Back to School Activities for Teaching Colors

Ahh… back to school time!  So many fun days are ahead of you!  Here are some activities for teaching colors in kindergarten that will help start your year off GREAT!

Books for Teaching Colors

There are some great books about color!

There are some old favorites on this list and a few new ones.

Mouse Paint and Mix It Up! are two books about combining colors.   They are a great way to start the year off!

But The Day the Crayons Quit is a pretty funny book for teaching colors.  My class always loved it.   This would also make a great mentor text for writing later in the year.  Students could go back to the text as the year progresses and talk about the author’s voice!  You can listen to this book below so you can see what I mean. (Psst… videos are fun, but they never replace a book in my opinion).

I also REALLY love Sky Color!   This book would also make a great mentor text for writing.  It is about observing the world around you as you look for inspiration!

Learning about Color

I love SciShow Kids on YouTube.  This video is fantastic for mixing colors.  They discuss primary colors and give suggestions for creating other colors.  This would be a great launching video for working with watercolors in your classroom.  Students could just experiment with watercolors and enjoy the process.

Color Centers for Teaching Colors

At the beginning of the year, it can be a challenge to have all academic centers.  I like to keep centers simple for the first few weeks so students can learn the routines of centers.  Once the routines are learned, then you can add more academic tasks. Color centers are a perfect solution for teaching colors.

Color Puzzles for Teaching Colors

Super simple.  Students just put them together.  You may want to introduce the response page or you may want to wait a week or two.

Color Sorts

In my classroom, students were constantly doing various sorts… sort by letter, sort by sound, sort by shape… LOTS of sorts  So why not introduce the concept with a sorting by color?

Bump Game

We play a ton of different Bump games in my classroom… but FIRST students need to know how to play the game.  We learn this game during our whole group time.  If you have 5 minutes before lunch, grab this game and play it as a whole group.  Play it for several days to a week as a whole group activity.  Soon, your students will BEG for you to put it in centers.

You can see other BUMP games by clicking HERE.

Roll and Write

Another activity for teaching colors that students will be doing all year is a roll-and-write-center.  So this activity is a great introduction to teaching colors.  This will also encourage your students to use the color words that you probably already have posted on your walls.  Often times, if we don’t encourage students to use the information we have on our classroom walls, those charts just become wallpaper.

Color Board Game

Part of learning about center time is also about learning how to take turns.  This simple board game gives students just the practice they need!

Color Dough Centers

Students love to play with dough and this center allows them to build the color words and practice writing them.  Honestly, you could have this in a center for a few weeks before you introduce the writing part.

Build a Color Sentence

This is a center that you could first use as a whole group activity.  You may not want to add it to your centers for several weeks.  It is very similar to my sentence center.

You can find all of the Color Centers by clicking HERE.

Learn more about how I introduce centers:

• How to Start Centers
• Top Tips for Center Management
• Independent Student Centers made SIMPLE! (Free file)

You can also find my Math and Literacy BUMP centers by clicking HERE.