Got any fun ways to teach colors to an almost 3 year old?

[ChristusG]

DD(almost 3) doesn't know her colors at all. I'm looking for a fun way to teach them to her. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[krisperry]

Paint Samples Cards - Get colors in varying shades.

 

I put a few sheets of construction paper down and my 2 year old matches the paint samples to the construction paper. I started out with colors that were very different - reds and greens for example. Now she can do as many as I give her. We say the colors while she sorts them.

[RoughCollie]

All I know is this. The guy next door had a blue sports car. For some reason, my kids were fascinated with it. I started referring to it as the "blue" car, and to another car as being the "red" van (ours).

 

I also read them lots of books that concentrated on one color -- starting with a book about blue and one about red.

 

It clicked, somehow, that these were colors. I moved on to referring to everything by its color.

 

One day, they were driving home with DH and he called another driver, who was in a blue car, an idiot. It was a couple of years before I could convince them that the definition of idiot was not people who drive blue cars.

 

Of course, they were delighted with the actual definition of idiot, and moved on to calling each other that name.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

It's not the healthiest method, but M&Ms will work. My mil keeps a jar at her house. Every week we went down DH would grab a handful and ask my DS what color it was. If he was correct, he got to eat the M&M. If not, DH ate it. He learned very quickly.

[T'smom]

We sometimes do the m&m thing too! Dh is always playing some sport or another and to keep 2 1/2 yo ds entertained, I often bring m&ms or skittles and we talk about the colors and sort them into piles! Probably not the best solution for you though! Funny story- we also talk about what color shirt Daddy is wearing and cheer for his team- but the only color name that ds can say is blue- so he yells "go blue" even if Daddy's team is green!

[athena1277]

In trying to help develop/expand vocabulary, I would always describe things that my kids are interested in. If ds points out a ball at wal-mart, I say something like, "Yes, that is a big, red ball." Or driving around, I point out "Look at the big yellow school bus." My ds is 2.5yo and knows all his colors except orange. I think it's too hard for him to say, so he calls it some other color.

[Hockey Mom]

It's not the healthiest method, but M&Ms will work. My mil keeps a jar at her house. Every week we went down DH would grab a handful and ask my DS what color it was. If he was correct, he got to eat the M&M. If not, DH ate it. He learned very quickly.

 

I was going to suggest this as well. It really does work. :)

[dirty ethel rackham]

There are a couple ways of doing this. You can go with what interests the child - cars, dolls, balls, etc. Or you can have a "color of the day" where you spend the day pointing out a certain color. Make a game out of finding things with that color.

 

A funny story ... my mom was an aide in a first grade classroom over 30 years ago. She was assigned to help one little boy learn his colors and letters. She was shocked because this 6 year old boy didn't know his colors. So, she had him look out the window at the passing cars. He could tell the make, model and year of almost every car that passed by, but did not know his colors. That is how she got him to learn them - focused on his interest.

[ProudGrandma]

one things we did here was I had my child color paper plates (one red, one blue, one green etc). Then I laid them out on the floor all over the place. Gave my child a clean fly swatter and then I called out a color and he had to find that color and swat it. It was great fun...something an older child can do with the younger one too. You can change it up by having the child skip to the color, walk backwards etc. Lots of variety.

[Kathleen in VA]

Well, this wouldn't be my first suggestion - I like the ideas others have already posted. But we have this game and you need to know your basic colors to play. It is loads of fun and is great if you are cooped up inside due to the weather. No other skills are needed - just know your colors (or play to learn them) and be able to move around fast.

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

It's not the healthiest method, but M&Ms will work. My mil keeps a jar at her house. Every week we went down DH would grab a handful and ask my DS what color it was. If he was correct, he got to eat the M&M. If not, DH ate it. He learned very quickly.

 

This is hilarious! I wonder if it would have worked for my oldest son. He learned his colors really late. My mom thought he was color blind because he was a really smart kiddo in all other areas (knew most of the instruments of the orchestra by age 2). Colors just weren't his thing, I guess. Both other boys had no trouble with them at very early ages. We just talk about colors in every day life. Having 3 boys, much of our stuff is color-coordinated (tooth brushes, cups, etc.) so color recognition is an essential skill. :001_smile:

[OhM]

How about "color days"? We're having red day today - let's all wear red and eat red apples, and make pictures with red crayons, count all the red cars we see, find books about red things, and...etc. etc. (and eat only the red M&M's, of course!)

 

Repeat as desired.

 

:)

[cougarmom4]

Not sure if it was already posted, but you could go on a Color Hunt...choose one and 'hunt' all around your house to find objects of that color. You could even add in a magnifying glass or binoculars to make it fun.

[helena]

My girls still love this work at 8 & 10 :)

http://www.montessoriservices.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=96_169_2625

they put drops on white paper so they can make the work last longer also on this (very pretty results):http://www.acornnaturalists.com/store/COLOR-DIFFUSING-LEAVES-P3893C0.aspx

I would let her play with mixing colors first, then make labeled sheets of paper "red, blue, green", and have her drop the colored water on the right paper, staple it all into a book with a colored construction paper cover, and write "My Color Book", then let her read it to you everyday.

The leaves would be pretty, page one "red leaf", page two "green leaf".

 

You could use a muffin tin, write the names of colors in same color markers, tape the words in the tin and have her sort out a basket of little things into the tin. For example white would have a cotton ball, a hair tie, a little white bean, silver would have a bolt, a charm, and a silver gum wrapper. Sorting work is fun when you put in neat little treasures. Then have her tell you the colors.

 

When I taught that age (a million years ago :001_smile:) I would start lessons with "this is...", then you do "show me...", last is "what is this?".

hth

[OneRoomSchoolHouse]

I bought the "paint" bowl from lakeshore learning for painting of course. I ended up using these with the littles to help them learn colors. There are 10 colored paint bowls. I picked the 5 paint bowls that coresponded to the 5 colors of counting bears that we have. This is an absolute favorite for the littles. They take each bear out of the bucket and put it inside the matching bowl. We also use this for learning to count too. They count the color of bears in each bowl.

 

These were things that we just happened to have around the house, I'm sure you can find somethings too. Another cheap color game is colored notecards with colored paperclips. Once they get coordinated enough they can clip the correct color paper clip to the correct color card.

[FO4UR]

It's not the healthiest method, but M&Ms will work. My mil keeps a jar at her house. Every week we went down DH would grab a handful and ask my DS what color it was. If he was correct, he got to eat the M&M. If not, DH ate it. He learned very quickly.

 

 

We did this too. Only I kept them on a high shelf in the kitchen and Mommy ate them.:lol:

 

I didn't have to teach colors to dc #2 or dc #3...they learned it by osmosis.

[mlgbug]

i just made ds a color game, in 2 days he has learned allv of them. he matcges them,tells me what hes hlding,i ask him to hand me a x color.its in my blog

[ChristusG]

Wow, thanks for all of the awesome suggestions!!!! I think the M&M one will work out really great LOL! And I love the color of the day suggestion as well. I think I'll choose my fave suggestions and give them a try this week!

[KrissiK]

I can't believe no one mentioned playing Candyland. That's my 3-year old's favorite game!

[OneRoomSchoolHouse]

"Pink" covers an awful lot of shades, kwim?

 

:iagree:

[mlgbug]

ha so funny you mention pink i really didnt want it in DS's color game we made, but of course DD insisted!