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With two toddlers in the house, we are always focused on learning activities that happen in everyday life. We don’t sit down and do work books or any type of formal learning so, for now, we focus on learning through play. Color recognition is a big thing for young toddlers so we’re doing our best to practice this skill in all different ways.
Here are a few ways practice color recognition in our home:
- Identify colors out loud – Objects in our house are no longer a one word description and now require a color title. If she asks for a cup, I ask her which color. If she points to one, I reiterate the color by name. When “reading” books Brielle often likes to play “what do you see game” and now adds a color description to the item. “I see a black cat, what do you see?”
- Sort it out – Take every opportunity you can to sort colors! Give them a mix of items and containers to sort the items into, like a bag of pom poms and an egg carton. Or as in the case above, we used the colorful platmat and colorful toys at the play group preschool room we attend! Check out this busy bag which has free printables you can download for color sorting at home.
- Stack it up – Same concept as above, but go vertical! As I just shared on Instagram, colorful blocks, like our Mega Bloks, make a great sorting activity and colorful village of little castles once sorted out.
- Go on a color hunt – Instead of bringing the objects to them as a collection and having them sort it out, lay out sheets of construction paper or draw a rainbow on a large paper roll and have them hunt objects that fit the colors shown. (PS I have free color hunt printables to use with Elf on the Shelf to practice color recognition in the holiday season!)
- Read books focused on colors – We have lots of books that feature colors but love Mix it up by Herve Tullet which is an interactive book that engages readers with the pages pretending to mix blobs of colors to make new colors.
- Play with toys and games focused on colors –
- ThinkFun’s Roll & Play is quickly becoming my go to gift for one year olds, but one that I’ve personally seen enjoyed with older kids, even up to age 5. You roll the big dice and then choose a card that matches the color you landed on. The cards are broken into different categories, like making an animal noise, counting, doing a funny action and even going on a color hunt.
- Alex Toy’s Button Art – To finish the picture you have to put the correct button color in the hole. Bonus: this activity has built in storage so you don’t lose the cards or the buttons.
- Eat colorful foods – Luckily my toddler isn’t a picky eater and will try most things at least once. When buying a tri color box of pasta, I wasn’t sure how it would go over. But wouldn’t you know? She is now obsessed and excited when she gets more of the green noodles than the other colors in the box! We also love our personalized Dylbug plates where I often put a colorful display of food for them to enjoy!
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