Preschool children love learning about colors. At this age, they are starting to identify colors all around them. There are so many easy ways for your child to play with color. Check out these games, food, and craft ideas for a colorful learning adventure.
Games are a great way to teach children. They are so excited about having fun; they usually don’t mind learning something along the way. Try these out with your children.
Key Points
- Have your child pick a color or colors for their outfit for the day.
- Ask your child what color certain foods are, either at home or at the store.
- Use online games to help your child learn colors.
How to Help Your Children Learn Colors
1- Pick a color, and have your child search for objects in the room (or house) that match that color. You could do the reverse of this by playing “I Spy” with colors. For example, you say, “I Spy something yellow,” and then have your child take a turn spying something yellow.
2- Put something of a certain color on the floor or a table. Have your kids bring other items of that color next to the first item. Tell your kids the colors of the rainbow, and have them gather items from the house to make their own rainbow.
3- Talk about color when your child gets dressed each day. Ask them what they color they would like to pick for the day. Have a “get dressed in X color” day. Have you or your child pick the color of the day, and have them try to get dressed from head to toe in that color.
4 – When you are out doing errands, pick a color and identify everything of that color as you go.
How to Help Your Child Learn Colors with Food
Food comes in a rainbow of colors. Learning colors from food is as close as the grocery store. Pick a food color idea below and dig in.
1. Create a rainbow cereal necklace or bracelet. String together fruit-flavored circle-shaped cereal pieces on a length of yarn. For a more colorful creation, use multicolored yarn. When they eat their creation, have them tell you what color each cereal piece is.
2. Pick an assortment of foods of one color to serve together, such as carrots, orange juice, and orange colored crackers. Or pick two or three colors and come up with different food combinations such as yellow and green – bananas and green beans, pineapple and kiwi fruit. For some food items, you can add a few drops of food coloring to make it match. Be careful because some children are sensitive to food colorings.
How to Use Crafts to Teach Colors to Your Child
Kids who are learning their colors will naturally flock to an art table. Tickle your creative side with these colorful crafts.
1- Use watercolor paints to make your own creation along with your child. Talk about what each of you is doing. Make a point to choose a variety of colors so you can mention each name.
2- Have a variety of markers, colors, colored pencils on hand as well as a variety of colored and white paper. They can easily experiment with different shades and intensities.
3- Make a sidewalk chalk art gallery. Encourage your kids to use just one color or several to make creations on cement.
4- Put a few drops of food coloring with water in ice cube trays. Make two or three cubes of each color you have. Freeze, and then put a few cubes of different colors in a bowl together. Watch what happens when they melt and blend colors!
Use Online Websites to Teach Your Child Colors
There are tons of websites geared towards preschoolers that can help them learn colors. Pretty much every preschooler will enjoy these ideas!
1- Go to a random (family-friendly) website. Have your child name all of the colors that they see on a web page. Once they've finished, go to another website and repeat.
2- Visit a website with kid-friendly games. See if you can find any games that help teach colors. Have your child play them; your kid will love being able to have fun while learning.
3- Have them go to a website with kid-friendly games. Before letting them play a game of their choice, have them name three colors. Each time they want to play a game, they need to name three colors before they can. They can't say any of the same colors they used before.
Of course, make sure to practice internet safety with your preschoolers. Unfortunately, there are a lot of websites and people out there that don't have your child's best interests at heart. Make sure to always monitor your preschooler's screen time, and intervene immediately if you notice them doing something unsafe.
By using all of these ideas with your child, they'll become an expert at colors in no time at all! It's a great idea to have your child familiar with lots of colors by the time they go into preschool. This will help set them up for success. As your child ages, they can learn even more colors.