8 EASY ART ACTIVITIES

Lets deep dive into colors for preschool! What activities there are and how to teach colors to a preschooler in homeschool. These are the basic building blocks of learning about color theory. Also, don’t miss the free printable at the end of this post. The bird color matching printable is great for assessing your child’s knowledge of colors before or after you complete some of these activities. 

Once your child knows basic colors you can advance their learning into more art and science related topics. Such as learning about primary vs. secondary colors and the rainbow. Check out those posts if you’re ready to take your child to the next level.

Teaching toddlers before teaching colors for preschool.

Colors can be introduced as early as a child can pick up an object. But they won’t actually be able to differentiate between the name of the object and the color it is until the age of about 18 months. And even then it’s not until 2-3 years of age that they will reliably name colors correctly. 

For this reason, I do not do any planned color activities until they begin Letter of the Week. This is their homeschool preschool curriculum. It’s free and you can check it out by following the button below. It’s Letter of the Week reimagined for all that homeschooling has to offer.

Leading up to beginning preschool I talk about what they are playing with. There are two ways you should phrase your sentence. First, with the adjective before the noun. “Do you have a red bird?” And describing the object with the adjective following the noun, “your bird is red.” Use questions and statements both ways. I use this method even through teaching them colors for preschool.

Activities to teach colors for preschool.

There are many color activities and ideas available online. Because of this I have separated them into two categories and narrowed them down based on ones that have worked in our home.

The categories are active and quiet. Sometimes your child needs to run off some energy and turning it into a learning opportunity is great. Other times, you may need your child to quietly work on an activity while big brother completes his math lesson. Mix and match these to allow for both types of learning.

Active activities to teach colors for preschool.

Firstly, a color scavenger hunt. 

This is an easy activity that requires little prep. The only season I would not recommend doing this activity is winter. There needs to be color from leaves and flowers that just aren’t present when it’s bitterly cold.

To do this activity all you need is paint, clothespins, a rectangle of cardboard, and an open area of nature that your child can collect items from.

Seek and find in a room. 

Is it winter when you want to do the scavenger hunt activity? Or maybe you simply want something even easier. I do this activity with my older child when practicing colors in Spanish too. 

You can simply sit in a chair and ask your child to find a blue book. Or point to something that is green. Easy-peasy, and your child will get a kick out of running around the room. If they seem to be growing bored and they’re old enough to say the words, have them call out colors for you to find. The key to this is to occasionally “mess” up and see if they correct you.

Lastly, play Twister!

Turn teaching colors for preschool into a game with the classic game of Twister. We love Twister in our home. If you really want to focus on colors and not discourage your child, leave out left and right. Instead just differentiate between hand, foot, and color.

Quiet activities to teach colors for preschool.

If you’re needing something for those quiet learning moments then this is the list for you.

Read books about colors.

There are many books about colors you can pick up at your local library. I have included our absolute favorites below.

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle.
• Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson
• Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin
• White Rabbit’s Color Book by Alan baker
• Planting A Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
• Big Book of Colours by Felicity Brooks

Secondly, color sorting activities.

These types of activities can be done with the same object. Such as different colored pom-poms or sorting counting bears based on color. Or you can purchase this very contained wooden colored rings sorting board.

Another great option is to sort colors with a bunch of random objects. Bring together various items and place them in a tub. This can include single colored toys, socks, utensils, craft items, etc. Provide them with construction paper of the colors you’re teaching and help them sort similar colors. Wooden color puzzles like this pack here is an excellent choice if you’re looking for zero prep work and convenience for being an anytime activity.

Create a color collage.

Bring together a bunch of craft supplies and have your child create a collage for each color on the same colored paper. I would space this out over a few days depending on your child’s attention span. Check out instructions for it over at Happiness Is Homemade.

Paint handprints

I love this one because my boys are completely mesmerized by the process. When Momma is encouraging them to smear paint on their hand, I must be up to something. Because of this they are all eyes and ears the whole time. It does take a little bit because in between each color you have to wash hands and dry them off but it’s well worth it. Keep in mind this is a messy activity so you’ll want to use tempura paint, this is our family’s favorite.

Since you have their rapt attention you can talk about the color. How does the color make you feel, is it a warm or cold color, where else do we see this color in nature, and so on. I mainly make sure that I am using the color’s name repeatedly. I have found this is an amazing way to captivate and help with remembering color names.

Bird color matching 

This free printable is a part of Bb is for Bird. Bb is for Bird is one week in the free homeschool preschool curriculum, Letter of the Week. I chose this activity because it’s an easy way to assess how well your child knows their colors. And I chose to have this activity in the first couple weeks of the curriculum because it is an easy concept to master at this age if not already.

If your child knows their colors then they will have no problem matching the birds and telling you which color they are. If your child is decent with their colors, then they will select the match after you ask them to match a certain color. Or if you realize that they do not know their colors, you can provide quick remediation with any of the activities listed in this post. Also, you can choose to use construction paper to further the repetition of saying the color and finding two birds that match. Get the free printable below and assess your child’s knowledge today.

Colors for preschool activities.

From quiet and active games to assessing your child’s knowledge, you can now teach your child colors with confidence. But this is only the beginning of your child’s color journey in art lessons. Dive into more colors for preschool activities by visiting Rr is for Rainbow.