Lesson 1: Colours and colour sorting
Colour, size and shape are the three most obvious attributes that young children start to notice, and are able to identify and use to categorise objects. They are the basis of mathematics, reading and science. Sorting by colour and shape prepares children for their future learning.
Colour words are some of the earliest words that children learn. Colour is used to identify objects around the house, sort clothes and work out who they belong to, identify toys, play with blocks, use crayons and many other activities.
Primary Colours
Secondary Colours
The following videos explore primary and secondary colours in greater depth.
Play these online games to reinforce your child’s understanding of colours.
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Invite your child to apply what they have learned through the following activities.
I Spy With My Little Eye Play a game of I Spy With My Little Eye. Identify objects by colour and add in more details for clues. For example: “I spy with my little eye something blue that you wear on your head.”
| Sorting and Grouping Teach kids to see the differences in colours by doing sorting activities. They can sort beads, buttons, blocks or coloured counters into separate baskets, containers or egg boxes.
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Colour Collage Make a colour collage by using paper tearings in only one colour. Provide the paper tearings, but if they are able to, let them find and tear the colour in a magazine or set of coloured papers. Use different collage materials for this, not just paper.
| Park the Cars Play with cars in various colours and make little parking garages out of boxes or paper. You could even draw them on the paving with chalk. Make each parking spot a different colour and get kids to park the car in the corresponding colour.
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Object Sort Do a colour sort with mixed objects. Collect household objects and toys that have one distinct colour and sort them into groups, according to their colours.
| Colour Hunt Go on an indoor or outdoor colour hunt. Give kids a basket and allocate a different colour to each. They must go in search of items of that colour and place them in their basket.
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Picture Hunt Do a picture hunt using a magazine or any children’s books. Challenge kids to find images in their books of various colours. For example, point out all the green items you can in this Dr Seuss book, or cut out all the blue items from this magazine.
| Fruit and Vegetable Sort Had a trip to the market? Get your kids to categorize the fruit and vegetables by colour. Or while you are cooking, involve your kid with requests such as: “Please fetch me three orange carrots and that packet of green broccoli.”
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EXTENDED CHALLENGE Colour Mixing For a colour mixing activity, provide the three primary colours – red, yellow and blue – and mix them together to see the following combinations: red and yellow to make orange, blue and yellow to make green, and red and blue to make purple. You can also introduce your child to the concept of shades of colours by adding white or black to make them lighter or darker.
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