A Is For Azure: The Alphabet in Colors—Xanthic Fun Facts & Poetry Prompt

There are over ten million colors in the world, and that’s just the ones we can see. We tend to learn about the basics, but why limit ourselves? Colors have cool histories, intriguing origins, cultural meanings, wonderful names. Plus, they are often quite beautiful. And beauty is showing promise as a way to help kids (and us!) learn.

With all this rich possibility swirling in the world, we invite you to take a journey into colors—whether you are 5 or 50 or even 85. Use them to teach yourself fascinating things about history, science, language, and culture (maybe even math!). Go on color treasure hunts, taste them or tinker with them. We’re here to send you on your colorful way, continuing our color journey with xanthic.

Of course, in our very own alphabet book, we also include old favorites like red, orange, yellow, green, blue (as part of the denim page) and purple. But with 26 letters to illustrate, we also saw a beautiful opportunity: to paint the world from an azure sky to a zaffre goodbye.

Xanthic Pronunciation Video

5 Fun Facts About Xanthic

1. Xanthic is a yellow or golden color, and comes from the Greek ξανθός xanthos, which means — wait for it — yellowish golden.

2. Xanthic acids are a class of acids that are characterized as sulphurous (yellow, and typically pretty smelly). Xanthate salts are used in the production of cellophane.

3. The color xanthic is seen in mutations of certain types of ornamental fish, like bettas, usually produced on purpose because of the bright yellow.

4. In plants, the yellow xanthic is produced by removing blue from chlorophyll. Or, at least that’s what a gardening book from 1914 said. But I have no idea how, back in 1914, they were removing blue from chlorophyll.

5. There are 42 synonyms for this interesting way of saying yellow, starting with sallow and fallow. Who knew?

Take a Color Walk

One great way to become more attuned to the colors around you is to take a color walk. It’s easy to do: simply decide on your color-of-the-day, and look for it wherever you roam. Take pictures, jot notes, or just keep your findings in mind. If you feel so inspired write a color vignette when you get home.

Count Your Colors

For younger color walk participants, we’ve created a special My Color Counting Book that reinforces color names, days of the week, sorting, counting, and adding. Just print and enjoy, at home or for a math or literacy center in the classroom!

Xanthic Haiku Poetry Prompt

Try your hand at a xanthic haiku. Use the “fun facts” or findings from your color walk as inspiration if you like. Need more inspiration? Check out our haiku infographic.

Brilliant ink-on-tile illustrations created with a secret process bring the alphabet to colorful life. Children will delight in the rich, poetic language of colors like emerald, jasmine, and quartz—while also meeting old favorites like yellow, orange and purple.

BROWSE A IS FOR AZURE NOW

Related Article at Huffington Post: 5 Great Reasons to Color the Core of Kids’ Learning