Here is a fabulous colour sorting activity for toddlers that you can do simply at home.
Children can be so incredibly curious and will often test and experimenting from a very early age.
I love this approach to learning because –
- it can be used to teach across all areas of a curriculum (maths problems, literacy etc)
- adapted to suit all levels of understanding
- helps consolidate skills
- so simple to set up
- challenging but also very supportive at the same time
- fun and engaging
Colour sorting activity for children
Allow me to demonstrate how I have used everyday envelopes to teach my own child (known as ‘Possum’) about colours. Other examples will follow this demonstration.
What you need –
- Envelopes (new or recycled)
- Coloured pens
- Paper (coloured or plain depending on the teaching)
“Uh oh! I’ve dropped all the colours, can you help put them in the correct envelope?”
I wanted to set this up as a problem solving scenario that Possum needed to solve. Often this motivates children and inspires them to compete a given task from start to finish as well as giving them a sense of achievement when it’s over.
Possum was able to correctly place each colour in it’s correct envelope.
I did notice, however, that she still needs some support in naming colours as every colour is ‘wellow’ (yellow). This problem solving activity created a great opportunity for me to talk with her and build on her understanding of colour names and how they were different.
Supportive teaching
There were times that I would slip in a colour that didn’t belong and ask her to find the slip of paper that was not in it’s correctly place, or with it’s ‘friends’. I feel doing this allows children to achieve a deeper level of thinking because they are having to seek a error and go about fixing it.
As you can imagine, Possum loved correcting daddy’s mistakes.
“No Daddy, there!”
I love that this activity is simple to pack up and store ready to play another day.
So how else can we use this approach to learning other areas?
LITERACY
Of course this approach to learning can be simply applied to build on literacy skills. The above example is one way that has children sorting rhyming words. You could also consider having children sort words/sounds –
- same starting (or ending) sounds or letters
- include the same phonic blends
- rhyming words (see above)
- vowels, nouns and verbs etc.
MATHEMATICS
How about using this approach to build on mathematical skills? The above example is one way. The mathematical answer is written on the envelope and the children sorting the sums by placing them in the correct envelope. Other mathematical ideas you could consider –
- matching counters in the envelop to the number written
- correctly placing money ($5.20, for example) as written on the envelope
- sorting number names, symbols and illustrations
Other ‘Laughing Kids Learn’ ideas you might like to try –
Of course you might also be interested to try a few of my other ideas to teaching literacy and math
What approach do you use to teach your toddler colours?
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Love this idea, Kate! Envelopes are so fun (and easy to get and work with as well!). Pinned 🙂
Cammy loves playing with envelopes. Thanks for all the new ideas
Oh how clever!! Love the simplicity of the colour sorting, but the maths one would be perfect for my prep who thinks he is bad at maths when he isn’t!
What a clever little Possum 🙂 I could see Sarah loving this. She does love to sort and line things up 🙂
really cool ideas for kids learning
That’s a great idea! I love the letter envelopes, they look just like what my 5 year old would be needing to help her early reading at the moment.
I like that this is such a versatile learning resource. As you said, it can easily be modified to suit different ages and different areas of learning. So cute that Possum was not going to let her Dad get away with making any mistakes 🙂 Elise @ Creative Play Central
I really love this idea and how easily it can be adapted. I’m definitely going to try to organise something similar! 🙂
Such a great idea Kate…we used envelopes a lot this week in play so now I have my follow up activity sorted thanks! been pinning 😉
Love how easy and fun this would be!!! There are so many possibilities for the kids to create new games too. Pinning!
No way! Possum is so clever. I love this – and the countless possibilities! So workable in a classroom situation (given how frugal and easy it is). Brilliant! xo P
Love this! 🙂 Will have to try this one with Miss Ivy soon enough! 🙂
Love the number rolls!!!!!
Thank you lovely Krystal! 🙂
This is a great activity for kids to learn about colors. I like to use those color cards too. It’s fun 🙂
Thanks Chris, I appreciate your comment. 🙂
Brilliant ideas to encourage toddlers to play with sounds, letters and words as well as numbers and colours! Try some today and make learning fun!
Totally agree Nicola. Thank you for your comment.
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