It is generally accepted that by the age of three, a child should learn to distinguish primary colors. This skill is important part sensory development, it gives the child the opportunity to look at the world in a new way. Often, if the baby does not know or confuses colors, parents become concerned about the pace of the child's development. Should you worry if learning colors is not easy for your child? How to teach your baby to distinguish colors? You will find answers to these questions in our article.
Studies have shown that children begin to perceive colors by 2-3 months. The first colors that a child sees are yellow, orange, red, green. At this age, babies may already react differently to their toys of different colors (for example, a red rattle may please the child more than a blue one), look with enthusiasm at bright pictures. The world of a baby quickly acquires colors, but if we talk about the ability to consciously find an object desired color, then it usually appears in children between one and a half years old. It is at this age that it is optimal to start at game form study colors. You can voice the names of flowers to your child until he is one year old; this will only benefit him. But don’t demand too much from your baby, remember that his brain is actively developing, and as soon as the time comes, you will certainly see results.
To see if your child is ready to learn colors by playing with construction sets, ask your child to show you a piece of the same color as yours. If the baby can find objects of the same color, then he is quite ready to remember the names of colors.
Children receive most of their knowledge about the world from Everyday life: communicating with adults and peers, observing nature, playing. Studying flowers is no exception. Sometimes a child doesn't need to do special exercises to learn to recognize colors. For this, it is enough that he hears the name of the color and associates it with a specific thing. During daily activities, tell your child what color the objects around are. Whether you are drawing, playing with blocks, looking at cars in the yard, reading, swimming, eating, dressing - in each of these situations you can unobtrusively teach your child to distinguish colors.
It is important that studying colors does not turn into torture. You shouldn’t constantly test your child’s knowledge by asking him which color is which. Soon the baby may simply begin to ignore you. "Let's color the sun yellow!”, “What a delicious green cucumber!”, “Oh, where did the blue cube go? Here he is!" - these are examples of how you can unobtrusively help your child remember colors.
Games for learning colors and their shades
In order for your child to develop an interest in learning colors or to consolidate existing knowledge, you can invite your child to play special “color” games.
Sorting by color
Sorting games are aimed at helping the child learn to separate objects into groups by color. Items for sorting can be any available materials: toys, lids, construction parts, cubes, buttons, cereals, pencils, etc. You can organize the game in various ways:
“Hide” an object (arrange objects so that they blend into the background);
You can come up with as many options for sorting by color as you like, it all depends on your imagination. To keep your child interested in the task, connect the plot of the game with his favorite characters and toys (for example, a cat will eat from a yellow bowl, a baby elephant from a red bowl, etc.).
The tasks from the “Pick a Pair” series can help your child learn colors. Ask your child to find a petal for a bug, a pot for a flower, a roof for a house, etc. You can present your child with a variant that is obviously incorrect and ask him to correct the mistakes.
Show your child a picture with the missing parts. Ask him to fill in the gaps (this can be done using plasticine, pompoms, caps, cards, etc.).
At the age of about one year, children begin to be interested in various lotto games. In color lotto, the task is to collect pictures of the same color on a card.
Create a sensory box for your little one where all the items are the same color. During the game, the child will be able not only to remember the color he sees, but also to develop fine motor skills, tactile sensitivity, thinking, imagination.
Colorful days
This is one of the most interesting and popular ways to teach a child to distinguish colors. Its essence is that during the day (or several days) you draw the child’s attention to objects of a certain color. For example, on a yellow day you can dress in yellow clothes, play with yellow toys, draw a yellow chicken. Surrounded by one color, the baby will easily remember it.
You can learn colors with your child using cards. With the help of Doman's "Colors" cards, you can introduce your baby not only to primary colors, but also to various shades. It is important not to overload your child with unnecessary information about the names of 10 shades of green or red. Learn only those shades whose names you can use in play and in life.
Board games for learning colors
An excellent way to study colors and consolidate knowledge about them is to use them on tabletops. Currently, stores offer a wide range of similar games for every taste and budget. Choose a game that your child will like.
Educational cartoons
On the Internet you can find many educational cartoons that will help your child quickly remember colors. Here is one of them:
Educational books
If your baby loves listening to stories and looking at pictures, this method is for you. We all remember the wonderful story of V.G. Suteev “Rooster and Paints”, in S.Ya. Marshak has a whole “Colorful Book”. You can also find many educational books that will become your faithful assistants.
We have listed for you different variants games for learning colors. In order for a child to understand the concept of color well, it is worth adhering to a number of principles: do not rush the child, provide a variety of materials for games, discuss what he sees.
Conclusion
You can start studying colors from the very beginning. early age, the main thing is that it is interesting for the child. It is impossible to indicate clear age boundaries for when a child should learn primary colors. This process, like all development, is individual for each baby. At the Constellation Development Center, a Montessori environment has been created for children, aimed at the comprehensive development of the child. In the “Together with Mom” classes, children get acquainted with the concepts of color, shape and size in a playful way, and make thematic creative works. From our teachers you can learn how to interest your child in an activity and how to properly present it to him. educational information. Develop with us!
Many parents of children with speech disorders (especially motor speech impairments) are faced with the problem that their child cannot learn colors. This is due to the peculiarities of thinking and memory of such children.
If your child at three years old does not know the primary colors, then it is necessary to begin to purposefully study them.
We announce the week (day) in red. In the morning, inflate the red balloon and secure it in a visible place. And all this time we study only one color.
It is always good to use drawing in activities with a child; this is something that is always interesting to a child. If your child cannot draw, draw with him.
We suggest to the child: “Let's take a red pencil and draw a red fungus (car, house)! I draw a hat and a leg. Let you paint the hat red, and I’ll paint the leg. What color do you paint your hat? That's right red! And I the leg? Exactly red! What kind of fungus did we get? Look, he has a red leg and a red hat. That's right, it's red! Then, together with the child, we hang the drawing in a prominent place (for example, on the refrigerator) and “brag” to dad, grandma, etc. about what a wonderful red fungus we drew.
Never start learning a new color until your child has mastered the previous one well!
We always start learning colors with red, and then get acquainted with yellow, green, blue - these are the 4 main colors that a child must learn. Then you can add additional colors - orange, purple, black, white, and then tints - blue, pink, etc.
Never rush your child during classes. Be sure to prompt your child if he makes a mistake: “No, this cube is not red, but yellow, let’s put it in another box.” To begin with, use one or two items of each color in the game and gradually increase their number.
I would strongly advise against using computer and Online Games, which are now in abundance on the Internet.
Firstly, a child does not need such an early introduction to a computer.
Secondly, the monitor screen may distort colors. Thirdly, all these games are for lazy parents, because live communication is more beneficial and only you can introduce your baby to the world around him!
Most of the games presented below can be used in the development of children from 1.5 years old.
Game "Butterflies on a Flower"
Cut out 4 from cardboard large flower: red, yellow, blue, green. And four butterflies of the same color. We show it to the child and say: “The blue butterfly flew and landed on a blue flower, and the yellow one flew and flew and landed on a yellow flower, etc.” Then let the child plant butterflies on flowers of the appropriate color.
We complicate the task: “Place a blue butterfly on a red flower, etc.”
Game "Little Builder"
Cut out 4 squares and 4 triangles of primary colors from colored cardboard. Fold the houses, but the color of the parts should not match and say: “Oh, the builders mixed up the roofs of the houses. You need to stack them correctly, by color.” Together with your child, change the roofs to the “correct” ones and name the color.
Game "Color Cleaning"
Take a laundry basket or a large basin and walk around the house with your child, collecting objects and toys of the same color in it. Tell your child about your findings: “Look at the red cube, it suits us, put it in the basket. But daddy’s red T-shirt, etc.”
Game "Building a tower"
Are we using a constructor with large parts? We select from it parts of two contrasting colors. We invite the child to build towers from them. Taking every detail? We call its color: “This is red, what is this?”
Game "Bring the Clothes"
When going for a walk, place your baby's clothes in a pile on the floor. Ask your child to bring you blue pants. If he brought other clothes, say: “Thank you, you brought a red T-shirt, put it on and bring blue pants.” Continue until fully dressed, asking for one item at a time, naming the item and its color.
You can make the game more difficult by arranging your clothes in different places room and ask: “Bring me a red shirt, it’s on the sofa, etc.”
Game “All Colors Are Happy”
Walk with your child around the apartment or down the street, pointing to objects of the same color. You can compete with your child to see who can find the most objects, for example yellow ones.
Game "Traffic Light"
Cut out three large circles of red, yellow and green flowers. Invite your child to play an active game: “When the red light is on, we stand still. When the yellow light is on, we jump in place (on one leg). When the light turns green, let’s run.”
We show the colors one by one and perform the corresponding actions together with the child. You can complicate the game - give a command only by voice or only by showing a certain color. You can invite your child to switch roles. It will be a lot of fun if several people participate in the game.
Game “Sorting toys”
We scatter toys of different colors on the floor: cubes, parts from large construction sets, etc. We take a tray and, together with the child, collect toys of a certain color on it. You can arrange a competition and take a tray for yourself and for the child and see who can collect the most pieces of blue color while the alarm clock is ringing (singing a song, etc.).
We sort the parts into boxes of the corresponding color (take 4 primary colors).
Game “What is green?”
Remember with your child what can be green (red, blue, yellow) - cucumber, grass, leaves, apple, etc.
This game promotes the development of imagination, but can cause difficulties for speech learners even of older preschool age.
Game "Miracle - Rainbow"
We take a large sheet of paper (whatman paper is better) and draw colored arcs several centimeters wide on it, depending on the size of the sheet. We arrange the colors according to the spectrum of the rainbow. And on each arc we glue together with the child objects of the corresponding color: lumps of colored paper, small toys, beads, colored feathers, corks from plastic bottles, pieces of fabric, beautiful stones. It is not necessary to do the whole rainbow at once; you can lay out the colors gradually.
For children, learning colors and shades in a playful way is more fun and easier. To help your child quickly learn to group objects by color and name colors, organize a variety of games for him.
- You can start learning colors as early as a year, but children will be able to distinguish and remember only after reaching 2-3 years of age, when an active cognitive interest appears.
- At the beginning of getting acquainted with colors, focus the child’s attention on the main ones - yellow, blue, red and green. Gradually add new colors. Do not start introducing the next color until the baby begins to confidently name the previous one.
- Draw analogies - a red pencil, a red car, a red ball - so that the child does not associate the color with only one object.
- Don’t distort the words, don’t say that the toy is “yellow” - it is yellow.
- For children, training should be carried out in a playful way, changing activities at the first signs of fatigue.
- Teach your child to distinguish colors through creativity using paints, colored paper, plasticine and pencils. We recommend the “cleanest” and simplest one.
Educational games for learning colors
Color sorting games
With the help of sorting, the child will learn to identify objects by color and divide them into groups. Parents will be required to voice the colors so that the baby remembers them. What can you sort? Here are a few educational games that you can easily make with your own hands:
Game "Colored Cars"
Source: thrive360living.com
Necessary materials:
- colored cardboard;
- wooden wheels for toys or large ones:
- template of a car or other vehicle with wheels;
- felt-tip pen;
- scissors.
How to do
Line A4 cardboard into four equal parts and cut off 1/4 of each sheet. Draw the cars using a stencil.
Wooden wheels cover acrylic paint and let dry. Choose shades of paint so that the colors of the wheels match the colors of the cardboard.
How to play
Place colored cards and wheels in random order in front of the child. Invite your child to choose the wheels by color and sort them into pictures. Comment on his actions, name the colors.
This game is suitable for both home use, and outside the home. Use a hole punch to make holes in the cards and secure them with ribbon or a ring. Place the wheels in a bag. Take the game with you to a cafe or clinic. The game will help keep your child occupied for a while.
Game with plasticine “Learning shapes and colors”
The game helps to learn colors and shapes, develops fine motor skills, and teaches counting. Will interest children from one to three years old.
Source: www.notimeforflashcards.com
Necessary materials:
- Play-doh plasticine of different colors (in) or make colored salty dough(recipe );
- multi-colored figured buttons corresponding to the colors of plasticine.
How to play
We chose 6 colors of plasticine: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
Place 1/2 of a jar of each color of plasticine on the table. Place a container with colored parts nearby.
Invite your child to play, explain and show how to sort by color.
When your child begins the lesson, comment on the actions, naming colors and shapes. For example, with such phrases: “We put a blue star on blue plasticine.”
When you are finished sorting, count the number of items of each color.
Sorting game "Monsters"
Make your own educational game for kids to sort by color and construct simple objects. The game promotes learning colors and counting, develops fine motor skills and logical thinking.
Source: toddlerapproved.com
Necessary materials:
- designer Lego Duplo (c);
- brown paper bags or boxes;
- scissors:
- glue;
- colored cardboard;
- markers;
- doll eyes (in)
How to do
Cut out monster bodies from colored cardboard and glue them onto paper bags. Add shape and stability to each item by folding the top edges of the bag outward. Make cuts in the mouth area. The resulting hole should be slightly larger size than Lego blocks. Draw faces on the monsters with felt-tip pens and glue on the eyes. Monsters are ready to eat!
How to play
Place the monsters near the child and place colored Lego Duplo pieces in front of him. Tell your child that the monsters are hungry and need to be fed. Everyone loves food that has a matching color.
After sorting by color, invite your child to choose his favorite color, count the number of blocks in the bag and create a design from them. Be sure to praise your child for the work done!
Sorting colored stickers
Kids love to put on stickers. This activity is useful for improvement fine motor skills hands You can also learn colors using colored stickers ( , ) .
Source: busytoddler.com
We sort colored pompoms, buttons, mosaics, small toys.
Source: munchkinsandmoms.com
Source: gluedtomycraft.com
Source: supermom.ru
Source: supermom.ru
Looking for a couple
For example, look for a pair of multi-colored socks or felt-tip pens for their caps.
Source: supermom.ru
Color lotto
A small lotto from Lisa Chernikova (download), where the child has two tasks at once - to determine the color and identify the object.
Source: supermom.ru
Games for learning shades
Palette cards from the paint department of a hardware store are a great tool for teaching your child about color shades.
Using them you can quickly learn the concepts of “dark” and “light”, and master “lighter” and “darker”.
Take the palette outside or walk around the apartment looking for a similar color, apply it, try it on.
Cut pantones into pieces and explore the variety of shades within the same color.
Color sensory boxes
Place small toys and household items of the same color in the box and invite your baby to explore them (see what to fill the sensory box with). For older children, you can use colored cereals in sensory play (read how to color rice). While playing with such a box, children remember the colors very quickly, because... the name of the color is repeated many times.
Games for learning colors outdoors
Getting ready for the game big box with multi-colored compartments. Take a shoe box, make partitions out of cardboard and cover the cells with multi-colored self-adhesive paper. A simpler option is to take a paper egg tray and paint the cells with paints.
We go for a walk with the box, collecting colored pieces natural materials- flowers, stones, twigs, leaves, etc. We arrange the finds into cells by color.
Some children begin to consciously distinguish colors before they are one year old, but this is rare. The vast majority of children develop these abilities between 1.5 and 2.5 years. Possible exercises for learning colors depend on the level of knowledge about the world around us and the development of fine motor skills. Below are the basic games and techniques for learning about flowers for the first time.
The peculiarities of studying colors with the smallest children are that new objects and materials for study must be introduced gradually. Many properties of unfamiliar materials can distract the child from the main topic - color. Therefore, if the child is not yet familiar with drawing and modeling, then before starting to study colors, be sure to conduct several classes to get acquainted with paints and plasticine.
Learning colors | Ready to learn
Ikea plastic dishes go well with sponge cubes for washing dishes To test readiness to learn colors, provide your child with a variety of objects of the same shape and size different colors and ask them to divide them into groups - sort them. If your baby copes without difficulty, you can start learning individual colors.
Options for sorting items:
- cubes;
- details of construction sets (Lego, etc.) and mosaics;
- buttons;
- colored plastic dishes;
- foam cubes from a sponge for washing dishes (In order to get cubes, you need to separate the hard dark green layer and cut the sponge with scissors. The green layer comes off neatly if you first wet and dry the sponge a couple of times).
Learning colors | Colorful day plan
Once you have determined that the child successfully copes with distinguishing colors, you can begin to study them. It is better to spend the whole day studying the first names of colors (red, yellow, blue, green) (one day for each color). As an example, I will describe one day of studying color. Other colors will be learned similarly.
Day plan for studying the color red:
| 1. Show a group of red objects and explain that they are red. |
| 2. Draw a picture or color the picture with red flowers. If the child is under two years old, one drawing tool is enough. For older kids, you can add variety by using red paints, markers, pencils and crayons. An alternative to drawing is sculpting. If you like days full of activities, you can have time to draw and sculpt. For example, before nap drawing, and in the evening modeling. We also read about modeling with kids. |
| 3. We suggest sorting - select red parts from the proposed set of toys and objects of different colors. |
| 4. We organize a “hunt” for red things. Together we look for red everywhere. At home - in the interior and clothing; on walks, please show us the red cars. |
| 5. Read books, look at cards with pictures of red objects. |
To increase the effectiveness of color studies, it is necessary to actively use the names of the colors being studied in speech. For example, we say not “Now let’s put on a blouse and go for a walk,” but “now let’s put on red blouse...", "We'll eat red apple”, “Look how beautiful red car" etc.
To give your child even more impressions, dress your child in red clothes and add foods of the studied color to the daily diet:
- Red - berries, tomatoes, paprika;
- Orange - pumpkin, carrots, orange;
- Purple - grapes, blueberries;
- Green - lettuce, peas, kiwi, avocado, grapes;
- Yellow - pineapple, banana, paprika, cheese;
- White - rice, cottage cheese, milk.
Learning colors | Drawing and sculpting
Closer to two years of age, mixing play dough and dye can be done together with the baby. At the same time, of course, you must be prepared to wash your dirty hands Creativity allows you to gain the most in-depth knowledge about colors. At the beginning of your acquaintance with colors, you need to engage in creativity using one color you are studying. When the baby grows up, we demonstrate how to obtain shades by mixing:
Learning colors | Color lotto
There are many lotto options. one of our options. Rules of the game:
- We lay out cards with animals in front of the baby;
- We give the child one card with a palette and ask him to find an animal of a given color.
You can also, on the contrary, give out cards with animals and ask them to choose a palette.
After multiple successful palette selections, offer a memory training game. Give it to the baby black and white version cards with an animal and ask them to choose a palette.
Learning colors | Books about flowers
To study colors, you can purchase books entirely devoted to flowers, or you can use collections with various tasks. Large selection I have described collections of educational exercises for children 1-2 years old
The following hits can be distinguished from books about flowers:
For little ones 2-3 years old:
 « What happens in blue» from the series Wonderful stickers from the publishing house Mozaika-Sintez (Labyrinth, Ozone, My-Shop) Books in this series contain interesting tasks and cute stickers. The only negative is that the stickers are disposable. More detailed description read from photo spreads in |
|
 I teach colors myself
A cardboard picture book with flaps is what kids need! |
 Big Book baby. Learning colors(Labyrinth, Ozone, My-Shop) Learning colors Photo book with spreads of different colors. A large format book with coated (glossy) paper and a high rating in the Labyrinth. Such books seem useless and meaningless to me, but for some reason many people love such books. But it’s much more interesting about colors: flaps, stickers, search engines, tasks and other interactive activities. |
For children 3-4 years old:
 Fun hide and seek games. Learn colors and counting
(Labyrinth, Ozone, My-Shop ) A Wimmelbook with high-quality illustrations for searching for objects in the fields.
|
Richard Scarry: Colors, Shapes and Numbers (Labyrinth) A magazine book from children's book classic Richard Scarry. The book contains a bunch of tasks and comes with stickers that need to be placed correctly. |
Hello color! (Labyrinth, Ozone, My-Shop) A small, ambitious interactive book about color mixing, warm and cool shades. Stylish design. By rotating the wheel you can change the color of the cut-out chameleon image. For gourmets and aesthetes, the rest will say nonsense. |
Toys and materials for learning colors
Learning colors | my approach
A few words about Yana's study of flowers. Her ability to distinguish colors began to manifest itself at 1.3. It was at this age that we learned red, yellow, and blue. The first color was the hardest, each subsequent color was easier. For us, it would be more effective to study colors from the age of one and a half, but I was really impatient :) By the age of 1 year. 6m. Yana has mastered 10 primary colors. At that time, I offered her the simplest exercises. At this point, we've moved on to learning how to manipulate shades.
After I acquired the skill of studying colors, I thought about the advisability of cramming the names of a large number of shades and came to the conclusion that this was unnecessary. We unobtrusively study only the most common ones (turquoise, light green, beige, etc.). In the future, I plan to expand to less common shade names that I use myself (champagne, lilac, indigo, etc.)
In any process, choosing a goal is important, otherwise there will simply be no result. After studying the primary colors, my main goal was to teach Yana to compare the colors of various objects and phenomena. I want her to be able to describe shades with images - “dark blue, like the sky in the early morning,” “blue, like the sea on a clear day,” “gray-blue, like the reflection of the sky in a dirty puddle,” etc.
In conclusion
Studying colors is a qualitative expansion of one's horizons. By recognizing colors, the child receives a new method of classifying all surrounding objects - by color. By the way, in addition to the developmental effect, knowledge of colors opens up a child’s a large number of interesting games with color.
Interesting discoveries for your kids!
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