Spanish Colors
Title: Colors in Spanish
Teacher(s): Natalie Cordova
Grade: Second Class
Time: Approx. 45 minutes
Big Idea/ Concept: Learn the basic colors in Spanish
Materials:
Visuals:
 Whiteboard/marker
 List of different vowel
pronunciations
 Pencils
 List of colors in English with
 Colored Pencils
Spanish equivalents
 Stack of 10 slips of paper per student
 Color by Number worksheet x29
Lesson Timeline:
Introduction:.
Ok boys and girls, today we’re going to talk about colors in Spanish. But before we do
that, we need to go over some pronunciations. You all know that in English, our vowels
can make several different sounds, right? Yes! Well in Spanish, they only make one sound
each! Lets go over them – who can name the vowels? Give me one. A, E, I, O, and U.
Ok great, now when we see the letter ‘A’, it makes the sound ‘ah’- like when you realize
something and you say “ah, yes, I did know that.” Say it with me – ah!
The letter ‘E’ make the sound ‘eh’ – like when you say the word ‘empty’ or ‘when’. Say
it with me – eh!
Now the letter ‘I’ is a little different, it makes the sound ‘ee’ – like in the word ‘feet.’ Say
it with me – ee!
The letter ‘O’ is pretty simple, it just about says it’s own name ‘oh’ – like when you say
‘oh no’ or the word ‘open.’ Say it with me – oh!
And the last vowel, ‘U’ makes the sound ‘oo’ – like when you say the word ‘food.’ Say it
with me – oo!
Ok, now what sound does this one make? *points to various vowels to get them
acquainted with the different sounds*
Discussion:
Ok great, now that we know what sounds all the vowels make, lets talk about our colors.
I’m going to pass out to each of you 10 slips of paper. As we go along and talk about our
10 different colors, each time we come to a new one, you’re going to write the color in
English, an equals sign (=), and then the color in Spanish. Afterwards, you’re going to
color that slip of paper whatever color is written on it. Now, while I hand out the slips of
paper, I want you to take out a pencil and the following colors – red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, purple, black, brown and grey. Everything else can be put away, because I
don’t want you all to be tempted to play with anything.
Ok, does everyone have what they need? The 10 slips of paper, a pencil, and your colored
pencils? Yes! Great, now let’s get started.
Our first color is going to be red and the word for red in Spanish is rojo. Now the letter ‘j’
in Spanish makes an ‘h’ sound. So it is spelled with the ‘j’ but it sounds like ro-ho. Say it
with me – rojo! Now on your first slip of paper, I want you to write ‘red = rojo’ and color
it red.
The next color is orange and the word for orange in Spanish is anaranjado – now
remember, we just said that the ‘j’ makes an ‘h’ sound and all of the ‘a’s are going to
make the same ‘ah’ sound. Try to say it with me – anaranjado! (if needed, segment
further to ana-ran-ja-do and then blend together – anaranjado) And then on your card
write “orange = anaranjado” and color it orange.
The next color is yellow and the Spanish word for yellow is amarillo. Now this is another
funny one – the double l’s in Spanish make a ‘y’ sound – like in the word ‘yoyo’ Now
say it with me – Amarillo! On your card, write “yellow = amarillo” and color it.
The next color is green and the Spanish word for green is verde. Say it with me – verde!
On your card write “green = verde” and color it.
Next is the color blue, which in Spanish is the word azul. In this word, the letter ‘z’ has
an ‘s’ sound to it. Say it with me – azul! Write and color your card.
Our next color is purple and in Spanish, the word for purple is violeta. It’s very similar to
the word violet, which is a shade of purple. Let’s remember all the sounds that our vowels
make as we say this word together. Say it with me – violeta! Wonderful, now write on
your card “purple = violeta”
Next, our color is black, which in Spanish the word is negro. Say it with me – negro!
Now for this card, I want you to write the usual “black = negro” but just color around the
words so that you can still read it.
Our next color is white and the Spanish word for white is blanco. Say it with me –
blanco! Now after you write your “white = blanco” on your slip of paper, you don’t need
to color it because the paper’s already white.
Moving along, our next color is brown. The word for brown in Spanish is café. Now this
one is a little different because it has this little mark over the ‘e’ at the end, and that little
mark is called an accent. When a vowel has an accent over it, that sound in the word is
emphasized. So the word is not just cafe, but café! Say it with me – café! Very good!
Now be sure to include the accent over the ‘e’ when you write “brown = café” and be
sure to color it in.
Ok, our last color is grey and the Spanish word for grey is gris. Say it with me – gris!
Great, now let’s write it on our last slip and color it in cause we’re going to need all of
our cards.
Activity:
Ok, so we’re going to play a little game in which I ask you the question “Que color es
_____?” which means “what color is ________?” and you all will hold up the correct
color card. And we want to make sure that we are not calling out, we’re checking
ourselves here, not everyone else around us. So be sure to just worry about your own
cards that you’re holding up and not checking other peoples cards.
So if I say, “Que color es the sky?” show me which card you would hold up. *holds up
card that says “blue = azul”* Very good! Ok well, Que color es the board? The yard? The
floor? My shirt? Grass? Antonia’s dress? Carrots? The bulletin board? Etc. *along the
way, call on individual students to say aloud which color it is in Spanish*
Ok, now turn to the person next to you and in pairs, for each of the colors, I want you to
come up with two things that are that color and write them on the back of your color
cards. So for azul (blue) I would write down water. Try to use things that were not
already said, try to come up with two things that are all your own. Then, once you’ve
come up with two things for each color, with your partner, each of you will take one of
two words you came up with and you’ll say “______ is whatever the color is in Spanish”
to one another. You’ll do this for each of the colors. Go ahead.
Closing:
You all have done so great today with all of this Spanish! I’m so impressed! I’m gonna
hand you all a color by number. At the bottom, it has the corresponding colors in Spanish
to the numbers that are on the picture. If you get stuck, you can look up here at the board
or at your own cards that we made today. After you’re done coloring, you’re going to
glue these into your scrapbooks. Would the three people who usually pass out the books
come hand out the scrapbooks, please? While you all are coloring, I’m going to come
around and tape in your color cards so that if you want to go back and look at them, you
can still flip them up and see what’s on the back.
See Below for Extra Materials
Extra Materials
Photo of Sample Color Cards
Color by Numbers Worksheet Template