Color Sorting Beads

We've been doing color sorting activities for so long that this is very easy for my daughter, but it's still great for working the mind and for some quiet time and an activity she can do all on her own. She loves to sort! Her fine motor skills and color recognition skills have been great for a long time now because of activities just like this. I highly recommend this and my other fine motor activities for honing those fine motor skills.

For this color sorting activity we used beads of various colors and a mini muffin tin. All I had to say was "sort these" and she got right to work. When she was younger and first starting out with color sorting I would use fewer colors and put one of each in the spaces I wanted her to put them. You can try that if your child needs assistance. While they sort you could talk about which colors are which if they aren't sure yet.

We only had one green bead and one yellow bead in the mix. My daughter said "that pesky green bead" and it really made me laugh! Hopefully you and your kiddo have fun with this activity as well. It'd be great for a tot tray.

Josef Albers Inspired Art Squares

Firstly, I would like to make it known that I'm not taking credit for this idea. It was something my daughter got to do at our local library. I'm pretty sure it was an idea given by a book about Josef Albers art, but the librarians may have came up with it, and they put it together. I'm not really sure, but it was way too good of an idea not to share.

If you're not familiar with Josef Albers you should read up on him on the internet with your child, or see if you can rent a book about him from your local library. He used a lot of different colored squares for his art works, putting them together all different types of ways. He noticed how colors look different when placed on top of other colors.

I think this is a FANTASTIC color lesson for kids already have all their colors down. For those that don't, you can use it to teach them what colors are what too of course. But if you can really get your child thinking about how colors look on top of different colors that's so great!

You'd need to provide:
- A large sheet of white paper
- Big squares of several different colors of construction paper (enough to fill up the entire sheet of white paper, using every color just once)
- Little squares of the same colors of construction paper (the same amount as the big squares)
- A glue stick

Let them play around with it for a while until they get the design they love and connect with. Have discussions about how certain colors "pop" when placed on top of other colors, or how they "blend in." Good color terms to get kids familiar with. Once they have a design they like they can glue it down, or you can just glue down the big squares and leave the little squares paper clipped to the top to do over and over again.

Healthy Red Dinner

If you're doing colors of the week units or just looking for cute healthy ideas for dinner here's one that's all red themed! Kids will delight in seeing a favorite color on every part of their meal. 

In the first section there is one ravioli from the Lobster Ravioli sold at Trader Joe's. In the second section is a few strawberries sliced up. The third section has a piece of bread cut in the shape of a heart with roasted red pepper hummus spread on it. Very healthy with lots of different nutritious benefits in each section and it's adorable. Would look so cute in a bento box, which I can not wait to get!

Color Mixing Water Play

Water play is a great way to beat the summer heat and almost all kids love it! This particular one we did last year was to teach color mixing. It was to show that when red and blue mix together they create purple. 

I set my daughter up outside with a bin full of water and two clear plastic cups one with red water and one with blue water. I colored the waters with food coloring, a few drops each. She poured in the red first!

Next went the blue, and the colors mixed to make purple. In the picture the water still looks blue but it was a lovely shade of purple in person.

After we did that and discussed the color theory and all that she started just playing with the water. Splashing around in it and then using the cups to scoop and pour the water from one to the other. Lots of summer fun!

Water Bottle Cap Color Sorting

This is a fantastic activity for one year old toddlers. Sorting itself is so beneficial for development, and sorting colors helps your toddler learn to differentiate and learn their colors. It even works in some early literacy thanks for the labels.

You can purchase a 3 section tray like the one pictured above at Dollar Tree. They are GREAT for sorting activities for kids. All you'll need for this is that tray, and two different colors of water bottle caps. We had green and white. If you want to include the early literacy aspect with labels you'll need paper in colors of water bottle caps you're using, a Sharpie, and some scissors.

So, I made the labels. "Bottle Cap Sorting" for the title in the middle section. Then "green" for the green section, and "white" for the white section. Then I laid it out, as well as a bunch of white and green bottle caps (the reusing is very frugal and green). I demonstrated and talked about how the green ones went in one place and the white ones in the other.

My daughter got right to work and in no time she was sorting the water bottle caps perfectly. The odd few get to the wrong places at first when excited toddlers grab handfuls at once, don't worry about it! The learning is definitely taking place. You won't believe how excited your toddlers will be to sort water bottle caps.

Lemonade Stand Water Play

In the summer when it's hot out and the sun is beating down we love to engage in some water play to cool us off while we have fun! This water play activity not only lets kids play with water of course (which they LOVE) but it has sensory play to it and most importantly pretend play! It's so important for kids to start pretend play at a young age. Pretend play helps develop imagination and act out real life scenarios. There's usually lots of other skills learned during as well.

Note: before I start sharing the how-to's I'd like to add that this particular water play could also be part of a yellow themed week or day to help babies and young toddlers learn their colors.

So here's what it looks like!

You'll need:
- a plastic bin (preferably clear)
- yellow food coloring
- water
- lemon essential oil
- a ladle
- artificial lemons (a few, can be found at Dollar Tree)
- Styrofoam or plastic cups
- my daughter also wanted me to add some measuring spoons, so of course I did

Fill up the bin with the desired amount of water. Add in some drops of yellow food coloring (be careful not to add to much or it will turn the water orange). Stir that around until all the water is yellow. Add in a few drops of lemon essential oil to scent the water to add in the extra sensory element that will really bring the play to life.

If you want to add even more texture for more sensory elements you could add in some real lemon zest too.

Next, add in the ladle, lemons, and cups. You can set it up with the cups to the side like I did too. I also had a little plastic yellow bowl/cup thing that I added in.

As you can see my daughter got right to scooping and pouring the water and making me cups of lemonade!

Rainbow Qtip Art

This is a fantastic craft. It serves as an opportunity for kids to paint in a way they never have before, while honing their fine motor skills when they don't even know it! It also helps to teach the rainbow, and colors. This craft can be used as a card (like ours obviously says "Welcome Back!").

All you need for this is a piece of paper, paints (preferably washable tempera) in all the colors of the rainbow, and Qtips.

Explain to your child what you'll be doing. If your child will it exactly how it's supposed to be, great! If not, here's a helpful trick. Cover the sections of paper underneath the part that's being worked on with another sheet of paper, moving it down as needed. This won't stop them from adding colors where they don't belong, but it will help. The point is to use the Qtips to make dots of each color on the page in sections that are about the same size, in the right order of course. Ours turned out beautifully! 

Red & Green Complimentary Colors Sensory Bin

Once children know their basic colors I think it's important to start introducing concepts such as complimentary colors. Red and green of course are familiar complimentary colors. I didn't do this bin around Christmas time, but it easily could be a fun addition for babies and younger toddlers to explore some of the holiday colors around that time as well. I think it's so cute of a bin that really promotes abstract thinking.

For the base material I used a bag of split peas. They can be found at the grocery store by the beans. Then for the red I added four red blocks. I really like the way there's not only the red and the green, but there's also the squares and the circles in this bin.

Bottle Cap Color Sorting

Kids love to sort, plain and simple! Dollar Tree sells some wonderful 3 section trays that my daughter loves to use to sort. One of her favorite things to sort is bottle caps. I recycle lots of our bottle caps for this and other craft/learning purposes. 

As you can see we had green bottle caps and white bottle caps for this sorting activity. I made 3 labels for the 3 section tray. I just used a green post-it note for the "Green" label, and a white index card cut down to size for the "bottle cap sorting" and "white" labels. My daughter was to young to actually read the labels at this point, but it really benefits kids to get used to being in a print rich environment from a very young age. As adults we're always dealing with labels and signs so it doesn't hurt to get them in the habit.

My daughter grasped the concept very quickly and had lots of fun sorting all the bottle caps.

Green Sensory Bin

I've said it before and I'll say it again, sensory bins are a great tool for teaching colors to children. For this green sensory bin I grabbed our big bin so I could really fill it up with quite a few decent sized green objects. This doubled as an objects exploration activity to, like so many of my sensory bins do. 

So as you as you can see, for our base material I used dry split peas. I used such a big bin that it didn't cover the entire area though, so I also added some green aquarium gems. These are one of my daughters favorite base materials. Some things I added to the bin were a plastic ring, plastic egg, pom poms, bead necklaces, paint swatch sample, my little pony, magnetic letters, PINK dog, turtle bath squirter, little people tractor, and measuring spoon. All green of course. Your items may vary, but as long as they're green that's what matters.

My daughter loved this bin and dug in!

Blue Sensory Bin

Sensory bins are a great way to teach colors to your little one. This one has a blue theme. The base material however is not blue, it is white. The blue colors pop more that way though.

I used a bag of white, lavender scented epsom salt from Dollar Tree as the base material.
Then I added in all the blue things we had laying around for sensory play/bin use. Your objects may obviously be quite different than ours, but the point is that they're blue. You can use whatever you have around the house that's appropriate, small toys, etc.

Purple Themed Bath

Are you trying to help your child learn their colors? Or maybe you're just looking for a sensory bath they'll enjoy? If so, you've come to the right place! Themed baths can help kids learn all kinds of things, and they work great for teaching the colors. My little one has known all her colors for a good while now, but she delights in having colored bath water and fun sensory additives! You can see all our other color learning activities here.

Here' one of her favorite colored baths: PURPLE

Although this is a GORGEOUS bath, the set up only took a few minutes. To recreate this Purple Themed Bath in your tub you'll need:

• Purple craft foam (I actually used construction paper and taped them to the wall, but craft foam would be ideal so they could get wet and stick to the wall)
• Scissors
• Purple beaded necklaces (varying shades is best so you can talk about lights and darks for more knowledge)
• Shaving cream (the dollar store kind for men)
• A bowl
• Paint brush or makeup brush
• Neon purple food coloring
• A set of bath toy letters (only using the purple ones)

Step 1:

Take your scissors and cut the letters P, U, R, P, L, and E out from your purple craft foam or construction paper. Then add them to the wall.

Step 2:

Start filling up the tub. While the tub is filling up prepare the bath paint. Squirt the desired amount of shaving cream into a bowl and add a few drops of the purple food coloring and mix together with your brush. Once the tub is half way full add a few squirts of purple food coloring into the water and swish it around with your hand to get the color throughout. Add more food coloring and repeat until you've got the desired color.

Step 3:

Use some of the purple bath paint to paint some polka dots on the wall. I always like to use a bit of the bath paint myself to get my daughter interested in it. She clearly loves her bath paints! 

Step 4:

Set the bowl of bath paint with brush inside on the side of the tub. Toss in the purple bath toy letters.

Step 5: 

Put the purple necklaces on your child and put them in the tub to have a blast. Be sure to talk about the color purple and all the different aspects of the bath, especially the word you made, spelling and all! You can even get in some more extra knowledge by identifying the bath toy letters together. 

Color Wheel Craft

C is 25 months old and has known all her colors for a while now..so it's time to expand. This makes a great activity for kids who've got their primary and secondary colors down, but there would be no problem making one of these with a child whose just learning their colors. Owning their own color wheel will get them excited about knowing which color is which! Feel free to make a simpler wheel, only including primary and seconday colors if you feel you need to do that as well.         

To Create This Color Wheel Craft You Will Need:
 3 sheets of white paper
Scissors
A large paper plate
Glue
A black Sharpie
Crayons in the following colors: red, red orange, orange, yellow orange, yellow, yellow green, green, blue green, blue, blue violet, violet, and red violet

To start, draw a circle on one of your white sheets of paper. Then stack all 3 sheets together and cut the circles out. Repeat for a square, and triangle. You'll need to then take a triangle that you've cut out, set it ontop of the sheets and cut out 3 more so you'll have 6. Make sure that your circles are the biggest, squares smaller, and triangles smallest. Look at your paper plate beforehand (the back side) and figure out what sizes each shape should be so they'll all fit. Our triangles overlapped a tiny bit and that's definitely okay!

Now that you've got all your shapes cut out, give your child one at a time, with the proper crayon. The circles should be the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. The squares should be the secondary colors: orange, green, and violet. The triangles should be the teritiary colors: red orange, yellow orange, yellow green, blue green, blue violet, and red violet.

Once your little one has completed the coloring of the shapes, you can label them all with the black Sharpie. Examples: Primary: Red. Secondary: Orange. Etc.

 Now have your child help you add glue to each shape and stick them on the backside of the paper plate accordingly, with yellow at the top.

 Once everything is glued on take the Sharpie and make lines on the paper plate to connect red to green, yellow to violet, and blue to orange. Then write "complimentary colors" near the lines.

 Your final product should look similar to this:

 After deciding we wanted to make a color wheel craft, I googled images of color wheels to get an idea of what I wanted ours to be like. I hope you enjoy your color wheel as much as we do!