Color Fun with Blocks: Teaching Primary Colors in English to 3-Year-Olds

Looking for a fun way to teach primary colors in English? Check out this post for a hands-on lesson plan for preschoolers!

Teaching English to preschoolers requires creativity, structure, and a strong understanding of how young children learn best. Color Fun with Blocks is a hands-on English lesson designed for 3-year-old students in Infantil that introduces the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) in English through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities.

This project was also created for my final MOOC assignment as a language assistant in Madrid, to support early English language acquisition in Infantil.

Project Overview

• Educational Level: Infantil – 3 years old
• Subject Area: English
• Lesson Duration: 45 minutes
• Project Title: Color Fun with Blocks

My final project, Color Fun with Blocks, is useful because it introduces 3-year-olds to English vocabulary in a hands-on and engaging way. The lesson I created combines visual aids, songs, and a block-sorting game to help students recognize, name, and pronounce primary colors. It is also original because it supports different learning styles, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, while encouraging multisensory learning. Students also actively learn through a movement song, making the lesson dynamic, memorable, and easily adaptable for future lessons that cover other topics, colors, or shapes.

Tools and Materials Used

• Digital presentation (slides)
• Color songs
  • Red
  • Blue
  • Yellow
• Movement song
• Colored wooden blocks
• Flashcards with real images of objects
• Stamp
• Labeled Bins
• Primary Color Signs

The teaching materials and activities in Color Fun with Blocks effectively foster learning by engaging students through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities, ensuring that every child can participate and retain the new vocabulary. The combination of songs, flashcards, and the block-sorting game enables children to actively practice recognizing, naming, and pronouncing colors in a playful, hands-on manner.

The materials and activities are also highly adaptable: for older students, the lesson could include more colors, while for other subject areas, the same approach could teach shapes in English. This flexibility also ensures that the activities can be repurposed across age levels, topics, and learning objectives, making them valuable tools for any classroom setting.

Objectives

The objectives of this lesson are to:

• Introduce students to the primary colors (red, blue, yellow) in English.
• Help students recognize, name, and pronounce each color.
• Encourage participation through hands-on learning.
• Support different learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic).
• Create a positive and engaging first experience with English in the classroom.

Lesson Outline

Introduction – Movement Song (10 min):

• Greet students and introduce what they will be learning today with the primary color signs.
• Play a short movement song that includes all three primary colors, encouraging students to copy the movements to the color mentioned.
• Use this time to engage students and capture their attention before you start the first activity.

Activity 1 – Color Songs & Presentation (15 min):

• Show the presentation slide for red. Have students repeat the color word as you show them what other objects are red.
• Follow it up with the red color song. Encourage students to repeat the color word in the song and sing along.
• Repeat the process for blue and yellow, showing the corresponding songs after each slide.
• Encourage students again to say the colors aloud, point to the images, and interact with the content.

Activity 2 – Block Sorting Game (15 min):

• Give each student one block to hold in their hand. The block could be red, yellow or blue.
• Call students individually to the front to sort the block they have in their hand into the correct bin.
• Encourage each student to name the color in English as they place the block in the correct bin.
• Provide support for students who need help, and allow more confident students to demonstrate or repeat the colors.
• This individual approach ensures each student participates actively and allows for direct observation of learning.

Wrap-Up – Assessment & Stamps (5 min):

Video by Jade Okanlawon

• Show flashcards of objects corresponding to each color to each student individually
• Students name the color and get a stamp if they name the color correctly in English.

Optional Activity – Replay Movement Song (if there is extra time):

• Replay the movement song from the introduction to reinforce learning.
• Encourage students again to copy the movements for each color, making the lesson playful and memorable.

Roles, Collaboration, and Differentiated Learning

Role of the Teacher

The teacher’s role in my final project was to manage student behavior and support learning while I led the lesson. During the activity, the teacher ensured that the students stayed attentive, followed instructions, and remained engaged. The teacher also assisted with taking pictures and recording videos to document the lesson.

Role of the Language Assistant

My role as the language assistant was to introduce and teach English vocabulary to the students by guiding them through the activities and encouraging participation. I led the lesson, modeled correct pronunciation, and helped the students recognize, name, and practice primary colors through songs, flashcards, and a block-sorting game. I also adapted the activities to different learning styles and levels, ensuring every child can engage and succeed.

Collaboration Between Teacher and Assistant

The teacher and I worked together to ensure the lesson ran smoothly and effectively. While I led the English activities, the teacher managed classroom behavior, reinforced understanding in Spanish when needed, and supported student engagement.

Other School Activities Participation

As a language assistant, I have participated in various school activities, such as creating a presentation for Primaria to teach about Halloween in the United States. I also assisted with the Halloween Taller Sensorial for Infantil, supporting students as they explored different materials while practicing English vocabulary. These activities allowed me to engage with students in both classroom and extracurricular contexts, supporting language learning in fun and interactive ways.

Furthermore, in these extracurricular activities, my collaboration involved using English words to describe the materials and experiences the children were interacting with, such as chia seeds, shaving cream, spaghetti, and gelatin for the Halloween Sensory Table. I also guided students in naming, describing, and exploring these materials in English while supporting their curiosity and engagement. This hands-on approach helped the students connect language learning to real-world experiences and reinforced vocabulary in a playful, meaningful way.

Addressing Learning Styles and Student Levels

Learning Styles

• Visual learners: Used flashcards and a short presentation with clear images of primary colors and familiar objects.
• Auditory learners: Included songs for red, blue, and yellow to reinforce pronunciation and recognition.
• Kinesthetic learners: Incorporated a hands-on block-sorting activity where students physically move blocks to the correct color bins.

Student Levels

• Beginner students: Focused on recognizing and repeating one color at a time.
• Advanced students: Focused on naming multiple colors independently.

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Overall, Color Fun with Blocks demonstrates how simple materials and intentional lesson design can effectively support early English language acquisition in Infantil classrooms. Please let me know in the comments below if you implemented the lesson plan yourself or made any adjustments to it. I would love to hear from you! 🙂

Color Fun with Blocks: Teaching Primary Colors in English to 3-Year-Olds © 2026 by Jolaade Okanlawon (Jade) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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