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Colorful Semantics Who, What, Where, What Doing Cards

Speech and language cards for the Colorful Semantics approach, in four sets: Who, What, Where and What Doing. Children pick cards from the sets to build simple sentences with verbs such as is swimming and is dancing.
Grades
Preschool–2, Elementary
Pages
59
File type
PDF
Preparation
Print ready

Updated Oct 26, 2026

Subject
Special Resources, ELA, Special Education Needs (SEN), Speech Therapy, Language Development, Phonics, Writing
Topic
colorful semantics, SEN
Resource types
Activities
Preparation
Print ready

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Colorful Semantics is a Speech and Language therapy technique which uses color coded cards to help children to learn the important elements of a sentence,and how to join them together in the correct order. Colorful semantics breaks down sentences into their thematic roles and then color codes them to help children to learn the important elements of a sentence,and how to join them together in the correct order. The approach initially has 4 key color codes: subject is orange, verb is yellow, object is green and place is blue. As children progress in their understanding there are further stages for adverbs, adjectives and time.

This set includes cards for ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘what doing’. This is to be used with children who are just learning the basic concepts of sentence structure.

Colorful semantics is perfect for use with young children learning correct sentence formation or in specialist settings with children with special educational needs. This resource can be used as a learning aid during whole class literacy or on a small group or 1:1 basis.

This resource is 4 sets of colour coded cards for who, what doing, what and where. There are 354 cards in total. Children can use these cards to plan sentences either to then speak aloud or to write down.

Clipart images courtesy of Kari Bolt Children’s Illustrator

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Build a simple sentence in order from who, what doing, and what or where
  • Identify which part of a sentence answers who, what doing, what or where

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Resource details

Concepts & topics

Core concepts

  • Colorful Semantics
  • Sentence structure
  • Subjects
  • Verbs
  • Locations

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