The color word red song

Teach color words with the ever-popular frog street press color songs. Here are the top color word songs on video, in my opinion, for kindergarten.

I don’t know about you but we used these songs repeatedly to teach how to spell color words in kindergarten. In fact, I love using songs so much that I created more songs to teach every sight word required by our district!

I’ll list the videos for each color and let you know what is listed for each color. Plus, I share how I taught a few of these songs to my five and six year old students with great success.

It’s my hope that by listing these all in one place you won’t have to go searching for them in the future. There are a few free printables and resources at the end so be sure to check them out.

The color songs were used to help build up the number of sight words my students knew and they also functioned as shared reading pieces.

Once students were familiar with the songs, they would practice the new sight words in these literacy centers:

• library center (small printed books of the songs)
• big book center (large 11×17 printed version books of the songs
• poetry center (printed on to sentence strips and word cards)
• listening center (small printed books with CD of song played multiple times)
• abc center (stamp the color words)
• pokey pin center (pin the color words in a sentence/phrase)
• word work center (build with playdough)

Color songs for kindergarten

Let’s start with the red color song. This one is pretty short and is a great introduction to learning sight words.

This song lists just two things that are red: firetrucks and stop signs. This is a very short song.

For that reason, it’s usually the first or second song I teach and also because the letters R-E-D (or even r-e-d) look from one another. Makes it easier for new little kinder eyes to distinguish between at the beginning of the year.

This Y-E-L-L-O-W color song lists these yellow things: baby ducks, daffodils, the sun, lemonade, scrambled eggs and a smiley face.

I taught motions with this song because there are a lot of items in it. I just made up the motions so you can too! Just keep them consistent the next time you sing the song {wink}

Here is a yellow color song video you can download.

Sung to a familiar tune, the O-R-A-N-G-E color song feels a bit awkward to start but you’ll quickly pick it up. It lists jack o’lanterns, oranges and carrots.

It’s a great one to introduce after you’ve covered blue, red and yellow.

This is an orange color song video you can download.

Blue is the first or second color word I taught. The sky and the ocean are the only two things listed in it, which makes the blue color word song on the same level as the red one.

This B-L-U-E song speeds up at the end which is really fun for the kinders. They love it.

Here’s another version of the B-L-U-E spells blue song. I add motions to this one so that when they speed up we can get really silly.

This is a blue color song video you can download.

While we were at our seats doing an art project I would put on a playlist of the songs (but without visuals as to not distract the easily distractable kinders — like by turning off your computer monitor). They would softly sing along as they worked and it was great review of all the songs keeping them fresh the whole year through.

The G-R-E-E-N song is one of my favorites. It may be because they have one or two other color words under their belt and pick up this one pretty fast as a result.

The green color word song lists: caterpillars and grasshoppers. It’s easy to create motions for.

I love using this word later in the school year too as a way to teach the «ee» vowel pattern since they’ve seen it in this word a gazillion times.

The black color song feels kind of long and has a few more obtuse things in it… like do most kids even know what Sunday shoes are anymore? It’s catchy though which is helpful since there a lot of things listed: bats, jelly beans, cats, Sunday shoes and Santa’s boots.

If you’re longing for the little printable book template that goes with the color books then you’ll appreciate this next version of the B-L-A-C-K song.

Here is a black color song video you can download.

I used these printable little books and enlarged them onto colored construction paper. I laminated them and bound one side.

They made for a great first set of big books for our big book literacy center and made teaching the words whole group a little easier with such a large model.

Okay, I’ll admit that the B-R-O-W-N song is my least favorite. it’s sung to the tune of Bingo, which may have something to do with it… but it may be because there are a good number of things listed.

The brown song includes: teddy bears, chocolate milk, chocolate candies, leaves, chocolate cake and squirrels.

Here is a brown color song video you can download.

It also could be that this one was tough to come up with motions for {wink} We did a «hug» for teddy bear since it was the only thing I could come up with on the spot. But, no matter whether I like it or not, using songs to teach really does work!

It’s one of the secrets of teaching kindergarten I used all the time.

What I haven’t mentioned yet was that part of the motions for learning these color songs is that we sign the letters.

Yep — we use sign language to spell out each color word. We use sign language every day along with our alphabet chart so we get really good at fingerspelling.  Plus, I like to teach a few other signs to use so I can communicate across the classroom (or the gym during assembly) without speaking a word.

Being able to say, «Sit down!» or «Go!» without having to utter an actual word is pretty priceless… and goes a lot farther than just using the teacher eye I’ve perfected. Just sayin’

The purple song goes pretty fast for fingerspelling, but that makes it fun.

Here is an alternative P-U-R-P-L-E color song with a white background instead of balck in case that’s easier on the eyes.

Purple includes these items: grapes and Kool-aid.

Here are two versions of the white color song. My kinders loved this color word song because they could get loud with saying «Boo!» and «Ho, ho, ho!»

The W-H-I-T-E song by frog street press has two verses and includes these white things: clouds, snow, ghosts, milk, glue and Santa’s beard.

Here is a white color song video you can download.

And lastly — we’ve got the color pink.

I’ll admit this one took me the longest to learn! The P-I-N-K color song goes fast because it is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.

I usually saved this color song until later in the school year even though the word is shorter. You just don’t see the word pink as often as the primary colors in most early leveled readers.

The pink color word song includes: cotton candy, pigs, Valentines, icing, bubble gum, balloons, girls with sock and bows.

Here is a pink color song video you can download.

More free resources to teach color words

As I was rounding all of these videos up for you, I came across a few free resources you might find handy.

If you want to snag the lyrics for these songs, then this list of color songs lyrics is quick to use.

You could always print this set of color song lyrics or this simplified color word poems version to hang in your classroom too.

If you have a smart board then this smartboard free file may be what you’re looking for!

Conclusion

There you have it. The color songs (in video form) all in one place and my introduction to using them in the kindergarten classroom if you aren’t using them already.

Are you a fan of using songs to teach sight words? You’ve got to get my Sing to Learn Sight Words pack. It comes with everything you’ll need to teach 31 kindergarten sight words.

Get Sing to Learn Sight Words

Do you wonder how to teach sight words? Here’s my five minutes each day format for how to teach sight words in kindergarten.

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

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