Learning about colours should be fun for our little ones! Knowing colours is a key way in which we describe and categorise the world around us. Hence, I am always trying to find creative ways to incorporate a colour activity in whatever theme we are focusing on. My girls have also been working on sorting and developing fine motor skills, so I figured why not create an activity that would allow them to work on all the above skills. Hence, my reason for creating our colour sorting umbrella that fits perfectly into our weather theme.

Knowing Colours Helps Our Little Learners in the Following Ways:

• Verbal communication: Teaching children about colours is a great way to give them some vocabulary for describing the world around them. This opens up new and exciting avenues for verbal communication and discussion that leads to learning.
• Sorting and classifying: As children learn to identify colours, they can sort and organise objects around them based on this attribute.
• Health and safety: Colors sometimes give us information about health and safety. For example, we use red in most cultures to indicate ‘danger’ or ‘stop,’ such as with red stoplights and red stop signs. Colours can also tell us about our health.

Easy ways to start teaching Colours:

• Read books about colours.
• Talk about colours with your little ones as you go through the day.
• Play colour scavenger hunts.
• Play colour games.
• Do some colour sorting activities. (Matching socks when putting the laundry away.)
• Playing a game of I Spy

What you need to recreate this activity:

• Cardboard
• A black marker
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Paint.
• Glue gun
• Pom poms
• Tongs

Steps to recreating our colour sorting umbrella:

Step1: Collect all the materials you will need, which I listed above.

Step2: Draw the shape of your umbrella and draw in lines for the colours you want your little ones to work on.

Step3: Use paint to paint each section accordingly.

Step 4: Once the paint is dry, use your marker to outline your umbrella. 

Step5: Cut strips of cardboard (about 1″ )and use your glue gun to glue them onto the outline if you wish.

All the steps are completed, and it’s time for some learning fun!

What I love about this activity is the fact that it provided my girls with more than one learning opportunity.

This activity can be used for:

• Learning colours
• Learning colour names
• Counting
• Sorting
• Hand-eye coordination
• Developing fine motor skills

Two blogs on our website that support this activity:

 The Importance of Fine Motor Skills Development In Young Children

Why Sorting and Classifying are Important Skills for Young Children

I do hope you find this article useful. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us by sending us a message or visiting us @learning.stepbystep on Instagram, Learning Step By Step on Facebook and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for educational resources that will help you and your littles on their learning journey as they continue to Learn Step By Step!

Thank you for being here!

Kimberlee and the Learning Step By Step Team.