8 Fun Ways to Teach Your Toddler Colours and Shapes

Discover how teaching your toddler colours and shapes nurtures their understanding of differences and similarities, laying the groundwork for success in kindergarten and beyond.

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Teaching your toddler colours and shapes is a significant step in early learning as it lays the foundation for many educational concepts the children will use throughout their academic lives.

Colours and shapes can be learned through games and activities, and in this article, you will find eight fun ways to teach your toddler colours and shapes.

Why Teach Your Preschooler About Shapes and Colors?

Teaching preschoolers about colours and shapes enables them to:

identify attributes of objects based on their similarities and differences;
build a vocabulary by describing and expressing what they observe around them;
recognise letters and numbers;
draw shapes, a prior step to writing;
understand the spatial relationship between objects;
solve problems like fitting a block in a shape form and develop math skills.

When should I start teaching colours and shapes?

While each child has their own rate of development, some children start learning about colours around 18 months. Others begin to assimilate this concept between the ages of two and three.

No matter the age when toddlers learn about colours, the most important thing is to practice, as repetition helps master this concept quickly and with ease.

Shapes can be introduced to children around two years old, starting with basic ones like squares, circles, rectangles or triangles. Once they understand these shapes, toddlers are ready for more “complicated” ones like diamonds, ovals or hearts. Repetition is the key to learning these concepts, too, and you can organise various activities or crafts for your toddler to ensure continuity with what he studies in the early learning centre.

How to teach toddler colours and shapes

Getting toddlers’ attention and keeping them engaged in activities involving colours and shapes can be difficult. The little ones are looking for new things and can get bored very fast.

Here is a list of activities to help you teach your toddler colours and shapes

Use flashcards

Create flashcards with bright colours and basic shapes. Then, play with your toddler by asking him to name the colours and shapes on them. Engage your child in a discussion by encouraging him to say everything he knows about them and to indicate where else he has seen those colours and shapes around him.

Go on a shape and colour hunt

Prepare simple cardboard cutouts for each basic shape. Take them with you and go with your toddler for a walk in the neighbourhood. Ask him to compare the cutouts with the objects they see around: a rooftop may resemble the triangle cutout, and a building may look like a rectangle. Each time your child finds a shape, mark it on the cutout to learn how many discoveries he made during the hunt.

Play a sorting shape game

This is an easy-to-set-up activity that requires objects in your home. You can use everything suited for a toddler’s handling, from plastic cups and bowls to toys. Just lay all these objects on the floor and ask your little one to separate them based on their shape into separate piles. This activity is guaranteed to keep your toddlers busy for a while and to teach them shapes.

Finger painting

Use child-friendly paint to create on paper various shapes in different colours. Hold your toddler’s finger and paint together until he can make the shapes himself. Name each shape and colour so that your little one understands the difference between a circle and a triangle or red and orange.
To keep this activity engaging, you can replace now and then paint with shaving cream and show your children how to draw shapes. Toddlers love experimenting with different textures and paint.

Build shapes with cotton buds

This easy, inexpensive activity will help your child learn rectangles, squares, diamonds and other shapes with the help of cotton buds. Place the cotton buds on a straight, hard surface and show your little one how you build each shape. Name it and then ask him to do the same. After practising for a while, he will get the hang of it and be able to recognise shapes in objects around him.

Make Playdough shapes

Playdough is one of toddlers’ favourite textures. It is soft, coloured and can be shaped into anything. Place a large portion of Playdough on a working table, flatten it, give your children a set of cutters and show them how to cut different shapes. Ask them to name the shapes as they cut them out and indicate what objects they know that look the same (for example, the sun is a circle, the soap is a rectangle).

Create a sensory bin with colours

Toddlers love water and any games involving it. Prepare a “water table” at home to teach your child colours in a fun way.

Materials you need:

a large container to fill with water;
different colours of plastic reusable ice cubes;
plastic cups matching the ice cubes’ colours;
toy tongs.

How to set up the activity:

Fill half the large container with water. Place the materials inside.

Ask the children to use tongs to place the plastic ice cubes in cups of the same colour. This activity teaches colours and helps the little ones exercise their fine motor skills by using one or both hands to catch ice cubes. When all the cubes are in the cups, the kids can empty them and start over, as one round of fun may not be enough for them!

This activity has been sourced from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds.

Sorting alphabet letters

Sorting alphabet letters is another opportunity to teach your toddler colours and shapes. It enables them to make decisions, observe resemblances and differences between letters and recognise their attributes.

Materials you need:

magnetic letters;
bowls of different colours.

How to set up the activity:
Give your child the materials and ask him to place letters in bowls of the same colour while naming the colours. If your child knows any letters, ask him to name them, too. This activity is so engaging that your child might want to play more than once.

This activity has been sourced from Busy Toddler.

Teaching your toddler colours and shapes helps them understand what makes objects different and the same. These abilities support toddlers’ learning process in kindergarten and school, providing them with a foundation for later success in life.

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