Learning colours with chalk and water

Does your child have a favourite colour? Possum (2.5 years) absolutely loves talking about colours and engaging in any activity that involves chalk. We have done a number of colour activities to help develop her understanding of all the different colours (see below) and also made chalk, drawn with it using a rake and even had fun with chalk paint! It just seemed like a great idea to put colour and chalk together to make a fabulous learning activity

Recommended Age – 2 years +
(Active supervision is required for all my activities)

You will need –

Coloured chalk
Container with Water
Paint brush (or similar)
Open space

Learning colours with chalk and water

I simply drew some coloured dots on the ground on the space we were playing. I wanted to be sure they were easy enough for Possum to jump between, so left about a 10 cm gap. Super simple. You could also write colour names next to each dot too! This would help to develop reading skills at the same time.

Finding out what we know and don’t know

Possum really enjoyed the opportunity to demonstrate what she knew about colours and point out which one is which. It also highlighted to me what colours she still had some confusion with and what ones she knew quite well. This proved to be really excellent information for me. I now know which colours we need more work on both with well catered activities and just informally when we are out and about.

Just add water

To add to this simple activity I introduced a small container of water and paint brush. Possum had a fabulous time sitting down next to each of the colours and transforming the dusty chalk into a paint like colour. It was really wonderful and provided me with an opportunity to talk about each of the colours and how they relate to her environment.

For example, “What a lovely colour blue. That is the same colour as the sky. See?”.

This was a wonderfully simple activity to learn about colours, especially to toddler and preschoolers. It really seemed to captivate Possum’s interest and she loved mixing the chalk and water together. I’m not also aware from us doing this activity which colours she still needs to learn, which is great.