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Teaching Colors in French: Fun Activities to teach “les couleurs”

Are you reviewing or teaching colors in French?

“Les couleurs” is probably the first thing we teach students right after (or sometimes right along) the letters of the alphabet.

I’ve put together a list of speaking games, activity ideas, videos, and no-prep minibooks your French Immersion or Core French students will love!

Keep on reading to check them out.

Teaching Colors in French: post with game ideas, list of videos, minibooks, and more!

Teaching Colors in French: Important Tip!

Let me start out with a simple but important tip for teaching colors in French.

Colors are one of the first things we teach beginner students.

They don’t usually know French spelling/pronunciation, so we don’t want to confuse them.

What do I mean?

Don’t start out by writing down color words on the board and having them say the colors out loud.

Why not?

Because they might see the “ou” in “rouge” and try to pronounce it in a way that’s incorrect.

Then, the same thing will happen with the “eu” in “bleu”, and the “”au” in “jaune”, and so on.

Just to make it more complicated for French teachers, colors in French include a lot of complex sounds…

So what should you do instead if you’re not writing the words on the board to introduce color words in French?

Simple! Show them the colors (use flashcards or objects) and then have them repeat the color names.

When students are VERY comfortable with the way they should be pronouncing “les couleurs”, you can then introduce the written words.

Teaching Colors in French: Simple and Fun Speaking Game

The easiest and most fun speaking game your students can play to practice saying color words in French is the chain story.

I love this game because you can really adapt it to the different levels of language proficiency your students might have.

First, let me describe how the game works in case you don’t know it, or don’t remember it.

A “chain story game” doesn’t really have to be a story (it can be just words) nor is it really a game.

Start out by saying a word or couple of words.

One student needs to repeat what you said and add more words, following a specific theme or language structure.

Then, another student needs to repeat what you said, followed by what the first student said, and then adding their own words.

It goes on like this until a student makes a mistake, or for a certain period of time you can determine as you start out the game.

How would it work with colors?

It can be super simple by having students pairing up an object and a color. It would go something like this:

Teacher starts our by saying: un oiseau bleu

Student 1 says: un oiseau bleu et une fraise rouge

Student 2 says: un oiseau bleu, une fraise rouge et une fleur jaune

Want to make it a bit more complex?

Have students add the sentence starter “Je vois” to the sentences.

Maybe you want them to ALSO review numbers?

If so, you could have them add the number of things they see: “Je vois 5 crayons verts”, “Je vois 2 livres orange”, etc.

Teaching Colors in French: Get Up and Move Speaking Activity

Want your students up and moving AND speaking French?

If so, have them interview one another to find out what their classmates’ favorite color is!

When I did activities similar to this one in the classroom, I’d follow these steps:

Review color words
Teach/review questions and responses for the interview, i.e. “Quelle est ta couleur préférée?” and “J’aime le____”.
Tell students that they should interview at least 3-5 different classmates.
Set a time! (That’s important because we don’t want the activity to be too long or boring or chaotic…)
Have them stand up and walk around the room interviewing classmates.
Tell them to take notes of the responses.
Finish by having a few students (ones who volunteer!) tell the class about a classmate: “Ana aime le vert.” or “La couleur préféréee de Noah est le blanc.”, etc

As an expansion or homework activity, if they have the proficiency to do so, have them write down sentences about their classmates.

If they’re intermediate/advanced, you can have them write more complex sentences, such as “Kayla et moi, nous aimons la même couleur: le bleu.”

Teaching Colors in French: No-prep Minibooks

Do your students already know color words, but they need to review them?

Or you want them to expand on what they know?

Try these printable color minibooks!

There are two different minibooks for each of 11 colors:

rouge
rose
violet
bleu
vert
jaune
orange
brun (and marron)
blanc
gris
noir

French Color Minibooks: no-prep printable activity to practice 11 color words in French — These are the covers of the **more complex version** of the minibooks!

Why two different minibooks for each color?

Here are a few reasons:

You might want to differentiate the activity, so you’d assign the simpler version to one student and the more complex version to another student.
Maybe you teach different grades, so you’d use one version of the minibooks with one group and the other version with another grade. This comes in handy if you’re teaching a split, so both grades would be working on the same subject, but at different levels.
You could use one version in the beginning of the year and the harder version at the end of the school year.

What’s the difference between the minibook versions?

Each version has 3 different activities.

Check out the images below to see what the two versions of the “orange” minibooks look like.