I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Our curriculum for the 2-3 year old class celebrates a different color every month.
We start the year in September with the color red. This works out well because we also happen to be talking about apples this month and most apples are red. You can find my Preschool Apple Theme post HERE.
Here are a few of the methods and activities I use to help my students learn about the color red!
Color Literature
The first thing I do when introducing a new color is bring out my Hello Kitty Colors book (find it HERE).
I tell the kids to shout out, “RED! RED! RED!” when I get to the red page. But when I turn to a page that is not red, they have to say, “No, no, no – that’s (whatever color is being shown on the page).”
I also have them wag their finger when they say “No, no, no,” and it is ridiculously adorable.
I always make sure to turn to the red page last and we all freak out.
Other great books for the color red…
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Hungry Bear
Color Books
After I introduce a new color with the Hello Kitty Book, then we head over to the work tables to draw in our Color Books. I simply take a piece of red cardstock for the cover and then fold a piece of white computer paper inside. Staple the edges and you’re ready!
The kids use red crayons, red markers, red cutouts, red dot markers, red tissue paper squares, red stickers… any little red bit will be fine! The end result is very cute with all the varied mediums.
Red Discovery Bin
I bought a bunch of colored bins at the Dollar Tree a few years ago. Whenever we have a new color to celebrate, we put on our ‘color glasses’ and hunt down all of the red items in our room. We bring them back to the carpet area and present them to one another before we toss them in the color bin.
I let the kids explore this bin all month long!
Red Songs and Poems
I found the most amazing FREE Printable color poems HERE (I cannot find the original link for this – it goes straight to the download). We clap our hands and chant it together every day.
We also sing this little song to the tune of Frere Jacques.
R-E-D, Red. R-E-D, Red.
That spells red. That spells red.
Firetrucks are red. Strawberries are red.
Red, red, red. Red, red, red.
Red Magnets and File Folder Activities
One of the BEST resources I have found for my color units are these FREE Printable color packets from Lovely Commotion. I laminate the little cards above, stick a small magnet on the back, and then use them as part of Circle Time activities on our magnet wall.
There are also printable color file folder activities that we do every month from this same FREE Printable packet.
Red Pom Pom Push
This activity was SO easy to make. I cleaned out an old yogurt tub, cut a small opening in the lid, and then had the kids push red pom poms through the hole.
The kids liked this activity and came back to it a lot throughout our color red study.
Red Streamer Break Out
I wrapped the kids up in red streamers and then let them bust out.
They didn’t like this activity at all.
Except it was the exact opposite. 🙂
Brown Bear Project Handprints
We work on a special project all year long that coincides with the colors we are learning!
You can read all about it HERE.
Red Solo Cups
We played with lots of red cups. Stacking. Building towers and skyscrapers. It was fun to see what the students came up with!
Red Videos
I also like to share a few YouTube videos with my students while they are having snack.
Here are my favorites that teach about the color red.
- Teatime with Tayla RED
- Storybots RED
- Color Crew RED
- Color Red Song
- Color of the Day RED by Patty Shukla
- Surprise Eggs RED
I hope you find something here to help your kids learn about the color red!
Next month I will share about the color Orange. I would love to know if this is a helpful resource for you – leave a comment below!
– Julie 🙂
I LOVE these ideas! So many simple things to help reinforce colors with my own girls at home. Thank you! ?
Kristen – thank you for letting me know! I hope your girls have some fun with the streamer break out! 🙂
I love all your preschool posts! I plan to use them when I start homeschooling 🙂
Alexa! Thank you for this comment! How exciting that you will be homeschooling soon! I am so happy I can help you a bit. 🙂
I love this! I have a day home, And I love using your preschool ideas to engage and encourage the children! They love themes! I’ve been readin your blog for probably five years, it’s one of my top three favorites!! Thanks for all you do!
Becky, thank you SO much for letting me know how this helps you! It really blesses me and inspires me to keep sharing!
I am a new reader. I found your blog right before school started this year with your post “400 trips to Ikea.” I am a preschool 3’s teacher and always looking for new ideas…your site is wonderful! I was curious how you use the bible verses that you have on your bulletin board with your little ones? Would you mind sharing what resources/verses you use? We pray at morning circle, closing circle, and snack time but I have often felt the tug to teach simple understandable bible verses to the children. (I am hoping to start using the Jesus figure that you linked to in an earlier post. ) Thank you for sharing!
Hi Julie! I would LOVE to share with you what I do! I am actually hoping to share my ideas for teaching bible verses and biblical concepts to littles on the blog as I go through the year… It will be slow, but they will come – hopefully once a month! It sounds like you have a wonderful foundation of prayer – keep that up, girl! I always start the year with the Jesus Loves Me theme that I shared last week. This month we are focusing on God Made Me. I have been teaching them a simple bible verse that I set to an easy tune – that is the BIGGEST tip I can give when teaching toddlers scripture – always use music! I will share that soon! Thank YOU for your comment today!
Julie,
Thank you for your post!!! I’m homeschooling my babies this year and this stuff is coming in rather handy. God Bless and continue to use you to encourage us moms.
Hi Julie!
I just came across your blog through Pinterest tonight and I am SO grateful for all that you’ve shared! I am a first year teacher and do three year old preschool so this has been SUCH a huge help as we study our colors. You have so many great ideas and resources. LOVE your blog. 🙂
Hi Rachel! So nice to meet you! I checked out your site and it is AMAZING! So beautiful! I am so thankful that you found me and I truly hope that I can help you as you teach the little ones!! I imagine you are a wonderful teacher. Let me know when you share your next teaching idea for that age – I would love to see it!
This is so awesome…I finally found what I wanted..would surely experiment these…This week is red week for us.
Thank you so much! Used it with baby cousin to start his understanding of colors! He already knows how to identify red by pointing at it after only 1 hour!! Hoping for him to be able to say it by tonight! Will definately use these tricks. Are there any suggestions you have for training a two year old boy?
Thank you bunches!!! I’m a retired kindergarten teacher, now part of a volunteer team doing PreSchool StoryHour at our local community library. We often wonder how we taught all day everyday and it takes us forever to plan for one hour a week. LOVE that your ideas are quick and easy, age appropriate and short and to the point!!! Planning for Red Day has be accomplished!!!! 😊😊vickie
Hey, your ideas are amazing and simple, i would love to apply them with my baby girl… Thank you for sharing