Put some large sheets of colored paper around the room just as high as the students’ height. I used yellow, white, green, blue, red, and black but you could use other colors as well. Include a marker pen for every sheet of paper.
Make the students stand in front of the colored-papers and tell them to write whatever they think when they see that color. They can write emotions, personal memories, or anything associated with that color.
Every few minutes, you call out “SWITCH” and the students should transfer to another colored-paper. Repeat the process until all students have written in all of the colored-papers.
Afterwards, tell the student to go around the room and read what everyone has written on the papers.
As a whole class, you analyze the common emotions or memories that are reflected by a color. You will notice that Black usually shows negative feelings of fear and loneliness, while Yellow commonly express bright and positive feelings. Red could be associated with both negative and positive as it could represent either death or love.
Have the students discuss why the community mentioned in the novel doesn’t have or doesn’t want colors. This activity helps them understand the power of colors and the emotions they bring to a person. These emotions are not known in “the community”.
I often leave the sheets of paper hanging on the walls for some days because my other classes are curious and also want to add their own ideas.
For the last 10minutes of the class, I instruct the students to write in their reading journals about the activity and how it relates to the novel.
Because “The community” also doesn’t have music, this same activity could also be done with musical selections instead of colors. Student will write their emotions, feeling, and memories based on the music played.