Influencing Learning and Creativity with Color

Blue, black, gray, white. These are the common colors of our school supplies for writing. While they are enough to get the job done, they are ordinary. Adding a splash of color to a child’s pencil box can make all the difference in one’s level of interest in learning and creativity. Bringing in a touch of color to an assignment or the classroom setting can stimulate your students to be engaged with their work when ordinary supplies have failed. From colored pencils to colored pencil grips, making colors available to students can help turn their work from ordinary into extraordinary.

Colors have the power to affect the mind. Psychologists continually investigate the ways in which the mind is influenced by color. Red, the color of stop signs, is one color that intensely affects people. Like the color purple, red stands out, often capturing one’s attention before other colors do. Frequently associated with negative emotions and connotations, the mind can interpret red as danger. Green, on the other hand, is a color that tends to make people feel positive. Like pink and yellow, it can make people feel happy. Green, like pink, is a relaxing, calming color. Green can also get one’s creativity flowing. Another calming color, blue, works with the mind to stimulate creativity, too. Orange is an important color that should find its way into students’ work as well. It not only stimulates one’s critical thinking skills but seeing information in orange can also help with the brain’s recall ability. The brain’s ability to recognize patterns is often improved when color is used.

Take into consideration the power a color may have on a learner when you are preparing your lesson plans. Adding directions that instruct students to use specific colors for specific purposes can have a positive affect on a child’s learning. In the same way, you may want to be conscientious about the color of paper you use to notify students of assignments or to communicate with those at home. Major assignments like a research project or an important essay can cause students a lot of anxiety. Try distributing the instructions for this kind of work on blue or green paper, colors that both relax one’s emotions and stimulate creativity. When you need to send home sheets important for parents to read or those that may need to be returned to class, try using paper in red, orange, or purple. These will stand out among the ordinary white sheets kids usually bring home.

Kids using colorful creative writing instruments can have fun while completing their schoolwork. Multicolor pens, colored pencils, crayons, and markers can help kids a great deal with their communication skills. In their written work, colors can help students communicate their emotions. As a class, you may want to discuss the positive and negative connotations associated with words, especially adjectives. Have students practice using vocabulary with strong connotations and writing them in colors that help identify the feelings associated with the words. In the same way, colors can be used to make key words stand out. When students are introduced to a list of new vocabulary, have them practice writing creatively by using those words in a story that they compose. Each time a vocab word from the list is used, it can be written in a different color.

Colors are also helpful for students who need to practice identifying parts of speech. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and all the rest can be written or highlighted in designated colors. When students see the colors used in this way, it helps them recognize the difference in the job that each word has in a sentence. Furthermore, the use of color can spark a child’s interest in how language works. Students should also experiment with using colors to improve their study skills. Colors can help them organize information. Classifying information according to color can help their brains sort out what is important and what are supporting details.

When kids have the choice to use colorful writing utensils, their imaginations can soar to new heights. The use of color does not have to be restricted to these writing tools though. When mistakes need to be erased, a colorful eraser can make a child feel better about the error that will be obliterated. Vibrant pencil toppers and grips can also have a positive impact on a child’s mood when it comes to schoolwork. In life, colors surround us everywhere we go. In school, color can become a visual teaching tool and a creative outlet.