New
New
Year 4

Recolouring digital images

I can explain the impact of changing the colours in a digital image.

New
New
Year 4

Recolouring digital images

I can explain the impact of changing the colours in a digital image.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Digital images can be recoloured.
  2. The colouring of an image can evoke different feelings and thoughts.
  3. Computers make it easy to experiment with different colour effects.

Keywords

  • Effects - changes that are applied to give a different result

  • Colouring - changing the colour of something

Common misconception

Changing image colouring will make everyone think and feel the same way about the image.

Lots of people might have similar feelings but not everyone will necessarily have the same thoughts and feelings.


To help you plan your year 4 computing lesson on: Recolouring digital images, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Files needed for this lesson

  • Morning fog on mountain 382.47 KB (JPG)
  • Animal in baron desert landscape 421.42 KB (JPG)
  • Grass-covered mountains 727.81 KB (JPG)
  • A2 Forest Footbridge 2.72 MB (JPG)

Download these files to use in the lesson.

Images are provided for pupils to edit during this lesson, however pupils may want to search for and edit their own images. This adaption would make the activities be more relevant and authentic to your particular pupils.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Pupils will need access to a device with software that provides freehand digital painting tools. Examples in this lesson use paint.NET https://oak.link/paint-net

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
What does edit mean when working with a digital image?

to delete the image
Correct answer: to make changes to the image
to view the image
to print the image

Q2.
What does the crop tool do?

turns the image around a central point
changes the colours in the image
Correct answer: removes parts of the image
adds text to the image

Q3.
What does rotate mean?

Correct answer: to turn an image around a central point
to remove parts of an image
to change the colours of an image
To add a frame to an image

Q4.
What is the 'composition' of an image?

the colours used in the image
the size of the image file
the tools used to edit the image
Correct answer: the way objects are arranged or framed in the image

Q5.
Which of the following is an example of editing an image?

printing the image
viewing the image on a computer
Correct answer: changing the colours in the image
deleting the image

Q6.
Order these steps to edit an image.

1 - open the image in editing software
2 - use tools like crop or rotate
3 - save the edited image

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Order the steps to experiment with colour effects on a computer:

1 - open the image in editing software
2 - apply colour effects
3 - save the edited image

Q2.
What does changing the colouring of an image do?

makes everyone feel the same way
deletes the image
Correct answer: gives people different feelings and thoughts
makes the image smaller

Q3.
What does the term "effects" mean in digital images?

Correct answer: changes applied to give a different result
removing parts of an image
turning an image around a central point
saving an image

Q4.
Why is it easy to experiment with colours on a computer?

computers can delete images
computers always make images look better
Correct answer: computers make it simple to try different effects
computers can only use one colour

Q5.
What is one reason to experiment with colour effects?

to delete the image
Correct answer: to see how different colours change the image’s impact
to make the image smaller
to write text on the image

Q6.
What tool makes it easy to try different colour effects?

a pencil
a camera
a paintbrush
Correct answer: a computer