Turtle Bar Chart Colour fill question

[JRod]

Hey,
I am using Turtle to learn how if and elif statements work.
I have a quick program that draws a bar chart... here it is...

import turtle

john = turtle.Turtle()
xs = [48, 117, 200, 240, 160, 260, 220]  #values for the heights of the bars

def draw_bar(t, height):
    """ Get turtle t to draw one bar, of height. """
    t.begin_fill()
    if v >=200:
        john.color("blue", "red")
    elif v >=100:
        john.color("blue", "yellow")
    else:
        john.color("blue", "green")
    t.left(90)
    t.forward(height)# Draw up the left side
    t.write("  "+ str(height))
    t.right(90)
    t.forward(40)         # Width of bar, along the top
    t.right(90)
    t.forward(height)     # And down again!
    t.left(90)            # Put the turtle facing the way we found it.
    t.end_fill()
    t.penup()
    t.forward(10)         # Leave small gap after each bar
    t.pendown()

wn = turtle.Screen()         # Set up the window and its attributes
wn.bgcolor("lightgreen")

# Create john and set some attributes

john.pensize(3)

for v in xs:              
    draw_bar(john, v)

My question is, why does putting the condition for the bar fill colours work where it is now and not where I placed it the first time (I had it when I called the function)... like this...

import turtle

john = turtle.Turtle()
xs = [48, 117, 200, 240, 160, 260, 220]  #values for the heights of the bars

def draw_bar(t, height):
    """ Get turtle t to draw one bar, of height. """
    t.begin_fill()
    t.left(90)
    t.forward(height)# Draw up the left side
    t.write("  "+ str(height))
    t.right(90)
    t.forward(40)         # Width of bar, along the top
    t.right(90)
    t.forward(height)     # And down again!
    t.left(90)            # Put the turtle facing the way we found it.
    t.end_fill()
    t.penup()
    t.forward(10)         # Leave small gap after each bar
    t.pendown()

wn = turtle.Screen()         # Set up the window and its attributes
wn.bgcolor("lightgreen")

# Create john and set some attributes

john.pensize(3)


for v in xs:              
    draw_bar(john, v)
    if v >=200:
        john.color("blue", "red")
    elif v >=100:
        john.color("blue", "yellow")
    else:
        john.color("blue", "green")

Does that make sense??