20 Fun Ways to Teach Children Their Colors

Did you know that you can teach your child how to sort by color without spending a ton of money?  Look around your house and you can easily find a wide variety of items that you can use to teach your child their colors.  For example you can use cereal, gummy bears, articles of clothing, blocks, construction paper, and a variety of other object around your house.  Once you have gathered up the tools that you want to use, sit your child on the floor, in their high chair, or sit with them at the table.  Children enjoy learning through play time activities but you need to take into account that most toddlers have a short attention span.  If you find your child, uninterested after you have been playing for a short period of time move on to another task.  If possible, find several color sorting tasks for your child.

Why Is It Important to Teach Your Child About Colors?

Colors make up the world around us and it is the first thing that your child recognizes around them.  As your child points to an object, you can start teaching your child that it is a “color of the object”.  The sooner that you start teaching your child the names of the colors, it won’t be long before your child can start identifying the colors around him.  Children learn by repetition and you can turn anything into a learning opportunity.

Once your child can easily identify their colors, you should begin teaching them that there are different hues, shades, and variations of  each color.  You can find activities and games that allow your child to explore the different variations of colors.

20 Fun Ways to Teach Your Child Their Colors

1. Gather toy blocks and ask them to sort them by colors.  If you have the big Legos they contain the primary colors which is great for teaching toddlers about the primary colors.  I don’t recommend using smaller Legos with toddlers because they can put them in their mouth and accidentally choke on them.
2. Get a box of Fruit Loops and several small bowls or paper plate.  Ask your child to put each color into a different bowl or on a paper plate.
3. When getting your toddler dressed in the morning, allow them to pick out their outfit based on color.  I would hold up several shirts and told my son to pick out the color of shirt that he wanted to wear that day.
4. Check out books from the library that can be used to teach your child to recognize colors.
5. Get some flash cards.
6. Print out some free online color by number printables and have your child color the picture using the correct colors.  This is an advanced concept so don’t be surprised if your toddler doesn’t grasp the concept until they master their numbers.
7. Play with paint.  Put a small amount of two or three colors on a paper plate and allow your child to mix the colors.  You can also show them how to mix the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) to make the secondary colors (orange, green, purple).
8. Add food coloring to their milk.  Don’t worry the food color won’t affect the taste.  They can experiment and create different color of milk.  After they make colored milk, you can discuss the color that you made.
9. Sort the craft pom poms by color.
10. Allow your child to play with different colored pipe cleaners.  You can allow them to use a colander or make a homemade color sorter using recycled materials.
11. Dye pasta different colors and allow your child to sort them by color.
12. Make a color train.  You can show your child how to sort different shades of colors starting from light to dark.
13. Buy colored paper clips and muffin liners or coffee filters.  Have your child sort the different color of paper clips into the respective muffin liner or coffee filter.  These can pose a chocking hazard in younger children.
14. Cut strips of construction paper length wise.  Glue the ends together to create different color links.  You can hang this as garland and you can have your child tell you the color of each link.
15. Go outside on a nature walk and find different colored items.
16. Ask your child to help you sort the laundry.
17. Get a plain piece of paper and draw different colored circles using crayons or makers.  Have your child sort the colors and put them into the appropriate circle  You can use fruit loops, gummy bears, m&ms, or craft pom poms.
18. Get a muffin tin and allow your child to sort a variety of objects by color.
19. Recycle an egg carton and allow your child to sort objects by color.
20. Buy Popsicles from the store and have your child identify the color of each Popsicle.

Like these products? Click on the photo for more information.

What is your favorite way to teach children about different colors?