HOW TO TEACH COLOURS TO TODDLERS OR PRESCHOOLERS

 

As soon as your toddler reached the big milestone of turning 1, you will notice they will start walking, talking and become so much independent. Around this age when you can start introducing them to colours. Teaching colours to toddlers or preschoolers should be the primary concept to intoduce with. It is more difficult than it sounds easy to introduce with the concept of colours.  As a general rule of thumb 18 months i.e. 2 ½ is a great age for specifically teaching colours. But all children are different. Some children learn colours at the age of 1.5 they may not be able to communicate verbally but started pointing colours whenever they see and some take time but that’s ok! Perhaps parents tend to worry and started panicking that why your child is taking time?

Teaching toddler colours is great fun but a challenging adventure.

Our world is full of colours and shapes. Wherever you can see are colours so do your child notices. Identification of colours in early years helps to stimulate cognitive development. It is always advisable for an educator and parent to start teaching toddlers to colours with primary or cool colours such as yellow, blue and green as it provides a sense of calm and relaxation because they are visual reminder of elements of nature like sun, water, sky and grass. Therefore, helping children learn colours is essential at a very early age.

Importance of introducing Colours In Early Years

*       Promotes eye-hand coordination

*       Makes strong grip

*       Strengthens hands for writing

*       Increases attention span

*       Helps toddlers to express through colours

 

“Ananya can recognize and say all the alphabets from A to Z and all the numbers from 1 to 10 but when it comes to colours identification whether I show her Green or Pink objects, she always end up saying Pink” says the three-year-old mother Nidhi.

Children first need to accumulate lot of knowledge before they can understand the concept, especially with abstract concepts such as colours. To teach your toddlers or preschoolers colours, focus on the primary colours first as they don’t they have the ability to understand the shades of colours.  Toddlers cannot distinguish between such as shades of blue – ‘Light blue and Navy blue. The earning might be simple as ‘blue is blue’

Toddlers also get confuse with the shape and size of the object.

“Jahan always misunderstood between the shape and size of the object. Whenever I show him a red apple he always associates the shape of an apple with the word Red” says the two-and-half-years-old mother Parul.

Accompanying with learning what each colour is called. Children need to understand what colour represents. It’s not size, nor shape nor the name of the object, nor the texture, not the number of things showing. Therefore every time you show any object by saying its name, also show it with different quality. For instance, say a red balloon; use the word colour along with the name of the object. Refrain from saying “this is red balloon”, instead say “this is a balloon and its colour is red”.   

Is it complicated to introduce colours to your toddler or preschoolers as compared to numbers and alphabets?

Teaching colours is best through playful everyday life experiences. Gleeful Grow helps you how you can intoduce colours to your toddlers or preschoolers.

1.     Label everything with colours

Start by labeling everything with colours your child uses on daily basis. You can label theirs water bottle, sippers, plate, toys and etc. By watching the colours more will make them curious to know which colour it actually is and also help them to relate those colours wherever they see.  

2.     Colourful Platter

You can teach your child while cooking. Sounds impossible! Right?? But it’s not really. All you need to do is give your child some raw vegetables. Toddlers love to touch and play with different vegetables. Out of curiosity your child will ask you which vegetable is this.you can tell them the name of the vegetable along with the colour. Say, a tomato and it’s colour is red.

Also as you serve your child different food, introduce the food items with their colour. Like Green vegetables, white rice, yellow lentils, brown bread, black pepper, etc.

3.     Modeling clay

It is immensely wonderful activity to teach colours to young minds. Start by giving different colour of clay to your toddler or preschooler and encourage them to make objects with colourful clay. They can also mix the different colour of clay to find out the new colour. This activity not only helps your child to learn colours but also develops their fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.

4.     Songs and Videos

According to research, it has been seen that songs and videos plays a vital role In the development of child’s development. Children really enjoy rhymes and they tend to grasp them easily as it provides practical example to some extent. Songs and animated videos helps toddlers to learn shades of the colour.

5.     Get closure to nature

Getting closure to nature is another beautiful way to teach colours to toddlers or preschoolers. You can introduce colour of leaves, green grass, dogs in the street, colourful flowers and butterflies, various birds and soon. Through this wonderful and fun learning way will also improve your child’s motor skills and will surely build great vocabulary.

Parent Tip: start by teaching primary colours like Red, Yellow, blue. Later you can introduce colour mixing and rainbow colours VIBGYOR.  

6.     Colour Day

This is a great way to introduce colours to your toddler or preschooler. You can encourage your child to wear same colour t-shirt on different days. You can name the days like Red Monday. Blue Tuesday, Yellow Wednesday, Green Thursday, Orange Friday, White Saturday, Black Sunday. This will bring excitement and fun in the learning.

Parent Tip: Introduce one colour at a time, once they have mastered one colour, then move on toanother.

 

7.     Through fun leaning colour based activity

There are many activites through which you can make your child learn or introduce colours.

·        Colour Sorting Activity

·        Exploring Colour Lights In Dark

·        Colour Changing Water Play

·        Coloured Pasta Sensory Bin

·        Rainbow Rice Scooping

·        Make A Rainbow by VIBGYOR Paper Strips

·        Pasting of Colourful cotton Balls

·        Finger Painting

 

8.      Colouring Book

Let your child choose his/her favorite colouring book and ask your child to colour it in their own manner. This is the simplest yet worth way to teach toddler or preschooler colours.

9.     Favourite Dressing

Everyone likes some specific colours so o your child. Take the advantage of the favorite dressing phenomenon. Tage your child’s favourite dress with names of their colour.

10.   Colour Jigsaw Puzzle

Get your child some attractive and brightly coloured toys, puzzle games, alphabets, numbers etc. Make a simple jig-saw puzzle with the help of cardboard strips of the same colour. If you don’t have a coloured cardboard, colour it with your child. This will help you to spend good, fun and learning time with your child. And let your child to explore colours while learning alphabets and numbers.     

 

These activities will help you to teach your toddler or preschooler colours in different and fun way. Children tend to notice colours at very young age so first familiarize them with bright colours as they attract towards them. Every child is different and has his her own way to grasp things. Don’t just focus on one thing. These are their crucial and very important growing time. Let them explore things according to them in their own creative ways.

I would love to help in your journey teaching colours to your li’l ones. Whether you need some creative ideas or you need more helpful suggestions, please leave a comment below. Also share which activity your toddler loved the most. If you liked this article, please share it with your family and friends to motivate us to share more and more fun , exciting and wonderful ways to teach your toddler.