Color Game

This is a good one for teaching the names of colors

to young children. Arrange various colors of
construction paper in a circle. Play some music and
have the children march around the circle. Stop the
music and all the children must sit down next to a
color. Pick a color and sing (to the tune of "Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star"): "Who's beside the color
(insert name of color)? Please stand up, if it's you."
At that point, the child next to the color mentioned
stands up. Continue until all of the children get a
turn.
The Rainbow Song

The Rainbow Song

Song Theme: Saying colors
Target Vocabulary: red, yellow, pink, green, purple,
orange, blue, rainbow, apples, sun, flowers, grass,
grapes, carrots, sky.
Song Length: 1:15
A classic song for learning colors. We have added
an additional section to the middle of the song
which gives the colors of common objects (e.g. red
apples, yellow sun, etc.). Here is a sample:

Lyrics:
Verse 1:
Red and yellow and pink and green,
Purple and orange and blue.
I can sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow too.
Verse 2:
Red apples and yellow sun,
Pink flowers in the green grass.
Purple grapes and orange carrots,
A rainbow high in the blue sky.
Verse 3:
Red and yellow and pink and green,
Purple and orange and blue.
I can sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow too.

Gestures and activities to use with The Rainbow Song

There are a number of activities you can do as you
sing along to the song:
Simply pat your knees or clap in time with the
music as you sing the song.

 Give each student a print out of the Rainbow

Song song poster. As they sing along they
touch each color or picture.
Give out the 7 colors to students (colored
paper, origami paper, colored blocks, colored
pencils anything will do) and have students
touch the colors in time with the song.
Put colored paper up around the walls of the
classroom. Have all of your students point to
each color as it is sung.

Using the Rainbow Song in class

This is a wonderful song to use when teaching the
colors even the youngest child enjoys singing
along to this tune.
1.Start by teaching the vocab. Depending on the
age / level of your students you may want to
teach a just few words per class, building up to
the full 7 color words over a series of lessons.
For older students you may also want to teach
the objects in the song (apples, sun, flowers,
grass, grapes, carrots, rainbow, and sky).
Prepare colored paper (origami paper is great
for this) enough colors for each student in
your class (so, 1 red per student, 1 yellow per
student, etc.). Hold up the first colored paper
and elicit the color (e.g. red). Chorus and
practice saying the color. Then pass the
colored paper around the class so each student

can hold and say the color. Do this for the rest
of the colors.
2.Play Color Stand Up and Jump. Give out all
of the colored papers, 1 color per student. Tell
your students to sit down. Say a color (e.g.
red) and the students holding that color
have to quickly stand up, jump and then sit
down. Start off slowly and get faster and
faster.
3.Play Touch the Colors on Posters. If your
classroom has lots of colorful posters on the
walls, this is a great activity to do.
Demonstrate by shouting out a color (e.g.
Red). Run to a poster and touch anywhere
that has a red color. Do the same for another
color (e.g. Blue). Each time run to a new
poster. Now have the students do the activity
shout out a color and have them all run around
the classroom touching the colors on posters.
4.Do Color the Circles activity. Before class,
prepare 7 large sheets of white paper (or if you
are teaching less colors that day, enough
sheets of paper for the colors you are
teaching). On each sheet draw a large circle
which fills up the sheet (or download and print
our wall circle sheet). Then stick the sheets on
the walls of the classroom, at a height your
students can reach. At this point of your
lesson, take out your colored pencils/crayons
and demonstrate the activity. Walk around the
class and color a small part of each circle with
one color (always say the color as you are

coloring). So there will be one circle with some

red color in it, one with yellow, and so on.
Next, tell your students to take out their
colored pencils/crayons. Have them walk
around the classroom, coloring in a bit of each
circle with the same colors you used. Make
sure they say the color as they do each
coloring.
5.Play Point at the Colored Circles. Have all of
your students sit down. Call out a color and
demonstrate by pointing at the colored circle
on the wall. Do all of the colors in the order of
the song, with the students pointing at the
different colored circles.
6.Sing The Rainbow Song. The first time you
play the song, put up the Rainbow Song song
poster on the board. Quickly elicit the colors.
Play the song and sing along, touching the
colors as you sing. You can even invite a
student to come up to the board and touch the
colors with you. Next, give out all 7 colors (e.g.
colored paper, pencils, etc.) to each student.
Get each student to lay out the colors in front
of him/her, in the order of the song. As you pay
the song again, have all students touch each
color and sing along.
7.Do a colors worksheet. To finish off this section
of the lesson, give out worksheets which have
the vocab from the song. As your students are
doing the worksheets, ask questions (e.g.
what color is that?, etc.). You can also give a
colors worksheet for homework.

You can play a few games with the game cards you
can print above. I have been playing a game where
I put one set of the game cards on a table, or the
floor. I ask the students to ask me, "how many
rainbows do you see?" and I answer, " I see two
rainbows" then the first student to touch that card
wins. If it is a bigger group, and younger kids, you
can have them ask you the question one by one,
and one at a time they try to find the card.
Matching is very easy and fun. You will need two
sets of cards for this. Put the cards on the table
upside down so they cannot see the rainbows, and
mix the cards. The students have to find 2
matching cards. When they pick up the cards they
should say, " I see 2 rainbows" or how many are on
the cards. The student with the most matches
wins.
Lesson Plan: What color is it? It's (color).

Target Language: What color is it? It's (color).

Vocabulary: red, green, blue, yellow (flashcards)
Target: Young Learners
Greetings and Warm-up: Greet the class with a
good-morning or good-afternoon depending on the

day. Have the class stand up and respond to your

greeting and do the warm-up. Ask the students,
"Do you want to sing a song?? Usually, they'll
nod and begin to twitch and move their bodies.
Some will respond with a yes. Songs I teach young
learners include the "Eensy Weensy Spider?,
"Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes?, "The
Alphabet Song?, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?,
"Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush,? "Ring
Around The Rosey?, and "Row, Row, Row Your
Boat?.
After the warm-up, sit the students down.
Introduce the new vocabulary using flashcards.
Show the flashcard or place them on the
blackboard. Point to the flashcard and say red.
Have the students repeat after you. Do this a few
times for all the new vocabulary.
Model the dialogue with a puppet. I use a Panda
puppet to help me do this. Place the flashcards on
the blackboard. Take Panda out of a special bag.
Say "Hello Panda? and then introduce him to the
class. Ask Panda "What colour is it?? while
pointing to the flashcard with the red colour.
Panda's answers: "It's red.? Do this for all the
flashcards and repeat the question/answer routine
a couple of times. Make a mistake or two along the
way. Point to the green flashcard. Have Panda say,
"It's blue.? then turn to the students, and have
them tell Panda the correct answer.

Divide the class into 2 groups. One group asks the

question "What colour is it?? And the other group
answers, "It's (colour) depending on the flashcard
shown. Run between the two groups. Better still, if
you have a helper or if the homeroom teacher is
present, ask them to help you. Alternate the
dialogue between the two groups a few times until
they get the hang of the dialogue.
Activity: Sit the students in a circle. Hold up a
flashcard (red), point to it and say, "It's red.?
Then hold up a ball and say, "What colour is it??
Demo with several students. Give the ball to one
student and the flashcard to another student. Have
them stand up. Get them to practice the dialogue.
Do this several times with several different
students until the class gets a feel as to what they
are suppose to do. If the students are very timid or
shy, have two students for each part stand up and
do the dialogue. So, two students say, "What
colour is it?? And the other two students say,
"It's (colour).? Play the music and get the
students to pass the ball and flashcard around the
circle, both going in opposite directions. Stop the
music. The two students holding the ball and the
flashcard stand up and do the dialogue.
If I there's a Chinese or Japanese teacher or helper
in the class, I'll play the "What colour is it??
game. Divide the class into two equal groups,
teams A and B. If there's one team with an extra

member, have one student play twice. Line up the

two teams in two single straight lines. Demo the
game with a few students. Team A students go to
Team A teacher and Team B students go to Team B
teacher and is asked the question "What colour is
it?? while being shown a flashcard. The
respective student responds. They then go to the
end of the line and the next student advances.
When ready, start the game by shouting out go
and encourage the students to advance to the
front. Show your student a flashcard and ask
him/her "What colour is it?? S/he answers, "It's
red.? Have them go to the end of the line and the
next student advances. The first team to get
through the questions wins. As a reward, the
winning team gets a round of applause.
Another game I play is the touching game. The
class is divided into two equal teams. Colour
flashcards are placed on the blackboard. I shout
out a colour say for example, red and a member of
each team has to run to the board and touch it.
The first student to touch the colour first earns a
point for their team. The team with the most points
wins and receives a round of applause.
Another activity that children enjoy doing is
'colours in the air'. Randomly hand different
coloured papers to the students. Call out a colour
for example red and the students with that
coloured paper hold it up in the air.

To wrap up the class, have the students do a

colouring activity. Your students will require colour
crayons to complete the activity. Draw the items to
be coloured on the blackboard. Demonstrate the
activity. Have the students watch you. Take the red
crayon, say red, and colour part of the apple red.
Say the colour and colour a little bit of the other
items, the frog green, the sun yellow, and the
balloon blue. Distribute the handouts to the
students and have them colour the items the
appropriate colour. Go around the classroom and
ask the students, "What colour is the apple??
while pointing to the object on the piece of paper.
If there's time remaining, teach them a new song
or sing again the song you did in the warm-up.
End the class with a good-bye and say, "That's all
for today. See you next time.?