Using Coloring Sheets for Young Learners: Vocabulary

(TESOL Ideas--Any Vocabulary Set)

If you follow this blog regularly, you have probably noticed that recently I've been including a lot of coloring sheets with my lessons.  (See, for example, my lessons for Oxford Picture Dictionary Content Areas for Kids.)  So I thought I should make a post outlining my thinking about using coloring sheets in class.

In one of the schools I taught at in Vietnam, it was normal for teachers teaching young children to spend about 20 minutes out of a 2 hour lesson on coloring activities.  However, even though this practice was widespread, it was also controversial.  Many of the managers disapproved of it, and it was tolerated more than it was encouraged.

The reason that this practice was disapproved of was because it didn't actually practice language, and was thought to not be helpful in language acquisition.

The reason that it was so widespread was (I assume) because it was a good activity to calm the children down.  It was also thought that 2 hours was too long to do language drills with very young children, and that the act of coloring added in a nice change of pace.  The practice of coloring, especially learning to color within the lines, was thought to add with the children's cognitive development and motor skills, even if it did not relate to language learning directly.

But back in those days (2015-2020), it was before AI, so the coloring sheets were just random coloring sheets that could be found in the teacher's resource room or off of the Internet.  Now, with AI, it is possible to create coloring sheets that are tailored exactly to vocabulary words that the students are learning.

I've been using Google Gemini myself for this, and have generally had good luck with it--once I learned to modify the prompt appropriately.  I've discovered that sometimes if you just ask Google Gemini to make a coloring sheet, it will produce something with very intricate and small designs that aren't suitable for kindergarteners coloring with big crayons.  So I've learned to add in the following instructions in my prompt:

Because Kindergartners are still learning how to color, the coloring sheet should not have any small objects, but big pictures of everything

I've also learned that Google Gemini will occasionally try to include words or captions in the coloring sheet.  I'm not opposed to text per se, but the problem is that AI seems to have a problem with accurate spelling when it's generating images.  (AI is able to produce accurate spelling when it's generating texts, but not generating images.  I assume this is a glitch that will eventually be worked out in future generations of AI, but for now this is the way it works.  So I will often add in this additional instruction:

Do not include any words or names on the coloring sheet. 

 The standard prompt that I use for Google Gemini then is this:

Make a coloring sheet for kindergartners for ________. It should include these images: _______________. Do not include any words or names on the coloring sheet. Because Kindergartners are still learning how to color, the coloring sheet should not have any small objects, but big pictures of everything.

For an example of a recent time when I used this prompt, see this chat here.

I generally have good luck with this prompt, although it's obviously not 100% effective.  (Using AI is always somewhat touch and go).  

As to why and how I use coloring sheets in my lesson, here are my uses so far:

* In cases where I'm unsure about the timing of the lesson, I will sometimes print out coloring sheets just as an optional final activity, just to give myself that additional safety cushion.  (As all teachers know, there's nothing worse than running out of activities with 10 minutes in the lesson left to go.)

* When working with young children in small groups, I will discuss the coloring sheet with them as they color.   (e.g. "What color do you want to color the tomato?" or "I see that you're coloring the dog green.")

* There are some young children who are less disruptive during the lesson if they have something to do with their hands.  I find that coloring helps to keep them occupied while I practice the vocabulary with them.  (Although the obvious disadvantage of this is that it means I only have half of their attention when I'm presenting the vocabulary to them.)

* One of my mentors recently suggested to me that the coloring activity could easily be made more language focused if I made it into an activity in which the young learners listened to my instructions, and colored accordingly.  (E.g. "Look at this.  What is this?" (It's an apple.)  "Let's color the apple red.  Can you find your red crayon?" etc.)