Getting to know colors is a fundamental part of early childhood education. Mixing colors, learning their names, and experimenting with color attributes should be part of an everyday routine in the preschool classroom. Even color patterning has a tremendous impact on a child's cognitive development. Have a look at these clever color recognition activities to help kids learn about colors and have fun at the same time.
1. Four Corners with Colors
This fast-paced classic game will help kids think on their feet while having fun. Let them call out names to help them learn color names along the way.
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2. Fine Motor Rainbow Ball
This game is perfect to help little hands with fine motor skills as they try and dig for different colored scarves in the ball.
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3. Feed the Shark
Kids get to learn color sorting in this fun ocean-themed game. Paste colorful printable sharks to toilet paper rolls and let kids drop the fish in their mouths.
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4. Mail Game
Preschoolers can practice color sorting while pretending to deliver mail to their friends. These envelopes and stamps are reusable and help kids learn to recognize color names.
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5. Make a Rainbow Fish
Celery sticks make the perfect stamp for fish scales thanks to their half-moon shape. Use celery to print rainbow-colored scales on a fish outline for a cute color craft.
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6. Color Sorting Train
This game can help kids with recognizing colors but also with counting. Sing a fun train song while sorting colors into the different carriages.
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7. Rainbow Word Matching
Mix clothes pegs with color names written on them and let kids rearrange the pegs in the right order. This is a quick color learning activity that can be replayed a few times.
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8. Color Mixing Hand Print
Using primary colors, students can paint a rainbow onto their hands and print it onto a piece of paper. This is a fun and messy way to teach them some basic color theory and make some cool crafts in the process.
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9. Color Rock Dominoes
Kids will love this DIY color game. All you need is some acrylic paint and a bunch of rocks and you are ready to go!
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10. Bunny Tails Matching Game
Add some velcro dots to colorful bunny cutouts and pom-poms. Preschoolers can match the tail and the bunny in this cute pom-pom color sorting game.
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11. Matching Color Shades
Once kids have nailed basic color recognition, let them explore the different hues of colors by using paint sample cards. They can learn color attributes like light and dark in this color sorting activity.
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12. Pom Pom Color Drop
Kids love fine motor games like pom drop. They use tongs and scoops to put the colorful pom-poms in different containers like tubes, ice cube trays, and muffin tins.
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13. Rainbow Roll-n-Write
Use a die to tell kids in which color they should write a word. They can create a beautiful rainbow sentence or poem.
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14. Make an Ice Cube Pattern
Use plastic color ice cubes and an empty tray to create a grid pattern. This is great for color recognition skills and concentration.
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15. Color Sticker Matching
A favorite color activity amongst young learners is matching stickers to color boxes. This can be turned into a fun game or a reward system as kids sort stickers by color.
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16. Magic Rainbow Ring
To teach kids more advanced color theory concepts, create a magic rainbow ring. These kinds of color science experiments will captivate their young minds.
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17. Color Flip Book
Give each student their own flipbook showing the colors along with their names. Students can even color the images themselves or add stickers and pictures on the pages.
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18. Baked Cotton Balls
Dip cotton balls into a flour and water mixture that has been colored with food dye. Bake the balls to create a hard outer coating. Kids will have so much fun smashing the baked rainbow once it has cooled down.
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19. Butterfly Color Match
This cheery color activity idea sees kids sorting colors onto butterflies they cut out and color themselves. Mix an assortment of items into a bowl and let kids sort the objects by color by placing them on the corresponding colored butterfly.
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20. Color Bingo
Color bingo is great for color identification skills and helps kids to read the names of colors while playing. Use colored buttons to place on the bingo mats for some added fun.
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21. Dance Party
Nothing beats a good old-fashioned sing and dance party! Put on the best preschool color songs and have kids sing and dance before or after a color lesson.
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22. Gold Fish Sorting
Turn snack time into an opportunity for teaching colors with fun colored Goldfish crackers. Kids can sort them into colors and build shapes or spell out the names of the colors with the crackers.
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23. Pom Pom Race
This is one of the best color matching activities for busy preschoolers. Use straws in this pom-pom color sorting game that can be a race against the clock.
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24. Ice Cream Patterns
Use an ice cream scoop and plastic balls to create color patterns on the printable ice cream mat. This is a fun, easy, low-cost color activity perfect for the summer.
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25. Sort Toys by Color
This hands-on color sorting activity can be fun for the whole class. Let students race in teams to see who can place toys onto the correct color sorting mats the fastest.
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26. Fruit Loops Rainbow
Combine a color sort activity with some basic math skills. Students roll 2 dice to see how many of each color fruit loop gets added to the rainbow. The best part is eating the cereal after the rainbow is complete!
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27. Rainbow Fishing
This game is great for quiet time, allowing students to fish for different colors on their own. They should identify the colors as they go, or catch the fish of the color your prompt.
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28. Color Mixing Bag
This is a fun and easy color mixing activity to show kids how primary colors work together to create secondary colors like green, orange, and purple.
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29. Color Mixing Bottles
Experiments with color are tons of fun like this activity using only corn syrup, water, and a water bottle. Add the colored liquids to the bottle and see the magic happen as they combine to make a new color and go back to normal.
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30. Mixing Colors With Clay
This is a simple color learning activity where kids can enjoy dough color sorting and mixing dough to create new colors.
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31. Mouse Mixing Activity
Color learning activities can get messy! Use water balloons to mix some colors together and throw them on paper or canvas to make a messy artwork.
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32. Spinning Tops Color Mixing
Let students create spinning tops with primary colors painted on them. As they spin them, students can observe how a yellow and blue top makes the color green when spun! Simply magical.
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