LC SYTL Primary Activities Document V2 FA March 2026 - Flipbook - Page 4
Activity 3 Traffic Lights & Colour Dash
You will need
• A large area in which to
play e.g. the P.E. Hall or the
school playground.
What to do
20–25
mins
• Large, coloured cards (A4 sized) or
P.E. cones in green, orange and red.
• Additional cards, cones or items in
the target colours will be required
for the extension activity (10 green,
10 red, 10 orange).
Explain to the pupils that you are going to work on
the names of the colours in your chosen language.
First introduce the words for red, orange, and green
in your target language using the coloured cards or
cones to help the children connect each new word to
the correct colour. Ask the pupils to move freely around
the P.E. Hall or playground, following your instructions:
Green = Go/Jog
Orange = Move in slow motion
Red = Stop/Freeze
1. Begin by demonstrating in English or Irish
to ensure everyone understands
2. Then switch to giving all commands in the target
language while also showing the coloured card
or cone to help the pupils understanding
3. Once the pupils appear to understand the words,
give the commands using the target language only.
Extension Activity
Feel free to extend the activity by including
other languages spoken in the classroom or
learnt during the course of the programme. You
can involve the children in teaching them to you,
if you don’t know them.
If you have a little more time you can extend your
activity by including a colour relay race. You will
need an equal number of red, orange, and green
cards, cones, or objects (at least ten of each so that
every pupil has a turn). Scatter the items around
the area.
1. Divide the class into three teams:
Red, Orange, and Green.
2. Line up each team at one end of the space.
3. Explain that when it is their turn, each player
runs to find one item in their team’s colour
and brings it back.
4. As soon as they return, the next player sets off.
Useful words
5. The first team to collect all their coloured items
is the winner.
French: Vert (green), orange (orange), rouge (red)
To reinforce the vocabulary, call out the colours
in the target language during the race (e.g. rouge,
vert, orange in French).
Spanish: Verde (green), naranja (orange), rojo (red)
Italian: Verde (green), arancione (orange), rosso (red)
German: Grün (green), Orange (orange), Rot (red)
