An Introduction to Colours

This week I introduced colours to my 3 and 4 year olds. They have English sessions as part of an after school activity, once a week for 30 minutes. I have a group of nine children. They are now in their second month of learning English. 




We are just beginning a series of activities based around the picture book GO AWAY BIG GREEN MONSTER by Ed Emberley. 

What you will need:

2 sets of coloured bean bags. I got mine from here
a basket/bucket

We sat in a circle and I introduced some coloured bean bags. red, blue, yellow, purple and green. I held up the red bean bag and repeated red three times and then handed it to my right, each child repeated the word as they held the bean bag and the last child put the beanbag in the centre of the circle. We continued in the same way with the other colours. I checked pronunciation (green, purple).

I then touched each colour we sang a chant red, red, blue, blue, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, green, green.  The children joined in when they felt ready. I then asked individuals to touch a colour when I said it.

They then closed their eyes as I hid a bean bag behind my back open your eyes I said and asked what colour's missing? They invariably answered in French but I corrected them gently and as the game continued some started to say the colours in English

Next, I scattered the bean bags around the room and as I said the colour the children walked quickly to the appropriate bean bag (or not!!). 

We then played a game of Chinese Whispers. The children lined up in front of me. The bean bags were on a pile on the floor the other side of the room. I had an empty basket next to me. I whispered a colour in the first child's ear who then passed it along the line, whispering to the next person and so on. The child at the back of the line ran to the pile of bean bags and tried to find the correct colour. He held it up for his classmates for approval. The children responded with a yes/no. If the colour was correct the bean bag was brought to the front of the line and placed in the basket, if not the child tried again. The child then stood at the front of the line ready to listen to the next colour to be whispered. Play continued until the all the bean bags had been collected.

This was a great activity for concentration, listening really carefully, speaking for a real purpose and working as a team.The sensory and physical aspect of the activity helped to make it a real winner too! 

At this age children love and need to mimic others but with older children, you could make it more competitive by having two teams, or perhaps individual children could replace the teacher when whispering the colour. The teacher could even show a colour to the first child in the line, who then whispers to the next person and so on.

I've also played a game with older children where instead of holding the bean bag in their hands they have to balance it on top of their heads! Great fun!! I might try this one with my little ones next week.

How do you use bean bags in your classroom? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Main Communication:

• Listening and following instructions
• Recognising and repeating some colours red, blue, yellow, purple and green
• Pronunciation: green,purple