什么颜色？
Shénme yánsè? — My Favourite Colour
📐 Standards alignment
ACTFL World-Readiness: Communication (interpersonal, presentational) · Connections (art) · Communities (describing your own world in Chinese)
Can-Do targets (NCSSFL-ACTFL, Novice Low):
- I can ask what colour something is.
- I can answer with a colour word.
- I can say which colour I like.
Learning objectives
- Ask 什么颜色？ about a real object
- Answer with 这是… and a colour
- State a preference with 我喜欢…
Materials
Crayons or coloured pencils, and paper for the drawing at the end.
Prior knowledge
Unit 3 Lesson 1 — at least four colour words. Also 是 from Unit 1.
Key vocabulary
颜色 什么颜色 这是 我喜欢 粉红色 橙色
Four colours, fast
Point at four things around the room in quick succession. Can your child name the colour of each one in Chinese before you point at the next? Do it twice, faster the second time. If a word has gone missing, scroll back to Lesson 1 for thirty seconds.
The words that build the question
Tap to flip, press 🔊 to hear. The first four are the sentence pieces; the last two are colours we did not practise much last time.
Ask, then answer
Hold up any object. One person asks, the other answers. That is the whole conversation, and your child can have it today:
什么颜色？ — What colour?
这是蓝色。 — This is blue.
Swap roles after five objects. Then try the preference version: 我喜欢绿色。 Wǒ xǐhuan lǜsè. — “I like green.”
The crayon box round
Tip out the crayons. Take turns picking one up and asking 什么颜色？. If the crayon is a colour you have not learned — purple, brown, silver — that is fine: say 不是！ and put it back. Knowing which words you do not have yet is real language awareness.
Memory game — find the pairs
Match each Chinese phrase to its meaning.
Find the matching pairs!
Listen and choose
Press each play button and pick what you heard.
1. Press play. What is being asked?
2. Press play. What was said?
3. Press play. Which colour?
Draw it and name it
Give your child paper and crayons and ask for a drawing of anything they like — a house, a dinosaur, the family. The only rule: every time they pick up a new crayon, they say its colour in Chinese out loud before they use it. When the picture is finished, they present it by naming three colours they used.
Show what you know
1. How do you start the sentence “I like…”?
2. Someone points at a lemon and asks 什么颜色？ — what do you say?
Unit 3 complete!
Your child can name eight colours, ask what colour something is, answer with a full sentence, and say which colour they like. That is genuine back-and-forth conversation — and colours come back in Grade 3’s clothing unit and Grade 4’s shopping unit.
Take it home
My favourite colour
Draw something in your favourite colour in the box. Underneath, write the sentence and say it out loud to two people.
我喜欢 。
Interview the family
Ask three people what their favourite colour is, then say each answer back in Chinese. Tally them here.
红色
蓝色
绿色
Note for teachers & parents
Answering in one word is a success. If your child replies to 什么颜色？ with just 蓝色, that is a correct answer in Chinese as much as in English. The full 这是… sentence is a stretch goal, not a requirement.
Watch for: 什么 shénme often comes out as “shen-MUH” with a heavy second syllable. It is light and quick — almost swallowed. Model it a few times without correcting.