3 Ways To Teach Colors To Toddlers And Preschoolers

Having kids in the house means having to constantly be on your toes. While it’s fun and smiles most of the time, there’s also the crying and cleaning up that you’ve got to deal with. However, as they get a little older, there’s less crying and more curiosity, and we wonder at what age do toddlers learn their colors and alphabets. Once the child hits 18 months, they start grasping all sorts of things – letters, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, etc. Hence, this is the best age to start teaching them a few things at home before they begin preschool. How do you introduce colors to preschoolers? We have a solution! You can teach colors to toddlers and preschoolers in many fun ways. Let’s have a look!

Start with Contrasting Colors

While teaching colors to preschoolers, worksheets, puzzles, and activities work best. You obviously can’t start with yellow and orange, or blue and purple because they are pretty similar to each other on some levels. So, how do you explain primary colors to preschoolers? Try to avoid confusion as much as possible. Begin with green and red, then move on to blue and yellow, and so on. Show them flashcards of the color and make them repeat it, then show them objects or toys that have the same color and see if they are getting the hang of it.

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However, show them the same object in 2 different colors – red car and blue car. If you show them a blue shirt and red car, they will think blue and red are the names of the objects and not the names of the colors.

Color Puzzles

Once they know the names of a few colors, you can engage them in color activities that will also develop their fine motor skills. This way, you can take advantage of activities and puzzles that carry multiple benefits. When teaching colors to toddlers, games help a lot.

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You could give them a couple of playing blocks and ask them to segregate the red ones from the blue ones, you could have toys shaped like fruits and vegetables and ask them to pick each one up and name the color. This also helps in memory and vocabulary. At the same time, you could also try naming the object with the color – red apple, yellow banana, etc. However, if you think it’s too much for them, you can always only stick to colors and move on to other categories later.

• Use Familiar Objects

Another way to teach colors to toddlers and preschoolers is if you use objects that they are familiar with – milk, teddy, cookie, etc. This way, after showing them the flashcards or activity books with the colors, you can always point out familiar objects in those colors. When they see white, black, yellow on the flashcards, you can repeat the name of the color and also point out to the milk bottle, chocolate cookie, and yellow teddy bear, respectively. When you’re teaching colors to toddlers, activities like these go a long way.

During the preschool years, a child’s mind is like a sponge that is absorbing all sorts of information that comes along. Parents and teachers must take advantage of this and make use of all the fun teaching techniques that have worked in the past, and also experiment with creating new ones.