When I talk about toddlers I usually mean ages 18mths – 3 years. The following activities and games can be adjusted to suit these ages easily, and extended out for preschoolers ie by including more unusual colours.

Colours

For young toddlers I would stick to the primary colours, red, yellow and blue. For the older toddlers I would include green, orange, purple and pink.

Art & Craft

Rainbow Picture – Get a huge piece of paper, plain wallpaper works well, draw a rainbow and paint with correct colours.

Make a Kite – Cut a diamond shape from card, divide into four with a marker and then paint. Tape some ribbon to the bottom.

Colour Collage – Take a piece of card for each of the colours and find things to stick down in the correct colour – paper scraps, wool, sweet wrappers, material cut offs.

Cooking

Iced Biscuits – Colour icing with colouring and ice biscuits or fairy cakes.

Fruit Jellys – Take lemon jelly and add chopped strawberries, or green jelly with peaches. Make a traffic light jelly with red, yellow and green jelly layered in a transparent plastic cup.

Books

Elmer’s Colours by David McKee is one of a series of stories about an elephant. The books are quite original and come in dual language form.

Internet

Teletubbies Colour Story

The best way to ‘teach’ toddlers is to provide stimulating activities. When I worked at the nursery, we would focus on one topic each week and provide various activities that the children would enjoy and learn from.

Shapes

I would stick to the basics, circle, square and triangle.

Art & Craft

A Shape Collage – Pre-cut shapes from coloured paper, let your toddler stick them down onto a piece of card.

A Shape Mobile – Cut large shapes from thick card, punch a hole and thread with string.

Traffic Light Picture – A traffic light picture (black card, three circles painted in red, yellow and green) combines shape and colour.

Toys

Balls – Play catch or make your own ball pool.

Building Blocks – Build towers and interesting shapes.

Shape Sorter Toys – Shape sorter toys include the light and sound variety as well as the wooden block style. We have both and they are equally good.

Games

Make your own cards, cut 12 cards, make 4 for each shape and play snap.

Books

My First Jumbo Book of Shapes looks like a good pick, I haven’t read it but it does have a good write up and it is age appropriate, it also says that it is ‘wonderfully interactive’ and young children *love* to get involved.