If you want to do color activities for toddlers to start teaching the color red, here is a complete lesson plan to fill out your week with color fun!
This month, we have been learning about colors. We have used printables, color pages, and sensory and art activities.
One of the best ways to start teaching the color red to toddlers is to immerse ourselves in activities related to the color red for a full week or even a month.
I will share with you my exact color red lesson plan and activities with the goal of inspiring you to do the same.
red activities for toddlers
products & Materials used:
- (Play & Sing – Rainbow Song. We also used the Spanish Dedos de Colores pack)
- Ocean Coloring Pages
- Learn Colors Activity Pack
- Rainbow Scarfs (Amazon)
- Rainbow Rice (tutorial)
- Sensory tools (set shown is from Etsy)
- Shaving cream (Dollar store)
- Glue (dollar store)
- Red washable paint (Amazon)
- Red cellophane paper (Amazon)
- 2 Toilet paper tubes
- Red glitter (Dollar store)
- Unflavored Gelatine (Amazon or local supermarket)
Get More COLOR Downloads for learning Red activities for toddlers
teaching the color red to toddlers
My lesson plan for the week consists of using everyday objects to learn colors, creating daily activities to reinforce the learning and identification of the colors, and using the color section from our learning printable binder.
The activities are taken from our curriculum and inspired to use our sensory recipes for teaching preschool readiness concepts.
Rainbow activities FOR TODDLERS
As we learn our colors each week, I also like to have a few activities that involve all of the colors of the rainbow. This helps reinforce the concept that the color we are learning this week is part of the rainbow.
Color Song
I love to choose a color song to sing monthly or weekly. For the month, we are using the Sing & Play pack “Rainbow Song,” and every morning during our at-home circle time, we use our play scarves to familiarize ourselves with our colors.
I love this pack because it’s the perfect way to get inspired about colors. I love the chosen song, and it provides extra activities to practice colors. The activities are simple and easy, and we use them together in the mornings.
Rainbow sensory bin
Because this was our first lesson about colors, along with the rainbow song, I also wanted to give him general exposure to all the rainbow colors. Let him associate that there are colors all around.
This whole week, I set up a rainbow ride sensory bin. I kept it simple to let him explore the colors. I colored some rice ( learn how to make colors that pop with this colored rice recipe )
I also added cups, bowls, and spoons to practice pouring skills. Each day, I changed the elements of play for the bin to provide a new activity with minimum set-up.
- Monday – cups and bowls
- Tuesday – Hide red toys
- Wednesday – Hide puzzle shapes and complete color puzzle
- Thursday – Cups and funnels
- Friday – Repeat favorite from the week
Wearing our Color of the week: red activities for toddlers
One of the techniques to learn the color red is to use our outfits and wear the color. This week, we all tried to wear red in the house, not just our toddler.
I like to give my toddler choices. This creates habits of independence, which also translates later to play independently. Each day, you show him two red options. He could choose between two different-colored shirts or red shorts to wear for the day.
Quiet Time: red activities for toddlers
Sometimes, we need a break, and sometimes, we don’t want to set up a fancy activity that requires materials. For this reason, I created activity binders. Just open and play. This week, I used the following activities as an invitation to play after breakfast each morning. Although they were not always about the color red, they gave him a great exposure to colors, which will be our monthly theme.
Dinosaur Color Printable
One of my favorite easy activities is using printable worksheets to learn when you need 5-minute breaks. This week, we chose the dinosaur printable from the Printables Colors Package and glued the color bows to wood pieces. By changing the way you present the pieces, it makes a whole new activity! These little wooden pieces are Delma’s traveling mini Jenga game, which we found at the dollar store.
We also used the following printables to play each morning:
- Monday – Dinosaur bow ties
- Tuesday – 3 tigers (free printable)
- Wednesday – 2 birds
- Thursday – Cars
- Friday – Matching Mittens
Red Stickers on Apple
Using the red coloring page from the removed pages package, I removed the red garage sale sticker dots (available at Dollar Store Amazon) and presented them in a tray.
To make it easier for removers to come out, take out the dots king; this way, the red dots edges are easily exposed.
Seeing red | Red binoculars
I had no idea he would love this activity so much! Using red cellophane paper and two toilet paper tubes, create color binoculars.
Head out for a nature walk and use them to see everything red! This really helps with repetition for association and repeating the word “red.”
Playing with apple scented Red playdough
Painting with Red Puffy Paint
Red puffy paint is one of my favorite ways to use paint. Add a little bit of shaving cream and a little bit of school glue, and you create puffy paint! It paints just like regular paint, smells like shaving cream, and dries raised above the paper (liked one of those raised puffy stickers)
Sprinkle red glitter
You can do a lot with coloring pages besides using them. Coloring pages offer an excellent opportunity to do quick activities, especially with pencils or markers, especially when they are so tiny and can do quick activities.
For this activity, although we are working on the color red using red glitter, I wanted to spend a lot of time playing with the glue. It is so important to expose our little ones to different textures, and glue is going to be such a vital material in the years to come that I want him to get a lot of exposure to it. Glue is sticky, glitter gets everywhere, and it is quite the experience!
A variation of this activity for toddlers (or moms) who don’t feel comfortable handling glitter is to add the glitter and just shake, shake, shake!
Painting with Apples
It’s apple season, so we have a ton of apples at home! Apples are the perfect activity to work on the color red. We made stamps using apples, we painted with apple cookie cutters and even our fingers.
Get all the tips on setting up an apple stamping activity here
Don’t have washable paint? Make your edible paint with yogurt. (Recipe here)
Scissor Skills With Red Paper
For this activity, choose the lobster page from the ocean to select one color. You select one, color and cut long stripes, and present glue and scissors (scissors skills for toddlers 2 years and up) along with a red coloring page to your toddler.
Start by cutting the paper stripes and using either a paintbrush or fingertips or squeezing the glue straight into the paper to paste the color stripes and squares over the coloring page.
For toddlers who do not feel comfortable yet with scissors, you can cut squares for them, and they can just work on the ponder grasp (grabbing objects with thumb and index finger) and placing the squares over the glue.
Rainbow gelatine Cubes
Kids learn by playing, exploring, and engaging all the senses. Create a Gelatine cube activity by doing only red cubes or involving other colors. Unflavored Gelatine can be found at the grocery store. I like Unflavored Gelatine better for this activity as it has less sugar than regular Jell-O and is less sticky.
Learn how to make these Gelatine cubes here to learn red activities for toddlers
Our color red book
I collected all the paper-based activities we did and created a red booklet. I used red construction paper and stapled all the papers from our activities. I used stamps to write the word “red” on the cover. You can get very creative with the cover or leave it blank—it’s up to you!
The idea is that as you create activities for each color, you create a book for each. Keep the books close to your child to review and explore together to reinforce the colors.
I hope this gives you inspiration to do red activities for toddlers. Being exposed to the word red on the color pages as you do, the activities help reinforce pre-reading skills, and doing hands-on red color activities helps with those pre-writing skills. Get all the coloring pages and printables we used in one place!