Do you teach colors in kindergarten? I love our color unit at the beginning of the year for confidence building (most students already know all their colors!) and teaching routines. And we know that in kindergarten, most of the time we aren’t diving into curriculum right away because there are SO many routines and procedures to teach and practice. Teaching colors gives a bit of structure to the chaos that August and September bring in kindergarten! Read on to see exactly how I teach and introduce colors to my students and a FREE resource at the end!
Story Time
I start off introducing the color of the day with a story. Some of the stories might be about the actual color and some stories are about a character or object that is the color of the day. This allows me to teach procedures for sitting on our rug, how to ask questions during or after a story, and most kids enjoy story time so it’s a relaxing part of our day! Read here for book ideas that your students are sure to enjoy!
Color Song
After listening to a story, it’s time to get up and move around! I absolutely love the color songs by Frog Tree Press. When I first started teaching I had them on CD, but now we just utilize YouTube. This playlist has all the color songs. The color songs are short and easy to memorize, plus give kids a few ideas for things that can be that color.
Circle Charts
Which leads me into my next activity… circle charts! I love a good circle chart. I use them for letters (read all about that here), numbers, and of course – colors! I print off my color posters on 4 pages to make it a larger size, but you can just print on 8.5×11 if you are short on space.
I start by having students name the objects on the poster and seeing if they can name anything else (maybe from the song we just sang or from the story?)
Then I have students create their own version of the circle chart. This invites an excellent opportunity for talking about using the correct colors, cutting and gluing practice, and procedures for working at their seats.
Early finishers can draw more items that would belong on the circle chart!
Find and Color Pages
If your students aren’t quite ready to tackle a cut and paste activity, then this might be a good alternative! They have the same pictures as the circle charts, so it would still work as a follow up activity. This could also be used as an independent activity later on or the next day. Again, this is a great time to teach and practice coloring procedures.
Color Books
I have two types of color books that I use with my students – a cut & staple book and a mini print & fold book. I use both of them on different days.
I like to use the cut and staple one as a whole group activity for practice tracing procedures and book handling skills. The books are very simple and follow a pattern – “The apple is red. The barn is red.” I let my students use crayons or colored pencils to trace the color word on each page and color the picture to match.
We also practice pointing, turning one page at a time, and how to put the books into their book boxes. (These books will later be used for independent centers.)
The mini books are just that – a miniature book including all the same skills as the cut and staple one. These are no-prep, just copy and go!
Students will practice tracing and writing the color word, coloring pictures, and drawing another item of that color. I love to send these home to give parents a peek into our day.
Depending on your schedule, you might only have time for one of these books.
Color Word Worksheets
Since I spend 2 days on each color, I do these color word worksheets the second day. I start off by singing the song and allowing my students to get their wiggles out before diving into this cut and paste activity.
Since the color songs spell out the words, I have the class sing along with me as we find the letters together. I don’t expect my students to know their letters yet, so this is a whole group activity.
This helps my students practice following an example from the board, cut and paste procedures, writing their names, coloring, what to do with finished work.
Bonus! By the end of our color unit, most of my students are able to complete these independently after reviewing the directions. This frees up a little bit of time for myself and gives my students a boost of confidence!
If you don’t already teach colors, I would highly recommend fitting this into the beginning of the year! If you do, I hope you have found these tips and resources helpful. If you want to try it out for FREE, you can snag the color red HERE!
