How to Teach Your Toddler Colors Using Homemade Color Tablets

In the Montessori style of schooling, colored tablets are used to teach children how to match primary colors, then a rainbow of colors, and eventually different hues and shades. The advantage to using color tablets is that it makes the learning experience sensorial as well as visual. Toddlers especially love learning through touch.

The activities are usually reserved for a child who is 2-1/2 years or older, but you can modify them for a younger toddler as a way to introduce colors and their names. The following homemade tablets and color games may horrify Montessori purists, but you and your toddler will have fun doing it!

MAKING THE TABLETS

Supplies:

Wood tablets. Craft stores have small, rectangular wood tablets, sold in packages or individually, that measure about 1 in long and 2-3 inches wide. They need to be the same size, feel, and weight so that the only difference will be the colors. You need two for each color (so you can make matching pairs)

Non-toxic paints, suitable for use on wood, in red, yellow and blue (and eventually orange, green and purple)

Small paint brush

Paint sealer

The rest is pretty straight forward. Paint the tops of the tablets, making two for each color. After they dry, check to see if they need a second coat: you want them nice and solid. Then, add a layer of clear paint sealer to help protect the paint from chips and peeling.

Another option is to pick up some paint chips and glue them to the tablets.

ACTIVITIES

Matching
Show your toddler a red tablet and tell him, "This is red." Then do the same with the yellow and blue tablets. Next, show him the second red tablet, tell him "This is red," and then place it next to the red tablet. Repeat with the other yellow and blue tablets. Then let him touch them and play with them.

After a few days, lay out the first set of tablets, then hand your toddler the second red tablet and see if he can make a match. If he doesn't, that's alright. You can make it for him. Your toddler will learn to match colors at his own pace. Don't get discouraged! He is processing what he is seeing, but if he sees you get frustrated, he won't think it is fun and will probably lose interest.

Try again with the yellow and blue tablets. Again, if he doesn't get it, you can do it for him. Your enthusiasm is important, whether or not he can match his colors yet, because if you have fun, he will have fun.

Once your toddler can match these colors (whether in a day or several months), add some orange, green, and purple tablets to the activity.

Color Days
Designate a day as red (or yellow or blue) day! Give your toddler one red tablet (or any of the other colors) and then keep the second one for yourself. Go around the house (or out in the yard) and look for all the things that are red. When you or your toddler find something, put your tablet next to it and say happily, "Look! They're both red!"

Colors in Books
When you read your toddler's favorite books with him, have the color tablets handy and put them next to things in the books that are the same color. When he's ready, he may want to do it, too!

Color Songs
Find a children's CD with a song about colors on it. As you and you toddler listen or sing it together, hold up the tabs when you sings about their respective colors.

Color Tastes
Find foods that are the same colors as the tablets (such as a red apple, yellow banana, and blueberry). Show your toddler how they match, and then invite him to eat the food. Yum!

This is just a small sample of how color tablets can be used to teach your toddler about colors. Remember, toddlers are all about play, so make it fun!