Five Rainbow Rows: Find the One Shape Painted in a Different Color

Watch a young child tidy a box of crayons, and the reds often end up together long before anyone mentions a rule. Color is the first thing most children sort by. This Pre-K sort by color worksheet turns that instinct into a careful search. Each of the five rows holds six bright shapes, and five of them share a color. One does not. Here is the twist: every row mixes a star, a heart, a circle, a square, a triangle and a pentagon, so the outline can't help at all.

Ignoring the shape on purpose

A row of six different shapes pulls the eye in six directions. To find the answer, your child has to set the shapes aside and think about color only. Early childhood teachers call this sorting by one attribute at a time, and it is harder than it sounds. Holding back the obvious feature takes real attention. That is the work.

The page makes that effort gradual. The top row is sunny yellow with a blue heart, so the stranger jumps out. However, the second row is red, and the odd shape is a pink circle. Red and pink sit close together, so this is the row for slow looking.

Then an orange row hides a green heart, a blue row holds a red circle, and a pink row ends the page with an orange heart.

The heart trap, and how to step out of it

Look at where the answers fall. In the first, third and fifth rows, the stranger is a heart. In the second and fourth rows, it is a circle. So a child who decides "I circle the heart" will be right three times and wrong twice.

If that happens in the red row, don't point to the pink circle. Instead, ask, "What color is most of this row?" Once your child says "red," add, "Now touch every red one." The shape left untouched is the answer.

Also, say the color names together as your finger moves along each line: "yellow, yellow, yellow, blue." Hearing the odd word is often quicker than seeing it. Finally, name the shape that was circled: "a blue heart," "a pink circle." Two words, two ideas.

Socks, blocks and a book full of fish

Laundry day is color sorting day. Hand your child a pile of clean socks and ask for every red one, then every blue one. Next, hide one green block in a line of yellow blocks of different shapes, just like the page, and see how quickly it gets tapped.

At story time, Lois Ehlert's Fish Eyes is a good companion. Its fish are bold and bright, so your child can name each color before you turn the page. These rainbow shapes and fish keep the same habit alive: look at one feature, ignore the rest.

When the worksheet is done, praise the attention to detail, not the score: "You stopped and looked twice at the red row. That's how you found the pink circle."