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When you are teaching children about colors, it is important to provide hands-on learning games and activities. These games are for children learning their colors and are perfect for 1 to 3 year olds. Even if your child has mastered his or her colors, I can promise you that he or she will enjoy categorizing and collecting colored rocks!
Let’s start by making the very simple painted rocks. You only need to paint one side. It’s important to put a coat of white on first so that you colors turn out bright and vivid. I used simple acrylic paint (about $1 per bottle) from the craft store.
One of the greatest learning games for children is memory! This is perfect for 2+ years old. Have your child turn over rocks and try to make matches. Then, they place the matching colors into the coordinating container. I got these containers from The Dollar Tree (pack of 12!).
Another game is called Scattered Colors. Take all of your rocks and scatter them on the ground (yes, children love to play games on the ground!). They can either attempt to organize the colors themselves, or you can let them creatively organize the colors however they wish. A 1 year old might not be able to  categorize the scattered colors, but a 3 year old will. This game provides a great opportunity for parents to talk about the colors that the child is picking up. For example, “Oh I see you picked out blue. I love blue! Don’t you?”
Show Me is a wonderful game for 1 year olds. Place the rocks in their containers and place the lids in front of the containers (as pictured below). Say to your child, “Show me a red rock.” Then, place the rocks on the colored lids. Remember, it’s ok for them to make mistakes. They’re learning! A good idea is to start with just 3 colors at a time and gradually introduce more colors as time goes on.
Stack the Colors is a fun game for kids that like to build! I like to play this game at the end (keep in mind, 5 minutes may be all your child can handle at this age). That way, the colors are organized and ready to be put away. A toddler LOVES to stack objects! Say, “I have the red rocks. Can you put the orange rocks on top? What about the yellow rocks, will those fit on top?” and so on.
If you’re a DIY type mom like me, I hope you’ve enjoyed these ideas for teaching your children about colors. Educational games can be are expensive! This DIY project cost just a few dollars and we collected the rocks together outside. What is your child’s favorite color game?
Here is another hands-on DIY project that I made to teach my children about shapes and colors last year:
JK, I just found it – I was looking under “school” instead of DIY.
I love this idea! I have an active 19month old little boy and I homeschool my 1st grader so I am on the look out for ideas to engage him as well during “school time”. Is there any way to pin this post? I didn’t see it on your pintrest. Thanks for the creative ideas!
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Great ideas for color activities. I’ve just begun trying to teach my little girl about colors and color names, so this is perfect for us. Thank you for sharing, Kelly.
So cute! We’ve been doing lots of fun stuff with rocks lately. I’ll have to add this idea to our list!
I love that idea!We collect rocks and use them for crafts.
Something so easy can be so educational! I’m going to bookmark this post since my grand daughter is to young, but I’m going to enjoy these games with her.
Thanks for the party!
Beautiful post, love the photography and concept for teach colors