There are many games that teach colors to preschoolers that are fun and educational. As kids are growing up, many basic information needs to be learned and one of those things are the different colors we see every day.
When it comes to teaching preschoolers, you need to understand that they easily get distracted and lose focus if they are not enjoying what they are doing. Knowing this, we need to set up these games with the intent to make it fun for them.
The first thing you need to do when it comes to educating your preschooler about colors is teaching them how to say and pronounce the colors.
Preschoolers are still learning how to say words so making sure they are able to pronounce and say them is the first step before we play any games.
If you are struggling or don’t know how to teach a preschooler to read, here is a great guide on how to teach kids this age to read.
1. Colors of the Rainbow
To start off, we want to teach the basics of color and those would be the colors of the rainbow.
Those colors would be:
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Green
- Blue
- Indigo
- Violet
With that being said, our job is to make sure they can say and associate these words with their respective color shade.
What you will do is set up the colors different colors in front of your preschooler. That can be from printing it from the internet or coloring a peice of paper.
Once you have the colors set up, you will make sure that the name of the color is under it.
Make sure the letters are clear so they can read it without struggling.
The next step is to help them sound each word properly. If you want to take the extra step, you can have the word of each color represent the color they are saying.
For example, the word “Red” would be in the color red. The word “Orange” would be written in the color of orange and so on and so forth.
This can help them remember better when they read the words. They will associate the color with the word just by remembering the colors of the word.
Once they can properly say the words, you can start play games to teach colors to the preschooler.
2. Food with Colors
Many times, parents tell their kids that it is wrong to play with your food but for this game, it is a must!
The great thing about food is that it displays so many different colors and this can be a great way to teach preschoolers about colors.
What we will do is get food items that show off different colors and practice with the toddler trying to say which color is on a specific food.
Here is a quick reference of what foods are associated with different colors.
Red: Tomatoes and Apples
Orange: Oranges and Carrots
Yellow: Bananas and Lemons
Green: Spinach and Broccoli
Blue: Blueberries
Purple: Onions and Eggplant
You can find all these foods at your local grocery store. There are many more foods out there that resemble a color but this is a list to help speed up this process.
To set up this game, you will have each color in front of them on a piece of paper. Set the plate of food in front of them and what they will do is say what color the food is then place it at the correct color.
You can also help them pronounce the food but that isn’t necessary for what we are doing.
With the knowledge of learning what foods are what colors, they will be able to learn colors very quickly.
2. Coloring Pictures
This game can also be considered a fun activity that also adds educational values.
What you will do is print or draw pictures of things that they see daily. That can be many different things like a tree, a car or many other things.
A perfect example would be a picture of a sunset over the beach. This setting has many different colors that can be implemented.
The sand of the ocean is brown, the ocean is blue, and the sun is yellow.
Their job is to color it using colored pencils or crayons. If they have never visited a beach setting while the sun is setting, you can look up pictures from the internet as a guide.
This activity will get them familiarised with the colors they see every day and the more picture they see and color, the more they can learn about the different colors.
A great way to open their imagination even more so they can become creative in what they color is to do outdoor activities that are suitable for young kids. Click here for a great guide on what activities you can do with your preschooler.
3. Color by Number
Another great game you can use to teach colors to preschoolers would be coloring in the number to form a full picture.
I’m pretty sure you’ve seen what these look like but if you don’t, here is a quick explanation.
It is a picture of an object that is cut up into different little parts and each part has a specific number. On the side of the picture, there will be a color code for each number and the job of the preschooler is to color each section with the correct color that is associated with the number.
This game is great because kids will understand what colors go where and where they shouldn’t. They will understand the different colors and make sure they associate them with the correct number.
The color by number book that I use and recommend to anyone is My First Color by Number by Blue Press wave. It has an easy structure to follow that preschoolers can understand. It also offers a variety of pictures preschoolers can color and not get bored off.
I have used this game with my kids and have recommended it to many other parents and they absolutely love it. The preschoolers get to have fun coloring pictures while also learning to differentiate them.
4. I SPY Game
This is a fun game that can be played anywhere. The basic concept of the game I spy is one person would point out an object with a certain color and the other person would guess what it is.
This game can be played on the road, at the park, or in many other places. It could be played between 2 or more people and it’s a great game that teaches about colors and what they associate with.
For example, a mother and her preschooler can be at the park and the mother spots a red ball.
The mother will say “I spy a red object”
The kid will in turn look for something red and when he sees the ball, he will reply with “is it the ball”
The mother would say “yes”!
This game will have the kid searching for the color and will give him an idea of being able to categorize an object just from knowing the color.
Final Thought
Choosing the best games to teach colors to preschoolers can be hard if you don’t know how to teach them properly.
Colors are one of the first things kids need to learn because we see them every day and many things we do require us to know the different colors.
Having preschoolers play different games that teach about the different colors is important. With practice and consistency, they will be able to master knowing the different colors in no time.