Color Chips - SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook
Color Chips - SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook is a team reflection exercise for reflection and learning: it helps participants reflect on experience and turn observations into learning.
How to run it
- Prepare for this activity by gathering a stack of paint color chips from your local hardware store. Participants often respond as much to the color as the name of the color, so be sure to grab some with interesting names.
- Choose a prompt for your group that matches the current context, participant interests, and the purpose of the activity, and explain your thinking to the group. “This activity is called Color Chips, and it’s a quick and colorful way to check in with everyone…”
- What color would you paint our classroom and why?
- What color represents something from your day?
- What color reminds you of this class and why?
- What color represents how you are feeling about the test tomorrow, and why?
- Model how you expect participants to share out by going first. For example, “I picked “Sunshiny Day” because I think it would make this room a fun place to work and think.”
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Prepare for this activity by gathering a stack of paint color chips from your local hardware store. Participants often respond as much to the color as the name of the color, so be sure to grab some with interesting names.
Choose a prompt for your group that matches the current context, participant interests, and the purpose of the activity, and explain your thinking to the group. “This activity is called Color Chips, and it’s a quick and colorful way to check in with everyone…”
What color represents how you are feeling about the test tomorrow, and why?
Model how you expect participants to share out by going first. For example, “I picked “Sunshiny Day” because I think it would make this room a fun place to work and think.”
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Color Chips - SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Prepare for this activity by gathering a stack of paint color chips from your local hardware store. Participants often respond as much to the color as the name of the color, so be sure to grab some with interesting names.; Choose a prompt for your group that matches the current context, participant interests, and the purpose of the activity, and explain your thinking to the group. “This activity is called Color Chips, and it’s a quick and colorful way to check in with everyone…”; What color represents how you are feeling about the test tomorrow, and why?; Model how you expect participants to share out by going first. For example, “I picked “Sunshiny Day” because I think it would make this room a fun place to work and think.”. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from CASEL; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including CASEL.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.