How I Taught My Toddler Colors With These Simple Play Activities

I thought teaching colors would be easy.

You know… point at something red and say “this is red” and eventually, after you repeat that often enough they just learn it.

Yeah. That did NOT work here 😅 Now after a fun week of learning colors yay we’ve got all the main ones covered. (Just a few mix ups here and there).

What actually worked for us was playing with colors. Using them in everyday play.

• Sorting them.
• Painting them.
• Sticking them everywhere.
• Dropping water colors with pipettes.

Basically hands on activities and crafts.

And suddenly one day my toddler started yelling things like

“YELLOW!” and randomly sorting colors by himself…

So if you’re a tired mum trying to teach your toddler colors while also cleaning the house, these activities helped us a lot.

They are:

• low prep
• easy
• toddler approved
• and actually fun for us too

1. 🎣 Color Fishing Game – A Simple Way to Teach Toddler Colors

This was honestly one of the first activities where colors clicked for my toddler.

We pretended to go fishing and then sorted the fish into matching color bowls.

He loved the catching part… and the sorting kinda just happened naturally. The main post has the fish printable make sure to grab it, it’s free!

Why it works

Toddlers learn colors faster when they move things around and sort them.

Skills practiced

• color recognition
• sorting
• hand eye coordination
• pretend play

👉 Try the fishing and sorting activity here

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2. 🪟 Window Fish Color Sorting Activity for Toddlers

This one started because my toddler wanted to play with water again…

So we turned our window into a color sorting board.

The laminated fish from the previous activity stick to the window with a little water (and a sponge) and toddlers move them into matching color groups.

Very simple.
But he stayed busy for a surprisingly long time.

Perfect for:

• rainy afternoons
• sensory play
• independent toddler play

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3. 🧱 LEGO Color Sorting Activity to Teach Toddler Colors

If your toddler already loves lego… this is super easy.

We used a lego base plate and sorted lego bricks by color.

• Red pile.
• Blue pile.
• Yellow pile.

My toddler turned it into a tiny building challenge too.

And I didn’t even have to set up much.

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4. 🧸 Felt Square Color Matching Gross Motor Game

This activity works really well for very active toddlers around 2.

I placed different colored felt squares on the floor and my toddler had to match toys with the same color. He had to run from a box filled with different items and place them on the squares.

Example:

yellow duck → yellow square
blue car → blue square

Very simple but very visual.

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5.🐠 Pipette Color Activity for Toddlers

This activity was honestly pure toddler excitement.

We used pipettes to drop five different colors onto a cotton pad fish .

Lots of squeezing.
Lots of water drops.
A bit messy too.

But it’s AMAZING for:

• color learning
• fine motor skills
• hand strength

👉 Try the pipette fish craft here

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6. 🌊 Dot Sticker Color Activity for Toddlers

Sticker activities are secretly one of the best toddler learning tools.

My toddler placed colored dot stickers onto matching ocean animals.

And he took this very seriously.

Sometimes he placed them wrong…
then peeled them off again and tried again.

Which honestly made me wish I laminated the sheet 😅

👉 Try the ocean sticker activity here

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7. 🐙 Toilet Paper Roll Octopus Color Craft

This craft introduced five main colors.

We made cute little octopus from toilet paper rolls and painted them different colors.

My toddler immediately started naming them like

“blue octopus!”
“red octopus!”

which worked a bit they are also cute for ocean week 🙂

👉 Make the toilet paper roll octopus craft here

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8. 🌈 Fingerprint Rainbow Craft

Toddlers LOVE this one.

Instead of brushes we used fingerprints to create a rainbow.

It’s messy… yes.

But it helps toddlers learn rainbow colors naturally. (Post has a free printable for the rainbow 🙂 )

👉 Try the rainbow fingerprint craft here

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9.🔗 Rainbow Paper Chain Color Activity

This activity teaches color order and sequencing.

We made a rainbow paper chain by linking colored strips together.

My toddler mostly just enjoyed the linking part though.

But he definitely started noticing the color pattern.

👉 Make the rainbow chain craft here

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What Actually Helped My Toddler Learn Colors

I think my toddler learns best using what he learns. Seeing, touching talking about colors over and over again.

Crafting helped us because:

• colors became part of play
• we repeated them naturally
• and honestly… it was nice one on one time

Even on messy days.

Even when the craft ended up half destroyed the next morning 😅

But that’s kinda the toddler life.

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🔗 Related Toddler Activities

Since we made this for spring, you might also love:

🐞Easter Crafts To Try With Your Toddler – our Masterpost

🐄 Farm Animals Activities Masterpost – All our farm crafts in one place.

🐞 Bug Crafts for Toddlers Masterpost – More simple insect ideas.

🌷 Spring Crafts and Activities Masterpost – Seasonal crafts we’ve been loving lately.

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💬 Your Turn

If you try this activity I would LOVE to see it. We are on Fb, Insta and TikTok.
Tag me so I can cheer you on: #mommyscrafttime

Want more simple toddler activities that don’t require prep or perfection?

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