards. When you call out a colour, pupils run to find their partner. ❑ Give each pupil a copy of the activity sheet.

Ask them to colour the circles with the corresponding colour. They then cut out the words and the coloured circles to make “snap” cards.

Pupils work in pairs. One player turns up the word cards, the other the coloured circles. If a word and circle match, the first player to call out the name of the colour collects the cards. ❑ Watch video section 5: “Los colores” again for reinforcement. Ask pupils to echo the colours as they hear them pronounced on the video.

CROSS CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

❑ Daily routines: Whenever you are using paints or crayons, encourage pupils to name the colours in Spanish.

❑ Art: Show pupils examples of paintings and sculptures by Picasso and talk with them about his use of colour and ways in which his work reflects his ideas. Pupils can then create their own paintings or sculptures using Picasso's style as a starting point.

❑ PE: Divide pupils into teams. Place a selection of coloured items such as beanbags, hoops or quoits some distance away. When you call out a colour, the person at the front of each line runs to collect an item of the appropriate colour.

The aim is to be first back to the team.

❑ Art: Use simple Spanish to mix colours and see the result. For example, call out “azul y amarillo”. Pupils mix blue and yellow paint and call out “verde”. You can do this activity in pairs; pupils take it in turns to tell their partner which colour to add to the mixture.

❑ PE: Chapter 15 suggests a useful phrase which you can use to identify teams for any PE activity with colours.

41

NOMBRE:

Me llamo

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Los colores

This page may be photocopied for classroom use.

Early Start Spanish “Tú y yo”

NOMBRE:

Me llamo

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

This page may be photocopied for classroom use.

Early Start Spanish “Tú y yo”