Educational resources and activities that teach kids colours through play and FUN – At home, outdoors and at night.
Learning colors is at first an abstract idea, children often associate a color with a shape or a texture. Teach kids colors at home, outdoors and at night. Learning is easy when it is fun. You can
start by labelling or collecting things of a certain color. Coloring with crayons is easy! Singing the rainbow song is nice! Painting and mixing colors to learn about color theory is always a childhood favourite.
From a developmental perspective though, does this seem engaging and novel? A child’s development thrives most when they are enjoying themselves, interested and getting involved. Play-based parents can teach kids colors with these awesome educational learning resources. Kids need novel and unique ways to play.
These fantastic educational learning resources can teach kids colors in a super fun and engaging way.
Explore colors with Magna-Tiles.
Magna-tiles are awesome. We love them. These magnetic transparent shapes have endless possibilities. Building with them is the obvious game but they are also in an array of colors. This means your child can have lots of fun connecting colours. They can label them, sort them, group them by colours and build, stack them by colour and mix them.
Here is a cheap 32 piece set you can buy in Australia.
Here is a 48 piece set you can buy in the US.
When this educational learning resource came out they were super expensive but now you can get them relatively cheap… AND kids don’t get over them. They love them. My nine year old still will play with them.
Education and learning in the outdoors.
Play based learning at home doesn’t just have to be indoors. Take your learning resources outside to add another element of novelty. On bright sunny days we often take the magna-tiles and Rainbow wooden window blocks outside. The light shinning through the transparent blocks makes it more interesting and you can really see the vibrancy of the colours.
Below Miss T is learning about colours and light. “Look my hand is yellow!”.
So many ways to play and learn about colours.
AND, you have to agree that it looks so interesting and cool when it is outside in the sun rays.
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Rainbow wooden window blocks.
Another amazing learning resource that we frequently use to explore colours and colour mixing is our stunning window blocks. I wish these were around when I was a kids. I often get them out and end up sitting down with the kids for a while.
Sometimes we use the window blocks on the window.
They look fabulous by the back glass door when the morning light is shinning through them. Sometimes we take them outside on the bench. Miss T loves looking through rose coloured glasses and changing her world by looking through different coloured lenses.
In Australia, I recommend this HUGE set of wooden rainbow blocks.
In the US, you can get this cool Guide craft 30 piece set.
Play with plastic colour paddles.
A similar activity is to play with plastic colour paddles. They are transparent so they can be used like lenses. They are also an amazing resources for teaching colour mixing because they are transparent. You will often see these at early childhood centres, preschools and kindergarten because they are so novel and cool.
They aren’t easy to find though. They truely are an amzing resource to teach kids colours though.
You can often find these little coloured transparent counters, but not the large paddles. You can buy them online from the US here. Or the learning resources set is available in Australia here.
Teach kids colours with some active games.
We have a set of beanbags in rainbow colours that are a lot of fun. These can be used for some active play, incorporating colour learning activities at the same time. In the US I found this cute rainbow set with veggies on them. Or these sportime giant set of dinnertime beanbags. In Australia I found these awesome colour labelled beanbags.
I want some! There are also some less expensive plain ones here.
We often play “colour catch”, where I throw the bags around and the kids have to run and jump on the colour bean bag that I call out. It is fun for me too! I get to see them run back and forth and back and forth while I try my best to wear them out or make them giggle as I trick them.
Red-blue-red-blue-red-blue-red-green. Gets them every time.
Singing and shaking colour sounds.
Miss T is a little rocker. Always singing, dancing, humming. She loves making up her own music… and her own games. She uses these wooden sound blocks with different coloured transparent lenses and shakes them, singing about the colours.
You can get the exact same set online sent to Australia here.
An example, is her tapping the yellow one, singing “yellow, oh yellow. Yellow is the colour of sunshine and flowers. I can sing yellow and I can see yellow in my socks… I can see yellow on the fridge…” and on she goes until she runs out of things of that colour and then she changes blocks…
Click here to see a similar set from the US.
Night time colour exploration with lights.
Did i tell you that i love window blocks and magna-tiles? They are a must have to teach kids colours. Adding another dimension to play-based learning is by introducing the same objects at night time, or in a darkened room, with a torch. It makes it much more interesting and also lets children explore with lights, shadows and the transparency of window blocks. Try to teach kids colours in a different context and it will be so much more engaging.
Children enjoy manipulating objects and experimenting with cause and effect. For instance, changing the angle of the torch changes the way the colour reflects and the shape, size and direction of the shadow. If they overlap two colours and shine the torch threw then they get a new colour. Lots of fun!
Colour mixing with potions.
Learning colour theory, prime colours and mixed colours is so much more fun if you do it with a bit of science and play-based exploration. We have this cute learning resources science mix and measure kit that works a treat for any colour mixing exploration. However, our go to outdoor activity to teach kids colours is a science experiment using beacons, droppers and coloured vinegar. Click the image below. It is a hit every time.
Check out the AU available one here.
or check out the US available one here.
Related Post: Kids Science Experiments – Mixing Fizzy Colour Potions
How do these educational learning resources benefit your child?
- Novel fun learning resources hold their attention and focus for longer.
- By providing a range of colour learning activities you will amaze them and make them curious to explore further.
- Play-based activities in different contexts enhance their colour recognition and knowledge of colours.
- By taking play into different environments you promote abstract cognition.
- Educational resources encourage children to explore and test hypotheses.
Tip: Initiate play by getting involved. Start an activity by showing them some ways to play as you label the colors your handling. Take any opportunity you see to explain or talk about what your child is doing. You might ask questions to challenge their thoughts and knowledge of colours, and then grant them the space to explore further. Remember, un-guided play sparks imaginations, promotes creative thought and enhances concentration and learning…
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