Colors Lesson Plan
Teaching colors to beginner language learners will enable them to begin to describe the things around them. With so many colors, however, learning color vocabulary can be challenging. This lesson plan includes many fun and engaging games and activities to help kids/beginner ESL students master vocabulary to do with colors.
The activities in this lesson plan are mainly aimed at young ESL students. These activities can, however, be adapted to teach older beginner learners. You can download all the materials you need for this lesson below. And see the bottom of the page for additional games and activities to teach colors to English language learners.
Materials for this lesson:
Colors Lesson Plan for Beginner ESL Students
Introduction and Warm Up
A great way to start your colors class is with a song. A good ESL song will motivate and energize your students and prepare them for class. A quick search of YouTube will return many color songs, and finding the right one can be difficult and time-consuming. Here are our favorite songs for introducing colors to kids.
‘Rainbow Colors Song‘ by the Singing Walrus. The lyrics of this song associate all the colors with objects that kids are familiar with. For example, green frog, orange carrot, etc. This song is great for introducing the topic of colors and to activate students’ existing knowledge of color vocabulary.
‘The Train Colors Song‘ by KidsTV123. This is another great song you can use to introduce the topic of colors. The lyrics in this song are quite simple (red train, blue train) and easy for learners to understand. This song also has a very fast chorus, which kids love to try to sing.
To start the class, play one of the songs and ask students to try and guess what they will study today. Then, try to elicit some color words from the students. Once students have an understanding of what they will study, it’s time for a fun warm activity using the song.
Give each student one color object. This can be a color pen/pencil or use these color student cards. Then, play the song again and ask students to stand up when they hear their color. Once students have practiced one time, make it even more fun by speeding up the video on YouTube.
Practice Key Words And Sentences
Using these color flashcards, practice the keywords by showing the flashcards and asking students to repeat after you. Then, ask students to try to say the colors on their own. Once students have practiced enough, it’s time for a fun flashcard game to practice some more. Put all the flashcards on the board and then tell students to close their eyes. Next, remove one of the flashcards, place it face down on the desk, and then tell students to open their eyes.
Point to the flashcard on the desk and ask the students, “What color is it?”. Students must try to remember what color is missing. This is a great way to make learners try to recall the vocabulary they just learned. It’s also a good way to introduce the key expression, “What color is it?”. To make this activity more fun, when a student guesses correctly, invite that student up to the front of the class to choose the next card.
Activity 1: ‘I Spy’ Game – I See Something (Green).
For the next activity, students must try to guess what object you are thinking of. Look around the classroom and choose one of the objects. Then, before students start to guess, give them a hint by letting them know the color of the object by saying, “I see something (green).”. The students should guess what object you are thinking of by looking around the class for something of the same color. Once a student guesses correctly, invite that student to the front of the class to try.
Activity 2: Board Game – Flick The Eraser Game
This board game is best played in pairs and is designed to get your students to make a dialogue about colors with their partners. To play, one student should place his/her eraser at the bottom of the page and flick the eraser using their finger. If the eraser lands on a color, they should ask their partner, “What color is it?” and their partner should answer.
Then the student who flicked the eraser can claim that area by writing his/her name in that hexagon. Next, it’s the other student’s turn. At the end of the game, the student with the most areas is the winner. For more free printable board games about colors, click here.
Activity 3: Colors Telepathy Game
For this final activity, print these answer sheets and give one to each student or pair of students. In this ‘Telepathy Game’ students will see a black and white image, and they must try to guess what color it is. If they guess correctly, then they get a point. To indicate their guess, students must circle the color on the answer sheet. Alternatively, if you don’t want to use the answer sheet, students can indicate their guess by simply raising their hand or moving to one side of the classroom.
