Teaching kindergarten students to identify colors is an important skill for the beginning of the school year. So I have gathered some fun color activities for your kindergarten classroom! These engaging hands-on activities are perfect for young learners. Plus they are a lot of fun! Early learners will sharpen their color recognition skills while also participating in math and literacy activities. Free color-by-code printables!
Recognizing basic colors is a skill all kindergarten students need to master. The best way to practice color recognition is with fun color theme activities. Right?
My lesson plans during the first few weeks of kindergarten always include color activities. We sing songs to practice color words, read children’s books about colors, practice color sorting and color matching, and sometimes even do science experiments!
Adding color activities to your daily centers is a fun way for young children to practice color recognition. We learn all of the colors of the rainbow! Here are a few color-themed activities for you!
These color cards can be used for a few different activities. For this color activity, students practice sorting objects by color. If your sweeties are able, you can add a response sheet where they practice writing color names or they can label the object. We include primary and secondary colors in this activity!
You can also sort objects! Have your students sort buttons, pom poms, counting bears, building blocks, popsicle sticks, the list goes on and on.
Pocket dice are so much fun! Simply add cards with different colors and make a few copies for a quick center. Roll the dice… color a box on your paper. Easy!
You may wish to offer students a color word bank that they can use for reference.
This is a center activity that can be modeled during whole group and later added to a pocket chart literacy center. These simple sentences are a hit! Plus, you can re-use the color cards from the color sorting activity.
You can also have students write color sentences with these no prep pages! These make a fun little color activity for morning work! At the beginning of the year, you can read the sentence to your students, but as the year goes on, students can decode these simple words along with the sight words they have mastered.
Playdoh is an important part of a child’s first few days in an early education classroom… well at least it was in my kindergarten classroom! They were always so excited to see Playdoh sitting on their desk when they walked in first thing in the morning. So of course, adding color mats to their center time with playdoh was a no-brainer! I also kind of love Playdoh for working on those fine motor skills.
Dough activities offer a great opportunity for sensory play. Young kids often find working with dough a calming activity! Playdoh is great for younger kids, too! Dough mats also make great preschool color activities!
The dough color mats are included in this unit:
These simple color games are tons of fun and perfect for your kindergarten or preschool classroom!
Bump games can be used ALL YEAR LONG! I have Bump games to practice various math and literacy skills. When I introduce Bump for the first time, a color Bump game is my go-to.
This fun game is so simple! It is perfect for teaching colors. Students spin the color wheel and place their game pieces on the correct color. There are 12 different color games so I just switch them out so it stays exciting!
Here is another simple color game. This board game is a great way to focus on primary colors.
Once students understand the structure of these games, it is very easy to swap out the color activity for a math skills game or phonics activity!
Puzzles can stay in your center rotations for several months! These matching color puzzles are great for learning colors in early childhood.
When you’re ready for students to practice spelling color words, these puzzles are a fun fine motor activity.
If you are looking to do an experiment with colors, this video about from SciShow Kids is great! It is all about color mixing.
Students guess a new color every day with these fun riddles! You can post the daily riddle on the board and work together as a class to make guesses.
You can read more about how I use classroom riddles to teach text details and inferring in this blog post:
Practice color identification skills through literature! Here are a few of my favorite color books.
Duncan faces a colorful conundrum as his crayons, each with unique complaints, decide to quit, leaving him wondering how to reconcile their grievances and bring them back to their coloring duties.
Excited about contributing to a school library mural, Marisol faces a creative challenge when tasked with depicting a sky without blue paint, prompting her to draw inspiration from the changing day and night scenes, leading her into a dreamy imaginative journey.
Three white mice embark on a colorful adventure with jars of red, blue, and yellow paint, exploring the outcomes of their playful splashing and dancing, providing a delightful introduction to colors.
Initially, harmony prevails among the special Reds, Yellows, and Blues until a declaration by a proud Red sparks a color commotion, leading to a decision to separate, raising the question of whether anything can mend their differences.
Residing in a realm where colors ran untamed, a spirited girl named Swatch, driven by a passion for color from brave green to in-between gray to rumble-tumble pink, aspires to collect them all, discovering that colors resist being easily tamed.
With a unique vision, Hervé Tullet encourages readers to engage in a dazzling color and tones adventure, inviting them to MIX IT UP with a touch of magic and wonder.
What better way to practice colors than to get up and dance! These color songs are great for getting movement in your classroom.
Rock Your Body to the Colors by Jack Hartmann
This one adds in some fun rhyming!
What’s Your Favorite Color by Super Simple Songs
The Color Dance Game by Danny Go!
I sort of LOVE this one!
What Color is it? by Jack Hartmann
Star of the Day directed drawing is one of my favorite things to do in kindergarten and it provides an excellent opportunity to talk about the colors we use. We start this activity early in the school year to help students construct illustrations that carry meaning. This great activity helps students begin choosing colors that make sense and using them in the right place. So, we aren’t going to use the color green to color the sky (unless there is about to be a tornado I suppose) but rather color the grass green. You can snag the Star of the Day directed drawing for FREE by clicking HERE.
I also have a dollar deal on color worksheets! Check it out here:
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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One Response
Color fun!