This Prompt's Title:

The Color Game for Kids

letting carefully-chosen colors inspire an original story

How can I add color to a story without adding too much color?

Ideas for Teachers from Teachers
How do you teach young writers to add some color to their stories...but not too much?

Dr. Seuss's My Many Colored Days is a simple-to-read picture book that might just help your students see that color can be used for purposes beyong just coloring items. Color also has the ability to set moods. As students are preparing to write their color game stories, share this picture book to show them the value of color.

--Corbett Harrison, Reno, Nevada

We talk about how too much salt can ruin a great plate of spaghetti.  I paint a picture of a hot, steaming plate of their favorite pasta.  While my students are visualizing one of their favorite meals, I have them picture shaking the salt, more and more and more.  They start to scream, "Not so much, Mrs. K!" 

"Exactly!" I reply. Don't add too many similes, too many adjectives or too much color.  It makes your story too salty.  We refer to salty stories the rest of the year.

--Leslie Konvalin, 4th Grade, Longview, Texas

• Free books, you say? WritingFix for Kids is looking for three- to four-sentence blurbs from teachers from around the globe. We will publish favorite blurbs for this question (How do you teach young writers to add some color to their stories but not too much?) here on this page, and we will send teachers whose blurbs are published a free picture book from the WritingFix collection. Join our on-line community! Send your blurb to us at webmaster@writingfix.com and please write "How do you teach young writers to add some color to their stories but not too much?" somewhere in your e-mail.