6-Step Paint Chip Poetry for High Schoolers

This is one of my favorite activities that I have done with my students so far.  It seems like students, especially high schoolers, are never asked to write poetry in a "free" way.  There is always some structured outline or template that forces them to write it.  This results in students proclaiming they strongly dislike reading and writing poetry.  These fill-in-the-blank types of poems do very little to teach students the infinite amount of forms poetry can actually take.  Dismantle the training wheels by trying paint chip poetry!  Paint Chip Poetry is a poetry-writing technique where one will use the colors or titles of the paint colors to write a poem (that may or may not reflect the actual color).  During a nature-themed unit with AP Language & Composition students, I decided to do a trial run of this poetry writing. The results were impressive.

Step 1: Go to your local Lowes, Home Depot, or Walmart to browse their selection of paint chips.  These are completely free.  Get all kinds of colors and multiple sizes as your students will love to have a wide variety of ombre colors to choose from.

Step 2: Talk to your students about imagery, nature, the importance of color, figurative language, and the senses when writing detailed and effective descriptions.  Show your students a blank paint strip and talk about how the colors get deeper and deeper (similar to how personal reflection through writing should get deeper and more intricate).  

Step 3: Let your students pick a paint strip.

Step 4: Show your students a sample of your own work and explain how you went through the process of writing it.  Here is what I showed my students with a yellow paint strip.  These are some simple notes I wrote down:

Miss Long’s Paint Chip Poem Process:

• Colors in Paint chip: from a creamy/ivory white to a deep sun yellow.

• In nature: sunrise, sunset, daffodils, daisies, sunflowers, dandelions, a reflection of the sun in water, flowers, peaches, oranges, lemons, dusk and dawn, mirage

• Feelings Happy, jubilant, warm and safe, smooth sailing, sunny skies, yellow dawn and dusk, excitement, relaxing,

• 6 colors = 6 lines:

I start the day with a clean slate

Warm and safe, the dawn radiates fate

It glimmers by like laughing daffodils

Hours pass, my jubilant heart it fills.

With a vibrant mirage and smooth sailing skies

I turn towards the noon; it blinds my eyes.

Step 5: Give your students these simple directions:

1. Think of some imagery associated with the colors on your strip.  What feelings or ideas could you express? What do these colors have to do with nature?
2. How do you want your poem to build as it gets into a deeper and richer color?  Allow your thinking to mirror the color you chose.
3. Write a draft of the poem on scrap paper.  Just keep writing! It can be free verse or have a rhyme scheme.  It’s all up to you.
4. Transfer your poem onto the paint strip using a pen or marker.

Step 6: Celebrate Their Work

This gives the students major confidence!  Ask if anyone wants to share their poem by reading it out loud in front of the class.  For my class, I collected the poems and decided to tape them on a poster board so I could hang them up in the classroom to show off their work.  They loved it.  If you have multiple students doing this project, I encourage you to tape all of them on the wall and make them the focal point of the room with a wall full of rainbow assorted paint chips.  Here is the board I made: