Identifying colors, exploring and comparing colors, and learning color names are all important concepts for preschoolers and toddlers. There are so many ways to teach your preschooler colors. This set of free color lesson plans for preschool includes over 16 color activities for preschoolers.
16+ Color Activities for Preschoolers & Toddlers
Whether you’re working on color recognition, color mixing, learning color names, or just enjoying bright, cheery, colorful activities…you’ll love these preschool lesson plans that feature over 16 color activities for preschoolers. Most of these color activities are also appropriate for young children including toddlers, pre-k students, and kindergarteners.
This post offers a wide range of learning colors in preschool activities. From learning about color mixing to going on a scavenger hunt, this collection of color activities is sure to get your preschooler interested in all things colorful!
Frequently Asked Questions About a Colors Theme
You may have some questions about teaching colors to preschoolers. Here are some frequently asked questions about teaching with a colors theme.
Like any other content you teach your preschooler or toddler, you want color activities that will make learning fun. Variety is key! Here are some tips to make learning about colors more enjoyable-
Include color activities that involve whole-body movement. Go on scavenger hunts. Play “I Spy.”
Make color collections.
The first step to teaching colors is to point out colors in everyday objects that children are familiar with. For example, when serving water at snack time you could say, “You’re using a blue cup today.” This may seem tedious, but drawing attention to all the colors around us is good for toddlers, and soon they’ll start to recognize color differences.
Next, infuse color-matching activities and games with toddlers. Start with only a few colors and work up to using many colors at once. These matching activities will quickly lead to color-sorting activities.
We often think of bright colors when we start teaching colors because children love bright and using the rainbow is a great place to start. Introduce the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) first through various activities, then begin introducing more colors along the way.
Important Info About These Colors Preschool Lesson Plans
The Learn at Home Preschool Lesson Plans are free lesson plans you can use to teach your preschooler at home.
All the preschool learning activities are quick and easy to set up, designed to save time, requiring hardly any (if any at all) prep and only requires the most basic of household materials. This makes them especially easy for parents to implement…and this makes preschool teachers especially happy, too!
Just glance over the lessons each day, gather the very few materials needed, and you’re ready to go!
But don’t be fooled by the name “at home” preschool lesson plans! These activities work wonderfully in the classroom as well, and if you’re a preschool teacher who is remotely teaching you can send these lesson plans to your student’s parents.
Color Activities for Preschoolers & Toddlers
These color lesson plans for preschoolers are really simple, but amazing learning activities! They’re appropriate for toddlers, too!
Literacy Activities for a Colors Theme
Watercolor Name Recognition – Using a permanent marker and some watercolor paints, this activity is a breeze to set up and a great way to help your preschooler recognize and love their name! Write your preschooler’s name on a piece of white paper with a permanent marker. Invite your preschooler to dip their paintbrush in water and choose a paint color to begin painting. Encourage your preschooler to name the colors and note what happens when they mix certain colors. You can paint the names of the whole family or class with colored water!
Alphabet Coloring Pages – Sometimes sitting down to color is a great way to start or end the day. These fun and simple alphabet coloring pages correspond to an individual letter and are great for building pre-writing and fine motor skills. Be sure to chat with your preschooler as he or she colors, talking about what color they’re choosing and why. Hang up the letter pages around the house as your preschooler finishes coloring them or snag all the letters in your preschooler’s name. You can even compile them into an alphabet book, all colored by your preschooler.
Use Picture Books to Teach Colors
One of the best ways to teach color to preschoolers is to use picture books. These are some of my favorites:
Math and Science Activities for a Colors Theme
Number Rainbow – Get some colored paper in each color of the rainbow. Cut each sheet into four equal pieces. Write a number between 1 and 10 on each piece. Not every color has to have all the numbers 1-10, but between all the colors there should be a good combination of numbers. Flip over the pieces so the numbers aren’t visible. Draw a color card and have your preschooler identify the number. Add a counting element to this by having your preschooler also count a manipulative to the corresponding number.
Color Sort Game – This is a super fun and super simple game that will keep your preschooler asking for more. Hide one or two handfuls of colorful items around the house. Colored blocks, baby food caps, or even socks work well for this. Set a timer and give your preschooler a bag to collect colored items. Then sort the items by color onto colored paper. Do some go into multiple groups?
Healthy Food Color Sort – Grab this colorful printable and some colored pompoms for this healthy habits sort. Encourage food recognition and matching with this fun sort.
Playful Learning Activities for a Colors Theme
Rainbow Scavenger Hunt – Go on a rainbow scavenger hunt outside on a nature walk. Look for various colored objects and line them up in a half-circle shape to mimic a rainbow. Has the weather turned cold and you can’t go outside? Try the scavenger hunt inside the house or classroom.
Colorful Days – Have your preschooler dress him/herself in all one color for a particular day. Choose a new color every day of the week. Make that color a focus for the whole day. Use every possible opportunity to talk to your preschooler about their clothing and about the color of the day.
Colorful Camouflage – Learn about camouflage by laying out a patterned shirt or blanket. Try to find objects from around the house that would be camouflaged by the pattern. Encourage more thinking by asking, “What animals use their camouflage to keep themselves hidden in nature?”
Social-Emotional Activities for a Colors Theme
Colored Emotions – Emotions can be in color! Listen to the story My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. After listening to the story, listen to different kinds of music and draw how it makes you feel. Feelings might be drawn in random lines and colors or recognizable pictures. Discuss the moods we all have and how to change our moods/feelings. When your preschooler is going through an especially tough day, encourage them to get out the crayons and color how they feel. This activity can be helpful to get your child to open up and talk, as well as recognize the unique emotions they feel.
Color Cues – Working on managing emotions with your preschooler? Try using a cue card system for happy and sad feelings. Grab a green, yellow, and red sheet of paper. Flash green when a preschooler is happy, yellow when irritated, and red when angry and needs help to calm down. After your child has been practicing with this cue system for a while, encourage them to call out the colors and practice self-regulating their feelings.
Just Plain Fun Activities for a Colors Theme
Paint Rocks – Paint rocks to add to the flower beds around the house. Extra points if you give away some of your painted rocks to friends and neighbors!
Mix Colors – Using playdough, grab the primary colors and mix them to make new colors by rolling, squeezing, and smashing them together. Or grab any two colors and experiment! It’s fun to hide one color inside the ball of another. Your preschooler might be surprised by the outcome when they smoosh and kneed it.
Make Rainbows – Try making real rainbows in this fun science experiment. All you need is a glass of water, a hand-held mirror, and some sunlight. See this video for details.
Rainbow Play – Use a variety of objects from around the house to make a rainbow. Finding items of a single color can be difficult, which just adds to the challenge for your preschooler.
Get Online Activities for a Colors Theme
Online Story – Go to YouTube and listen to the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh. After reading, invite your preschooler to act silly and mix some paint of their own. Using red, yellow, and blue paint, encourage your preschooler to follow along with the story and replicate mixing the colors.
Colors! Colors! Song – This catchy and colorful song is a great singalong and perfect for movement. It’s also a great way to incorporate rhyming and matching.
The Feelings Song – A musical reminder of how our feelings can often coincide with colors…and it’s perfectly okay to feel all the emotions we have inside!
Teaching Tools to Teach Colors
These preschool lesson plans don’t require any special materials for teaching colors.; that’s what makes them so special. These lesson plans for preschoolers only require the most basic supplies found in most homes.
But if you’re looking for a way to amplify your color teaching skills, these are some of my favorite teaching tools for teaching toddlers (and preschoolers!) their colors.
Grab Your Free Color Theme Lesson Plans Here
Think you want to add these 16 color activities to your preschool lesson plans? I’ve already made a free printable for you. Just click the image below and a PDF will be sent to your inbox.
Then keep scrolling for more color activities for toddlers and preschoolers!
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
