Our world is literally made up of colors and shapes. A house has a different shape from a tree. Flowers and street signs around us come in different colors. Colors and shapes are an important part of early childhood education. Teaching children about colors and shapes is a great way to give them some vocabulary for describing the world around them. Children will notice subsequently that a red flower is different from a yellow flower and a round bread roll has a different shape than a square-shaped bread.
Teaching colors and shapes can best be possible through playful everyday life experiences. Many children learn colors as Parents point out through verbal communication eg: You want to wear a red or yellow coloured dress.
Ask your children to match objects and sort them using colors.
While teaching, shapes start with the most common shapes which are circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles. Teach the children using day-to-day objects like a tyre or a bangle that is round in shape, a TV has the shape of a rectangle, a sandwich is triangular in shape, and a slice of cheese has the shape of a square.
Parents should keep demonstrating the shapes to their children in their daily lives.
Similarly, colors can be taught through everyday activities. Repetition can really help the child learn and absorb the colors in the child’s mind. Toddlers love bright colors. We can teach them through various games and puzzles, crayons, coloring books, play dough, finger paints and other fun loving activities. Helping a child identify colors and shapes is a milestone in a child’s development process.