I have been teaching my 2 and 3 year old children colors through play.

Today I gathered up colorful dishes, a variety of plastic fruits and vegetables, measuring cups, colorful keys, and two play phones.  I got out some red and blue pom poms for pretend berries.  I also provided a play mixer and a play coffee pot that makes a beep sound. 

I set these items out on a coffee table and invited the children over to see what was there.  I told them I would like to order a mocha latte with a side of raspberries scones and they took off role playing a Coffee/ Smoothie Shop from there.



They came up with some wonderful ideas for special drinks we could all share together.  They pretended to get phone calls while they were working.  They took orders by phone and at the “counter”.

Besides free play, another goal today was guided play.  I have been talking with them about different colors during play time.  The three year old says the names and matches colors pretty well, and the two year old doesn’t say many of the names, but always matches up colors very well.  Today was about practicing what we have been learning, but in a fun imaginative way.

As they played with mixing smoothies and lattes, we talked about the color of the fruits they added or the colors of the dishes they were using.



After some free play, we made up some games:

Group the dishes that were the same colors.
               


Group fruits and vegetables that were the same colors.



 Group fruits, vegetables, and dishes that were the same colors.



Group the colored spoons and measuring scoops with the other matched groups of colors.



Group the colored keys with the other matched colors.



Then we made up recipes using colors:
    yellow smoothies
    blue lattes
    brown lattes
    purple smoothies, etc.

Another idea was to use the green key to start the machine when making a green smoothie, etc.



We talked about the shapes of what they played with too, though most of the shapes today were circles. 

We also did a little counting, such as two yellow bananas, two brown pumps of espresso, five blueberries, etc.

The colors we worked with today included:
Pink, Green, Yellow, Brown, Red, Blue, Purple, Orange, Black, Grey, and White.



These games were a lot of fun and we all had a good time. 

This is a great way to incorporate learning colors through play.



This post will be linked up to 

ABC and 123

Best Toys For Toddlers

Play Academy