Back to School season will be here again before we know it and one thing will be on every teacher’s mind: Where do I begin with my students? I love to incorporate color recognition activities in the first few weeks of school. Why? When teaching students how to work independently, it’s important to start with skills that they already have a basic understanding of. That’s why today I’m sharing a free Printable Color Sorting Activity with you. I like to introduce this activity in the beginning of the school year but it’s perfect to use any time of the year!
*Pair with our Color Centers and Activities for Pre-K & Kindergarten!
Printable Color Sorting Activity
This printable color sorting activity is a perfect small group or center activity. It will get your little ones practicing how to work independently while maintaining basic academic skills – color recognition and sorting. It includes 11 color header cards and 66 sorting cards. There are 6 cards for each color – black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, and gray. It’s easy to prep and sure to be a hit with your students!
How to Prep
To prep this activity, start by printing the header and sorting cards (download below). I recommend printing on cardstock and laminating for durability and reuse in your centers year after year.
Cut out all of the cards and store in your favorite bag, box, or bin. I love to organize my center activities like this in plastic photo storage boxes or soap boxes. They’re inexpensive and just the right size!
How to Play
When you’re ready for the students to play, set the headers and sorting cards out on a flat surface. It’s important to model the activity when first introducing it. I like to make it interactive by simply guiding the activity and having several students model what to do.
Make sure students understand that the headers are the cards that tell what color belongs in that group. Have them set the header cards out, naming the colors as they go.
Next, they should pick a card one at a time, each time naming the color of the picture on the card.
Students place the card under the header with the matching color. Repeat this process until all cards are sorted.
In addition to practicing color recognition and sorting skills, this activity also helps students to recognize color words, as the color words are printed on each card. It can easily be turned into a color word matching game!
Differentiating for Your Students
If you have students that are just beginning to identify their colors, you may choose to lessen the amount of colors they need to sort. You could begin by setting out the colors they can independently identify with just one new color that they are learning.
This will allow your students to be focused on learning that one new color group without feeling overwhelmed.
It’s important to have a baseline so that you know ahead of time which colors your students know and which colors they may still be learning to recognize. Once you have this information, you can differentiate this activity to fit their needs.
Grab Your FREE Copy
Ready for some color sorting fun? Grab your free copy of this printable Color Sorting Activity by clicking the large, yellow download button at the end of the post!
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This is lovely. I am making games for 3 kindergarten classes. I just wish I had access to low cost 5 mil laminating. If I am making games for my classroom and my neighbor, I want them to last more than 1 year.
Hi Lois,
We are happy to hear you are enjoying our Color Sorting Activity. One of our favorite personal use laminators is the Scotch Thermal Laminator. It uses both 3M and 5M laminating sheets. You can find it here for your convenience–>>https://amzn.to/2NWzrd3
Thank you so much for sharing this! This will be perfect for my preK students.
It’s our pleasure! Glad you are enjoying our activities!
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR GENEROSITY IN SHARING THESE WONDERFUL WORK OF ART activities and worksheets.
MY STUDENTS WILL HAVE A HAPPY WEEK!
Hi Donna,
We are so happy you are enjoying our resources! Have a wonderful week!