Teaching Colors to Preschoolers with Color Activities, Books, and Songs
Teaching colors to preschoolers can be so much fun! It’s an important early concept for your preschool learners to learn and they can master this skill with lots of fun and games. Ready to discover how I teach colors with play-based learning tools, no-prep printables, and great books?
Keep reading to discover my favorite color worksheets and crafts. Plus, some of my favorite color songs for preschool learners to get up, get the wiggles out, and learn too. I’ll even share my favorite color recognition practice activities and preschool themes for learning colors. You don’t want to miss all this preschool color themed fun!
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How To Teach Colors
Preschoolers are like little sponges so it’s the perfect time for them to learn to recognize colors, shapes, letters, and numbers too. You can teach colors to your preschoolers in all kinds of ways! I like to use real-world practice and play-based color recognition practice activities to teach my kids their colors.
You can begin teaching colors to preschoolers just by pointing out the colors of things around you. Talk about what color shirt you’re wearing, the color of a favorite cup or blanket, and weave colors into your conversations throughout the day. The more your preschoolers hear you talk about colors, the more easily they will be able to recognize and name the colors around them.
What Colors Should Preschoolers Know?
If you’re teaching colors to preschoolers, you’ve got to start somewhere. Which colors should your preschoolers know? It’s a good idea to start with the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue.
One way to cover your bases is with my color interactive notebook. It’s a fun way to craft and learn all the colors your preschoolers will be exposed to this year.
This interactive color activity comes with 11 color crafts, a coloring page, and color worksheets too. If you don’t have time to craft glue the coloring pages in your notebook instead.
After that, you can use rainbow activities and books to teach secondary and tertiary colors to your preschoolers too. My free color wheels are a great, hands-on way to think of real life objects and the colors that they represent.
Can preschoolers learn colors like magenta, turquoise, and navy? Of course! Your preschoolers will soak up all the colors you teach them, especially if you’re practicing colors with fun and engaging color activities and games.
However, it’s easier to begin teaching colors to preschoolers with the basic colors they’ll see most often. Keep reading to discover some of my favorite fun ways to teach colors to your preschool learners at home and in the classroom.
What Are Some Fun Ways to Teach Colors?
You can be as creative and imaginative as you want when you’re teaching colors to preschoolers. There are all kinds of fun color songs for preschool to help them remember the names of colors. Plus, lots of great preschool color games, books, and color worksheets too.
Primary Color Mixing Mats
My primary color mixing mats are an easy way to teach all about primary and secondary colors. Simply toss these mats into your art station and let your students explore the basic colors in our world.
Color Songs for Preschool
It’s so easy and fun to memorize facts through song. You can use this technique with your preschoolers too.
Color songs for preschool learners are perfect for auditory learners. Check out some of my favorite color songs for preschool to get started learning to recognize colors with your kids.
I See Something Blue by Super Simple Learning
What Color Are You Wearing? by The Kiboomers
The Rainbow Color Song by Kids TV 123
Rock Your Body to the Colors by Jack Hartmann
Primary Colors Song by Kids Learning Tube
In a classroom setting, you can incorporate fun movement into color songs for preschool. Have students stand when the color they’re wearing or their favorite color is being sung about. It’s a fun way to encourage healthy physical activity, engage your preschoolers, and practice color recognition too.
Color Mixing Science Experiment
My color mixing science experiment is always a hit in the preschool classroom. All you need is ice, food coloring, and my printable template to bring learning to life.
Teaching Colors to Preschoolers with Books
I love reading aloud to my preschoolers. Reading books aloud to preschool learners is the very best way to help them fall in love with reading. Plus, books expand your child’s vocabulary, teach new concepts, and engage their imagination.
There are so many fun ways to teach colors to preschoolers using books. Check out some of my favorite books about colors for preschool learners below.
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
The Crayons’ Book of Colors by Drew Daywalt
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
The Color Monster by Anna Llenas
Mix It Up by Herve Tullet
Snuggling up with a good book at home is a great way to spend quality time with your preschooler and help foster a love of reading that will last a lifetime. Your child will have so much fun with these bright picture books and they’ll be learning all about colors along the way! After reading about red, yellow, blue, and green, check out the printable color owrksheets and preschool colors game ideas below for more learning fun.
Printable Color Worksheets
Sometimes worksheets get a bad rap, but these printable color worksheets are fun and engaging for early learners. Plus, they make it easy for teachers to add color recognition practice activities to any lesson in the classroom or for extra practice at home.
I love a good no-prep worksheet to add skills practice to our lessons! Check out a few of my favorite printable color worksheets and crafts you can do with your preschool learners.
My Crayon Name Craft printable color worksheets are a cute way for preschoolers to practice recognizing colors and spelling their own name too. This adorable craft makes a cute keepsake for kids to take home or a fun way to label the desks in your preschool classroom.
You can experiment with colors and science using my Jelly Bean Science Experiment printable and instructions. It’s a fun way to introduce the scientific method to your preschoolers, talk about changing states of matter, and explore colors too!
When I think about teaching colors to preschoolers, I always think of the rainbow. There are so many fun rainbow themed lessons and activities you can do with preschool learners! For example, my Crystal Rainbows project is an unforgettable color activity your preschoolers will love creating together this year.
Color by Code Printables
If you need a low prep way to reinforce colors throughout the school year, you’ve got to try color by code printables. At The Primary Parade, there are all kinds of themed and holiday coloring pages absolutely free that kids love. Grab them all fun an easy print and go activity.
Preschool Colors Game Ideas
The experts agree, play-based learning is the way to go with toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary students. You can take advantage of preschool colors game ideas to help your kids learn their colors in fun and engaging ways this year. Here are a few of our favorites:
Board games are great for teaching preschoolers all kinds of important skills like taking turns, counting spaces, and color recognition. Classic colors game ideas we love include Candy Land and Twister. One of our new favorites is The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game from Educational Insights.
Having a color scavenger hunt is a fun colors game idea you can use with preschoolers to help them learn to identify colors and practice matching colors too. You can add a color scavenger hunt to your next nature walk, play time at the park, or open the toy box and have your scavenger hunt right in the living room.
More Color Recognition Practice Activities and Ideas
If you’re interested in more color recognition practice activities, I want to encourage you to try using a color based preschool theme with your kids. Preschool themes are lesson plans designed around a topic or theme.
For example, rainbows make a great preschool theme for learning colors.
Preschool themes involve creating integrated lessons for many different subjects. Literacy, math, fine motor skills, science, art, and more can all be incorporated into a great preschool theme.
Try adding some of the great books and games above to a preschool theme along with crafts and science experiments for a thematic unit that’s all about colors.
Experiencing colors in so many different ways helps preschoolers build connections as they learn. When preschoolers learn with themes, they’re learning that science, history, math, and literacy are all connected.
A well thought out preschool theme is an experience that will help your preschoolers retain more information along the way. Try some of these preschool themes all about colors for more learning fun with your kids this school year.
Crayon Color Sorting Craft
Teach your toddlers and preschool kids colors with this color sorting craft for kids. Simply print, cut, and paste the craft as shown. Then glue the objects onto the correct color crayon for an easy color craftivity.
Rainbow Preschool Theme
A rainbow preschool theme is definitely my favorite way to explore and learn about colors with kids. You can incorporate rainbow science experiments as well as science lessons about light and how we see color.
Read stories about rainbows like the story of Noah and the ark. Sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and make rainbows together to explore color mixing with your preschoolers.
The possibilities are endless with this preschool theme! Try these fun rainbow colors activities for more learning fun:
St Patrick’s Day Pot of Gold Craft
Crayon Preschool Theme
What better way to learn about colors with your preschoolers than with a crayon preschool theme?
Begin with Drew Daywalt’s crayon book series including his famous title, The Day the Crayons Quit. Then, add crayon crafts, activities, and games for more learning fun with your preschoolers.
A crayon preschool theme is a great way for kids to master basic colors, build fine motor skills, and learn new colors. Plus, you can introduce your preschoolers to Edwin Binney, the inventor of Crayola Crayons.
Learn about how crayons are made and try making your own recycled crayon projects too. Don’t forget to try my Crayon Name Craft for more color learning excitement.
Do you have any favorite preschool color themes or color activities for teaching preschoolers all about recognizing and identifying colors? Share your favroite games, songs, and activities in the comments. I can’t wait to read them and try your favorites with my preschool learners too!
