You are naturally teaching your toddler throughout the day at home or while you are out and about but there are lots of ways to intentionally teach them what you want them to know. In our first in this series for teaching toddlers, I am sharing 7 Ways To Teach Toddlers Colors. Colors are one of first things you might purposefully start practicings. I have gathered 7 specific ways to introduce and reinforce colors for you and your toddler.
7 Ways to Teach Toddlers Colors
1. Color hunt- When my kids were toddling about and I wanted to teach them colors one of the most fun activities we would do was a color hunt. I would hand them a basket with a handle and a piece of colored paper attached as a tag. We would then hunt indoors or out for everything we could find of that color until our basket was full. For instance for yellow we ended up with- a banana, a yellow sock, a toy rubber duck, a foam sun, etc...I would reinforce the color often by saying “This is a yellow umbrella”. or asking my child “What color is this duck?”
2. Matching- Toss a bunch of random items into a large basket- two of each color. Demonstrate how to match two items of the same color, say the name as you pull one out, ask your child to repeat the name. You can use manipulatives like blocks, foam balls, or even squares of construction paper.
3. Color Sorting- Pop circles of various construction paper colors in the bottom of a muffin tin then provide your child with small objects of the same colors- buttons, pompoms, counting bears, beads, LEGOS, etc. Point to a color, identify the name and ask them to put all the objects of that color in the correct “bowl”.
4. Colored Food-Make it a color themed day to make the learning fun! Serve food of all one color for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, or all of them! Learning about orange? Serve orange juice, orange slices, carrot sticks, diced mango, Doritos, orange sweet peppers, apricots, cantaloupe, squash, etc.
5. Sensory Play- Nothing is as fun to a toddler as making a mess so embrace it in your teaching and besides it is just plain old good fun! Dye water, shaving cream, pasta or rice and fill a big container with it.(the bathtub is wonderful for this and makes for easy clean up). Again reiterate colors, ask questions like “What else is blue besides this water?” Let them finger paint with the color of the day using paint , jello, or pudding.
6. I Spy Colors- Besides teaching them, this game can keep them occupied while you are at the grocery store, the doctors office, the post office, or in the car. Let them point out the color you choose, or point at an object and ask them what color they spy. “I spy something the color of the sky” Have them find something the same color and so on.
7. Bean Bag Toss- This one gets some gross motor skills a work out too. Make a bean bag by filling a sock with beans or rice, tie it off securely. Tape colored sheets of construction paper to the floor, have your toddler toss the “beanbag” and identify the color it lands on.
Lots of fun, play, encouragement, and positive reinforcement will have your toddler mastering all the colors of the rainbow in no time!
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Check out our Homeschooling for Lazy Parents Facebook Support Group for more tips and ways to make your homeschooling experience easy to manage!
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