Color messages

Type of the lesson: English Practice

Age of students: 19-21 

General topic of the unit: Character
Topic of the class: Color messages in our life
Goals of the class: to get theoretically grounded understanding of the activity,  to analyze characteristics related to the topic, to enrich your vocabulary and world-view
Goals of the activity: discussing, doing exercises, reflectional writing, reading

I Greeting

II Teacher explaining kind of activity for today.

 "English is a colorful language. So today we will talk about colour messages,colour schemes, colours in our life. Colours are building blocks of attitudes."

-Teacher propose students to choose one marker from the box (without looking) and then each student have to tell what this colour means for him/her and which colour is the favourite one for him/her

III Colour Idioms

Idiom		Meaning	Example Sentence
beet red		dark red (usually to describe face)	My sister's face turned beet red when I caught her singing in front of a mirror.
black and blue		bruised and beaten	We found the poor guy black and blue near the train tracks.
black and white		straight forward, very clear	The rules we gave the kids were black and white. No answering the phone or the door.
black out		faint	I always black out at the sight of blood.
black sheep		the odd or bad member of the group	My oldest brother was the black sheep in our family. He dropped out of school at fifteen.
born with a silver spoon in one's mouth		born into a rich family	Keiko hasn't worked a day in her life. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
catch red handed		catch someone in the act of doing something wrong or illegal	The kids were caught red handed stealing chocolate bars.
golden opportunity		the perfect chance	The models' conference was a golden opportunityfor me to sell my beauty products.
grass is always greener on the other side		you always want what you don't have	I always wanted to go to university, but now I wish I had time to get a job. Grass is always greener on the other side.
grey area, gray area		something without a clear rule or answer	Writing personal email in the office is a grey areathat needs to be discussed at the next meeting.
the green light		permission	The builders were given the green light to begin the tower.
green with envy		very jealous	I am green with envy over Julio's new wardrobe.
(have a) green thumb		be skillful in the garden	You can tell by her flower garden that Sheila has agreen thumb.
have the blues		be sad or depressed	I always have the the blues during the winter time.
in the dark		unaware	Antoine left his wife in the dark about their honeymoon destination until they got to the airport.
in the red		in debt	When we were in the red we almost had to sell the house.
once in a blue moon		very rarely	We only go out for dinner once in a blue moon.
out of the blue		unexpectedly	I got a phone call from a long lost cousin out of the blue last week.
red tape		official or bureaucratic tasks	There is still some red tape to deal with in terms of the inheritance.
red eye		an airplane flight that takes off after midnight	I caught the red eye so that I would see the sunrise over the mountains.
roll out the red carpet		treat someone like royalty	When relatives come to town my grandmother rolls out the red carpet.
rose coloured glasses		unrealistic view	Paula imagines Hollywood with rose coloured glasses.
see red		be very angry	I saw red when that guy grabbed my sister's purse.
tickled pink		very pleased and appreciative	My mom was tickled pink when my father brought roses home for her.
true colours		real self	Suzanne doesn't show her true colours when we have guests over.
white lie		an innocent lie to protect another person's feelings	We told Grandma that her cake was delicious, which was actually a white lie.
with flying colours		with distinction	I passed my road test with flying colours.

IV Students were given an exercise to consolidate the above material

1	My face goes  green with envy beet red golden silver  when I'm embarrassed.

2	The boxer was  red handed green as grass black and blue a black sheep  after round 10.
3	When you have the blues you feel  sick depressed hungry silly .
4	I only eat meat once in a  green day yellow star blue sky blue moon .
5	This volunteer job is my  red carpet golden opportunity white lie red tape  to get experience in the industry.
6	When something happens out of the blue it is  surprising dangerous unwelcomed embarrassing .
7	I caught the red eye, means I took  a slow bus an early train a quick walk a late flight .
8	We were given the  black sheep green light red hand gray area  to book our holiday time.
9	A man who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth has always been  old rich wise hungry .
10	People often show their  pinks blues true colours rainbows  when they've had too much to drink.

V Flags of different countries. What colors signify in each flag? 

Chinese flag

The red of the Chinese flag symbolizes the communist revolution, and it's also the traditional color of the people. The large gold star represents communism, while the four smaller stars represent the social classes of the people. In addition, the five stars together reflect the importance placed on the number five in Chinese thought and history. 

Chinese classes:
1) merchants
2) farmers, peasants
3) artisans 4) scholars, officials
   

Mexican flag

Once source claims:

Green is for hope and victory.
White is for the purity of our ideals.
Red is for the blood our national heroes shed.

Another source says:

Green is for Independence
White for Roman Catholicism
Red for Union

VI Using different methods of paragraph development students have to write a short story where the main idea will be related to the topic of the class

Methods of paragraph development
*definition 
*comparison & contrast 
*details 
*illustration 
*analogy 
*repetition 
*cause and effect 
*question and ans. 

VII Home assignment

1) Students are supposed to write a cinquain connected with colors
2) Reflectional writing(short stiry) with "flying colors" (distinction; it can be any topic but the idea of it should be connected with colors? color messages)