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Colors activity for kindergarten


10 Activities for Teaching Colors in Kindergarten

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Teaching colors in kindergarten is an important and fun skill to teach. These kindergarten color activities will make learning hands-on and engaging all year long. Plus, your students will work on math, literacy, fine motor, and problem-solving skills along the way.

Colors and Color Word Activities for Kindergarten

Teaching colors and color words in kindergarten helps students to visually discriminate colors and begin working with colors in different subjects, such as math, literacy, and art.

From sorting, graphing, reading color words in sentences, and identifying colors in art, teaching colors is an important life skill for young learners.

#1. I Spy!

I Spy! is a kid-favorite when it comes to kindergarten color activities. This game can easily be incorporated anytime of day, whether it’s a morning warm-up, carpet game, or quick time-filler activity.

To play, one person is the “spy.” They look around the room and say “I spy something (green/blue/red).” Students then take turns raising their hand and guessing what it is. The first student that guesses correctly is the next “spy.”

Using color games with students is an effective way to engage them and practice skills in a fun way.

#2. Scavenger Hunt

Another way to get your students active and engaged in the learning is to do a color scavenger hunt. To play, draw different colored circles in the middle of various notecards. You can use as many colors as you’d like to work on.

The students will draw a notecard, identify the color, and go around the classroom to find something in that color. When they find something in the matching color, they stop and raise their hand in place.

Once everyone has found a match, go around the room calling on students one at a time and have them share their color and what the object is. Have them return to their seats, pass their cards to the left, and repeat the scavenger hunt again with their new colors.

Another option is to do this activity in small groups. Give students 2-4 notecards and have them go around the room and collect objects. Then, they return to the small group table and match the object to the correct color notecard before switching cards.

#3. Color Patterns

Whenever you can combine your kindergarten color activities with math, that’s a teacher win! Practice identifying colors and making patterns with different colored counting bears, color links, or plastic cubes.

You can call out a pattern and have students model it with their manipulatives. You can also use pattern cards to help students model various patterns, such as AB, AAB, ABB, ABC, and AABB patterns.

#4. Color Sorts

A simple yet effective kindergarten color activity is to have students practice sorting by color and saying the colors out loud.

You can give students a handful of manipulatives, such as pattern blocks, colored cereal, plastic cubes, mini erasers, color links, etc. Have them sort the manipulatives by color and identify the color by saying it out loud.

To take it a step further, ask students to count how many are in each category to practice math skills.

Another variation of this activity would be to have different colored cups or containers and have students sort their pile into the proper cup or container.

If you don’t have different colored cups or containers, you can write the color word in a colorful marker on a sticky note and stick it to the outside of any cup or container you have on hand. This would help students learn their color words as well.

#5. Egg Carton Fill

This color activity uses both color knowledge and fine motor skills. Prepare an egg carton by coloring a circle on the bottom of each space in an egg carton. You could also use a colored circle sticker instead and stick it in the bottom of the spaces.

Have students use jumbo tweezers to sort colored pom poms into the correct spaces in the egg carton, matching the colors of the pom poms to the circles. This would be a great small group or fine motor center activity.

#6. Play Dough Color Count

Play dough is a great manipulative to keep on hand when teaching colors. Students can practice identifying colors and counting at the same time.

To prepare, write different color words in the corresponding color with marker on notecards. Students will draw a color card to determine which play dough color they’ll use. Then, they’ll roll a dot cube and count the dots. Finally, they’ll form that many play dough balls in the correct color, counting as they go.

Students can do this activity at a small group table or desk or with a color matching mat.

#7. Color Call Out

The next kindergarten color activity is another super easy, no prep game that can be played at any time.

To play, stand in circle as a whole group. One person calls out a color. Starting with the person to the left of them, each student says a real world object that is that color. After every student has said an object, the whole class spells the color word together.

Students take turns being the “caller” and calling out the next color.

#8. Roll and Match Colors

Color Roll and Cover is a fun game for students that makes practicing colors super fun.

You can use a color cube or a dry-erase cube to write color words or draw colored circles on. Students will roll the cube and cover a space on their roll and cover mat with a matching colored manipulative. The first student to cover the most spaces wins.

This activity is one of the activities found in the Let’s Learn Colors Mini Unit.

#9. Bingo Dabber Activities

Bingo dabbers are perfect for several kindergarten color activities. You can give students a white piece of paper and have them write color words using the matching color of bingo dabber. This also gives students a little fine motor practice while forming the words.

Another option is to have students dab freely on a white piece of paper and have them say the color word each time they dab.

To practice spelling the color word, they could even say a letter each time they dab to spell the color word. Once the word is complete, they switch colors.

#10. Color Boom Cards

Using digital kindergarten color activities is another way to practice colors while engaging your students. Students can practice color recognition with real world objects or even color discrimination with Boom Cards.

They’ll hear the color words in the audio directions, giving them even more exposure to colors and color words.

I hope these 10 kindergarten color activities have given you some fresh ideas that you can implement with your students.

Looking for more colors and color words activities for kindergarten? Check out my Let’s Learn Colors Bundle, complete with color activities, centers, games, and no prep pages.

Post Tags: #color words#colors

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Color Activities for Kindergarten

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Color activities for kindergarten! Engaging activities and ideas for early learners to practice color recognition.

Color Activities for Kindergarten

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. 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!

Color Centers

Adding color activities to your daily centers is a perfect way for young children to practice color recognition. Here are a few colors themed activities for you!

Color Sorts

I use these color cards 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.

You can also sort objects! Have your students sort buttons, pom poms, counting bears, blocks, popsicle sticks, the list goes on and on.

Roll and Color

Pocket dice are so much fun! I add cards with different colors and make a few copies for a quick center. Roll the dice… color a box on your paper. Easy!

Color Sentences

This is a center activity that I model during whole group and eventually add to our pocket chart literacy station. These simple sentences are a hit! Plus, I 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!

Dough Activity

Playdoh is an important part of a child’s first few days in an early education classroom… well at least 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.  

Board Games

These simple color games are tons of fun and perfect for your kindergarten or preschool classroom!

I use Bump games ALL YEAR LONG! I have Bump games to practice various math and literacy skills. I introduce Bump for the first time using the color themed board games!

This fun game is so simple! It is perfect for teaching colors. Students spin the color wheel and place their game piece 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.

Puzzles

Puzzles stay in my center rotation for several months! These matching color puzzles are great kindergarten and preschool activities.

Simple Puzzles Colors with Word Handwriting Practice

A Few More Fun Ideas!

Riddle of the Day

Students guess a new color every day with these fun riddles! I post the daily riddle on the board and we work together to make guesses.

You can read more about how I use classroom riddles to teach text details and inferring in this blog post:

  • Classroom Riddles for Kindergarten

You could also have a color scavenger hunt or play an I Spy game, based on which color was revealed. Just another fun way to talk about colors!

Directed Drawing

Star of the Day directed drawing is one of my favorite things to do in kindergarten. We start this activity early in the school year to help students construct illustrations that carry meaning. This is the perfect opportunity to help 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 at the end of the post.  

Color Experiment

If you are looking to do an experiment with colors, this video about from SciShow Kids is great! It is all about color mixing.

Favorite Books about Color

There are several great books about color! Here are few of my favorites.

Have so much fun with these color activities for kindergarten! Don’t forget to snag the free file below! Simply, add your name and email address. The free file will be sent to your inbox. 

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Deedee Wills

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!