School Sparks - Kindergarten Readiness

Why knowing the color words is important

Colors are all around us. And young children, in particular, are especially adept at searching for and identifying different colors. Since color words are often used to describe the many different things we see in our environment, knowing all of the color words will help your child express himself more clearly.

Tips for teaching children the color words

Children can learn to read the names of the color words by following phonics rules (since nearly all color words follow phonics rules). For example, when showing your child the color word red, ask him to name each letter in the word, then say aloud the sound each letter makes, then combine the individual sounds to say the entire word.

For many children, it may be easier to teach the color words as you would teach any other sight word. Write each color word on a small index card and then show the word to your child while you say aloud the word. With repeated exposure, your child will learn that the letters r-e-d- spell the word red and he will not need to sound it out each time he sees that word. This approach is especially helpful for some of the more challenging color words such as orange, black and purple, which include complicated sound combinations (called blends).

Extra tips for using the color words worksheets

You will quickly notice the main difference between the beginning, intermediate and advanced color words worksheets is that the beginning worksheets have the color words printed in their corresponding color. For example, the word blue is printed in the color blue. This is intended to help children get comfortable with the activity of matching colors to their color words, since a child can just match colors (red to red, for example) without needing to read each color word. On the intermediate and advanced worksheets, each color word is printed in black so children will need to carefully look at each color word to read what it says.

The easiest way to begin working on the beginning color words worksheets is to cover up the color words and ask your child to look only at each picture and name the dominant color he sees. Then, show your child the color words and have him draw a line connecting each color word with the corresponding picture. Since the color words are printed in the corresponding color, matching the color word with the picture should be relatively easy for most children.

On the intermediate color words worksheets, the color words are not printed in color so your child will need to read each word to determine what color it says. Begin with the color word on top and ask your child to name each letter in the word. Then, focusing on the first letter in the word, ask your child to name the sound that letter makes. Using that sound as a guide, encourage your child to make a guess as to what the color word says. In addition to helping him match colors to their color words, this process will help your child learn one of the key strategies for reading new words, which is to start by looking at the first letter of the word and focusing on the sound that letter makes.

The advanced color words worksheets will further challenge your child, since some color words will have two or more pictures in their row, whereas some color words will only have one picture (or no pictures) in their row. Also, since the color words are printed in black, your child will need to pay careful attention to each word to ensure he pastes the pictures in the correct rows.

When your child has completed the worksheets, you can cut the color words and pictures out and have your child paste each color word at the top of a different sheet of white paper to create a second activity. Ask your child to paste each picture on a page with the corresponding color word. Your child can also find other pictures in magazines that have the same color and paste them on the appropriate page or your child can draw his own pictures in the corresponding colors. Hang these color pages on a wall or bulletin board so that he sees the words often.

Activities to try at home to supplement the color words worksheets

• As your child is getting dressed, challenge him to call out the names of the colors in his clothing. It’s a perfect time to introduce him to more advanced colors like “turquoise,” “magenta” or “khaki.”
• Play hide and seek with colors. Take turns with your child where one person hides 2 or 3 items of the same color around your house and the other person seeks by hunting around the house to find them. Give each other clues using the color words. For example, you say say “It’s near something red” or “It’s hiding behind a blue book.”
• Cut many small pieces of colored construction paper into a bowl. Yell out the name of a color and challenge your child to find as many pieces of paper in that color as he can in 10 seconds. Have him pick out the pieces of paper and put them in a separate pile.
• When reading, pause before turning to the next page and ask your child to point to “something red” or “something blue.” Incorporating color words into fun activities like reading reinforces the color words.
• When eating small pieces of candy such as M&Ms, ask your child to sort the candy pieces by color before eating them. When he’s done sorting, ask him to use the correct color word to describe each group of candy. Or, add several peas to a bowl of green beans and ask your child to find them and eat them first. Or try hiding cherries in a bowl of purple grapes and challenge your child to eat the “red fruit” first.
• As you read, challenge your child to identify 5 different colors on each page of the book. Pause before turning each page so he can announce his findings. Or, when picking what book to read, ask your child to pick one that has “a lot of red” it in, for example. This will encourage him to flip the pages of the book before selecting one, scanning to see if he spies the designated color.