ESL Activities

ESL lesson planning made easy!

  • Warm-Up
  • Listen
  • Read
  • Speak
  • Write
  • Jobs & TEFL Cert

in Icebreakers + Warm-Ups· Listening· Speaking

Teaching Colors in English: Games, Activities, Lesson Plans & More

Let's TEFL

If you teach English to pre-school, kindergarten or elementary school children, then it’s likely you’ll run across plenty of units about colours in your textbooks. It’s a natural fit and that’s why you’ll want to check out these games, activities, lesson plans and worksheets for teaching colors in English.

teaching-colors

Teaching Colors: Games + Activities

Table of Contents

  • Top 15 Activity and Game Ideas for Teaching Colors in English
  • Online Practice For Learning Colors
  • ESL Color Lesson Plans
  • Teaching Colours Worksheets
  • Did you Like these Teaching Colors in English Games and and Activities?
  • Have your Say about Teaching Colours in English
  • Games, Activities & ESL Teaching Tips

Top 15 Activity and Game Ideas for Teaching Colors in English

Are you ready to get to the best games for teaching colors? Keep reading for the top 15 options to choose from.

#1: Flyswatter Game

If you’re teaching colours to pre-school or kindergarten kids, then you’ll want to try out Flyswatter. The way it works is that you write a bunch of colours randomly on the whiteboard. Then, two students come to the front of the class and take a flyswatter.

Give hints that relate to one of the colours and the first student to slap the correct one gets a point for their team. Sounds like something you want to try out? Check it out here:

ESL Flyswatter Game.

#2: Colour Idiom Activity

There are a ton of English idioms that have to do with colours. Some of them include:

  • Green with envy
  • Tickle me pink
  • Red tape
  • Beet red
  • Black and white
  • Black sheep
  • Born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth
  • Catch red handed
  • Etc.

A fun activity that makes English colour idioms memorable is this one to try out in your classes. Find out all the details here:

English Idioms Activity.

#3: Color Game For Kids

#4: Odd One Out

One of my favourite review games for colours is Odd One Out. The way it works is that you write four things on the board. Three are matching while one of them is not. For example:

  • Cucumber, tree, eggplant, apple

There are certainly a number of possible answers. However, one possible one is eggplant because it’s purple while the other things can all be green. Check it out here:

Odd One Out ESL Vocabulary Game.

#5: Word Association with Colours

Unless your ESL students are absolute beginners like with pre school students, it’s likely that they’ve learned about colours before. A nice review activity that helps to activate their prior knowledge about this topic is word association.

It’s possible to use this activity with a variety of topics but in this case, students have to shout out words that are associated with certain colours. For example, yellow-sun or green-tree.

Find out all the details here:

ESL Word Association Vocabulary Activity.

39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Help Students Learn and...
1 Reviews
39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Help Students Learn and...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 76 Pages - 11/28/2015 (Publication Date)
Check Price on Amazon

#6: Concentration Colours Game

One of the best colour games is this challenging memory one. In this case, you’d want to make some cards with colours and then the name of the colour.

In small groups, students have to spread out the cards face down and then it becomes a memory game as they try to find the matching sets. See all the details here:

ESL Concentration Game.

#7: Colours Songs and Chants for Teaching Colours

If you’re teaching colours to preschool or kindergarten kids, then you’ll certainly want to take advantage of songs and chants in your lesson plans. If you’re not musical (like me!), the good news is that there are plenty of colour songs that you can find on YouTube. Here’e just one of them.

#8: Dictation Practice With Colours

A simple, quick activity that helps students work on spelling and colours is dictation. For pre-school kids who are just learning to write, it may be as simple as saying the word and then having them write it down. For older kids, it may include saying a sentence with the colour in it.

Find out more about it here:

ESL Dictation Practice.

#9: Review Games and Activities for Teaching Colors

When you’re teaching colours, it’s all about review. This kind of vocabulary can be quite difficult for our students to learn because the names are quite abstract and don’t relate to each other or anything else for that matter. It’s straight up memorization!

If you want to help your students out with this tough task, consider using some of these ideas:

ESL Review Activities.

49 ESL Listening Activities for Kids (6-13): Practical Ideas for English Teachers Who Want to Help...
49 ESL Listening Activities for Kids (6-13): Practical Ideas for English Teachers Who Want to Help...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 110 Pages - 06/05/2020 (Publication Date)
Check Price on Amazon

#10: Word Challenge Spelling Game

If you’re teaching beginners, you may want to try out this colour spelling game. The way it works is that a student from each team comes up to the whiteboard. You say a word (a colour in this case) and the two students race to see who can spell it correctly first. Find out all the information about it right here:

Word Challenge Spelling Game.

#11: Chain Spelling

Another simple, fun spelling game is this one. It’s perfect for young learners. The way it works is that all the students have to stand up and then take turns spelling colours, letter by letter. If someone misses, they sit down are out of the game. The last person standing wins.

Here are all the details you need to know:

ESL Chain Spelling Game.

#12: Colour me Colours Game

#13: A to Z Warm-Up Game

Unless you’re teaching pre-school kids, it’s likely that your students already know a good number of colours. A nice review activity to help them activate this prior knowledge is this alphabet game. Check it out here:

A-Z ESL Alphabet Game.

#14: Listening for Colours

A nice way to introduce an ESL unit on colours is to use a listening passage of some kind where various colours are mentioned. There are a number of things you can do with it but one nice idea is to have students listen for any colours that they hear. More information about this here:

Listening for One Specific Thing.

#15: I Spy for Teaching Colors

This is a classic game that you can play with kids. Start it off by saying, “I Spy something that is (red).” Then, students have to guess what classroom object you’re talking about. The winner can choose an object for the second round.

teach-color-esl

How to teach colours for English learners

Online Practice For Learning Colors

If your students want to get some additional practice with learning the colours in English, there are plenty of fun games they can play online. Here are two of the best sites to direct them to:

ESL Games Plus

Games World

ESL Color Lesson Plans

If you teach preschool or kindergarten kids, colors is certainly a topic that you’ll see plenty of times. Here are some of the best ESL lesson plans for teaching colors to young learners:

ESL Kids Stuff

Games 4 ESL

Lingua House

Teaching Colours Worksheets

If you’re a teacher, then I’m sure you like to save time. A big way to do that is to use ESL color worksheets that other teachers have already made! No need to reinvent the wheel, right? Here are some of the best resources:

ISL Collective

Boggle’s World

English Worksheets

Did you Like these Teaching Colors in English Games and and Activities?

101 ESL Activities: For Teachers of Kids (6-13) Who Want to Have Fun, Engaging and Interactive...
5 Reviews
101 ESL Activities: For Teachers of Kids (6-13) Who Want to Have Fun, Engaging and Interactive...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Smith, Jennifer Booker (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 133 Pages - 03/31/2016 (Publication Date)
Check Price on Amazon

Yes? Thought so. Then you’re going to love this book that you can get over on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Kids. The key to better English classes with children is a wide variety of interesting, engaging games and activities and this book will certainly help you get there in style.

There are dozens of student-centred, engaging and interactive activities that you can use in your English classes. The students will love them and your lesson planning will be quick and easy. It really is possible to have fun ESL classes!

Head over to Amazon to pick up a copy of the book today. But, only if you want to get yourself a serious dose of ESL teaching awesome in your life:

shop-now-amazon

Have your Say about Teaching Colours in English

Do you have any tips or tricks for teaching colors for English learners? Or, another activity or game recommendation that you’d like to share with us? Please leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy english teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Last update on 2021-02-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Related posts:

esl-thanksgiving-activitiesThanksgiving ESL Activities, Games, Worksheets, Lesson Plans daily-routines-eslDaily Routines ESL Activities, Games, Lesson Plans & Worksheets body-parts-eslBody Parts ESL: Activities, Games, Vocabulary, Lesson Plans + More directions-eslDirections ESL Games, Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans days-of-the-week-games-eslDays of the Week Activities, Games, Worksheets and Lesson Plans
Let's TEFL

Games, Activities & ESL Teaching Tips

* indicates required

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 30 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults. She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at:
Facebook
Pinterest

« Thanksgiving ESL Activities, Games, Worksheets, Lesson Plans
Eliciting Techniques, Questions, Activities & Tips for ESL Teachers »

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. What does this mean? I recommend products (only ones that I like) and if you purchase a product through that link, I earn some money.

Advanced English Conversation Dialogues: Speak English Like a Native Speaker with Common Idioms and...
Advanced English Conversation Dialogues: Speak English Like a Native Speaker with Common Idioms and...
Check Price on Amazon
Sale 1001 English Expressions and Phrases: Common Sentences and Dialogues Used by Native English Speakers...
1001 English Expressions and Phrases: Common Sentences and Dialogues Used by Native English Speakers...
Check Price on Amazon
67 ESL Conversation Topics with Questions, Vocabulary, Writing Prompts & More:: For Teenagers and...
67 ESL Conversation Topics with Questions, Vocabulary, Writing Prompts & More:: For Teenagers and...
Check Price on Amazon
101 Activities and Resources for Teaching English Online: Practical Ideas, Games, Activities & Tips...
101 Activities and Resources for Teaching English Online: Practical Ideas, Games, Activities & Tips...
Check Price on Amazon
101 ESL Activities: For Teenagers and Adults
101 ESL Activities: For Teenagers and Adults
Check Price on Amazon
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want...
Check Price on Amazon
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Grammar Activities and Games: For Teenagers and Adults (Teaching ESL Grammar...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Grammar Activities and Games: For Teenagers and Adults (Teaching ESL Grammar...
Check Price on Amazon
39 ESL Icebreakers: For Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want to Start their English Classes Off...
39 ESL Icebreakers: For Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want to Start their English Classes Off...
Check Price on Amazon

Search this Site

Let's-TEFL

Recent Articles

  • Brainstorming Games, Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans
  • Modal Verbs Games and Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans
  • Daily Routines ESL Activities, Games, Lesson Plans & Worksheets
  • About + Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Top Selling ESL Activity Book

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Teenagers and Adults (Teaching ESL Conversation and...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Teenagers and Adults (Teaching ESL Conversation and...
Check Price on Amazon

Search

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More ESL Activities and Games

daily-routines-esl

Daily Routines ESL Activities, Games, Lesson Plans & Worksheets

best-websites-for-english-teachers

ESL Websites for English Teachers: Top 25 Resources

Problem advice board game

Problem-Advice Board Game | ESL Board Games

buy-nothing-day-esl

Buy Nothing Day ESL Activities, Games, Lesson Plans & Worksheets

About, Contact, Privacy Policy

Best-selling author and English teacher Jackie Bolen has been talking ESL activities and games since 2015. The goal is to bring you the best ideas, lesson plans, and activity recommendations for your TEFL classes.

Get in touch: About + Contact

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Email: [email protected]

ESL Activities on Pinterest

ESL Activities on Facebook

Address: 2436 Kelly Ave, Port Coquitlam, Canada

Copyright © 2021 Jackie Bolen + ESL Activities. All rights reserved.