Free Color Recognition Worksheets for Preschool – Find the Same Color

These free printable color recognition worksheets ask preschool children to do one thing fifty times: look at a colored shape and find the other shape that is the same color. Five rows on each page, three shapes to choose from in every row.

The shape is a trap, and it is a deliberate one. In forty-eight of the fifty rows the correct answer is a different shape from the one in the box – a brown hexagon is matched by a brown triangle, a red star by a red circle. A child who matches shapes instead of colors gets almost the whole pack wrong.

The instruction at the top says it plainly: look only at the color, the shape can be different.

What Is in This Free Color Recognition Worksheet Pack

• Ten printable worksheets with five rows on each – fifty questions in all.
• Eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and brown.
• Six shapes: circle, square, triangle, star, heart and hexagon, used interchangeably.
• Five different target colors on every page, so no color is asked for twice on one sheet.
• An eleventh page showing all eight colors as a chart.
• A separate PDF for every page, free to download and print.

The 11 Color Recognition Worksheets

We checked every row: exactly one of the three choices is the right color, every time. There is never a second shape that could be argued for, which matters on a sheet aimed at children too young to argue their case.

There is one thing worth knowing before you print. Across the fifty rows, the answer is the right-hand shape twenty-seven times – more than half. It is the left-hand one thirteen times and the middle one only ten. A child who always circles the last shape will score better than chance, so it is worth watching how they choose rather than only what they choose.

Worksheet 1 – Brown, orange, pink, purple, red

The five target colors on this page are brown, orange, pink, purple, red.

The first row is a brown hexagon against an orange square, a blue square and a brown triangle. Two of the three wrong answers are not even close, which is what a first row should look like.

By the last row the distractors are tighter: a purple hexagon is offered a purple heart, an orange hexagon and a yellow circle. The orange hexagon is the same shape as the target and the wrong color, which is the trap this pack is built on.

Worksheet 2 – Blue, brown, orange, pink, yellow

The five target colors on this page are blue, brown, orange, pink, yellow.

Blue, orange, brown, yellow and pink. Brown and orange sit two rows apart, and they are the two colors children mix up most at this age.

Every page uses five different colors for its five targets, so no color is asked for twice on the same sheet.

Worksheet 3 – Blue, brown, green, pink, purple

The five target colors on this page are blue, brown, green, pink, purple.

Green, purple, brown, pink and blue. The pink row offers a pink target and a pink answer with an orange shape between them.

Look at the second row: the target is purple and the distractors are brown and yellow – three dark colors that print similarly in grayscale. This is a page to print in color.

Worksheet 4 – Brown, pink, purple, red, yellow

The five target colors on this page are brown, pink, purple, red, yellow.

Red, pink, yellow, brown and purple. The pink and red rows are on the same page, which is the sharpest color pairing in the pack.

Red against pink is genuinely hard for a four-year-old. It is also exactly the distinction worth practicing.

Worksheet 5 – Blue, brown, green, orange, yellow

The five target colors on this page are blue, brown, green, orange, yellow.

Green, yellow, brown, orange and blue. Yellow against orange in one row, and brown against orange in another.

Three of the five rows have a distractor from the warm end of the palette, which is where the near misses live.

Worksheet 6 – Blue, green, orange, pink, red

The five target colors on this page are blue, green, orange, pink, red.

Pink, green, orange, red and blue – the widest spread of any page in the pack, with one color from each part of the palette.

A good page for a child who has done two or three and is ready for something that moves around.

Worksheet 7 – Blue, brown, green, orange, pink

The five target colors on this page are blue, brown, green, orange, pink.

Orange, brown, blue, pink and green. The second row puts a brown target against a brown answer and a red distractor.

Brown and red is the other pairing children find hard, and this pack puts them together rather than avoiding them.

Worksheet 8 – Blue, brown, orange, red, yellow

The five target colors on this page are blue, brown, orange, red, yellow.

Brown, red, yellow, blue and orange. Three of the five answers are the first shape, which happens on no other page in the pack.

That makes this the one sheet where a child who has fallen into circling the right-hand shape will come unstuck, and it is worth handing over for exactly that reason.

Worksheet 9 – Brown, green, orange, purple, red

The five target colors on this page are brown, green, orange, purple, red.

Purple, red, orange, green and brown. Purple against yellow, red against yellow, orange against purple.

The distractors here are further from the targets than on most pages, which makes this a good page to finish on if a child is tiring.

Worksheet 10 – Blue, brown, green, purple, yellow

The five target colors on this page are blue, brown, green, purple, yellow.

Brown, green, purple, yellow and blue. The last row is blue against green and brown.

Green and blue is the third of the three pairs that catch children, after brown-orange and red-pink.

Color Chart – All Eight Colors

The eleventh sheet is not an answer key. It is a chart of the eight colors used in the pack, each one shown as a block with its name.

Print it once and keep it beside the worksheets. A child who is unsure whether something is purple or pink can check it against the chart rather than being told.

The Three Pairs That Catch Children

Eight colors is enough for some of them to sit close together, and the pack does not avoid the difficult neighbors:

• Brown and orange. Brown is the most common target color in the pack, at nine rows, and orange turns up as a distractor more than any other color.
• Red and pink. Both appear on page 4, in consecutive rows.
• Green and blue. The last row of the pack is a blue target with a green distractor.

Those three pairs are where a child either has the color or does not. The rest of the pack is practice; these rows are the test, and they are worth looking at together rather than marking.

When Children Are Ready for Color Matching

• Age: about three to five – preschool and pre-K. This is one of the earliest worksheets a child can do.
• Before starting: nothing. No counting, no letters, no writing – only a crayon and the ability to circle.
• K.MD.B.3 – classify objects into given categories. Sorting by one attribute while ignoring another is exactly this.
• The skill underneath is more general than color: it is holding one property constant while everything else changes, which is what every sorting task asks for later.

How to Use These Worksheets

1. Say the color name out loud before the child looks at the choices. Naming it first stops them matching shapes.
2. Cover the shapes with a finger and show only a sliver of each one, for a child who keeps choosing by shape.
3. Use the color chart on page 11 when a name is in doubt, rather than supplying the answer.
4. Do one page at a sitting. Fifty rows is a lot of the same decision.
5. Point at the two shapes afterwards and ask what is different about them – the answer is the shape, and saying it out loud is the lesson.
6. Save page 4 for when the others are easy. Red and pink on the same page is the hardest sheet here.

Three Things to Watch For

1. Matching by shape. This is the mistake the pack exists to catch. In forty-eight of the fifty rows the shape that matches is the wrong answer, so a child doing this will get almost nothing right, and the pattern is unmistakable once you look at their page.

2. Circling the right-hand shape. The answer really is on the right more often than not – twenty-seven rows out of fifty. A child doing this looks competent for a while. Ask them to say the color name before circling and the habit shows up immediately.

3. Brown, orange and red. The warm end of the palette is where the real confusions are. A child who has the other five colors and mixes these three has a normal four-year-old’s color vocabulary, not a problem.

Printing Tips

• Print in color. This is the one pack on the site that is useless in black and white.
• Print at 100 percent, actual size, on A4 or US Letter.
• Check your printer’s color before handing over page 4. If red and pink come out looking alike, the page is unfair rather than hard.

Frequently Asked Questions

What age are these color recognition worksheets for?

About three to five years old. There is nothing to read, count or write, so it is one of the first worksheets a child can complete alone.

Which colors are covered?

Eight: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and brown. Every page asks for five different ones.

Why is the matching shape always different?

So that the child has to look at the color. In forty-eight of the fifty rows the correct answer is a different shape from the one in the box.

Is there an answer key?

There is no key, and none is needed – the answer is visible. Page 11 is a color chart instead, which is more useful.

Can more than one choice be correct?

No. We checked all fifty rows: exactly one of the three shapes is the right color.

Do I need to sign up to download these?

No. Every PDF downloads immediately, with no account, no email address and no cost.

Can I use these in my classroom?

Yes, they are free to print for home and classroom use. Please do not sell them or re-host the files elsewhere.

More Free Colors and Shapes Worksheets

• Free Color Words Worksheets for Kindergarten – Match Colors and Words
• Free What Color Is It Worksheets for Kindergarten – Color Words
• Free Color by Number Worksheets for Kindergarten – Color and Count
• Free Color Mixing Worksheets for Preschool – What Two Colors Make
• Free Sort by Size and Color Worksheets for Kindergarten
• Free Same or Different Worksheets for Kindergarten – Odd One Out