Colors are a popular learning concept for little learners! This post focuses on color books for preschool children. These books are perfect to read aloud to children learning colors and color words.
Teaching Colors to Children
Introducing Colors
Often times. children learn colors without exclusively being taught them. Most parents and teachers introduce colors to children unintentionally. Simply using color words in your daily vocabulary with your child is oftentimes enough exposure for students to learn color words.
Teaching colors is best done through playful everyday life experiences. and play. When developmentally ready, many children easily learn their colors as adults point out color attributes of objects in children’s everyday environments.
Colors Chart Preschool
Preschool classrooms should have a simple color chart for reference. There are many that can be printed online or full-size posters that can be purchased.
When Do Kids Know Colors?
Most children can recognize colors at 18 to 24 months old. However, the linguistic ability to name colors usually comes later. By age 3, a child should be able to name at least one color and multiple colors by age 4.
As always, if you have concerns about your child’s development and what is normal, be sure to visit your pediatrician.
Importance of Learning Colors
Learning colors is a basic preschool skill. It represents a basic child’s cognitive understanding and gives children a way to describe and categorize their world. It also gives them some vocabulary for describing the world around them!
20 Best Preschool Books About Colors
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Eric Carle
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is a classic book about colors for children that also incorporates rhyme and sequence. The repetitive phrasing is perfect for pre-k students.
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
Who doesn’t love Pete the Cat? Pete is wearing white shoes and steps in different things like strawberries and mud throughout the book that make his shoes change colors. This is a favorite book for little learners and there is also a song to go with the book! Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes is sure to be a favorite!
Ava and the Rainbow (Who Stayed) By Ged Adamson
Ava and the Rainbow (Who Stayed) is a story about a beautiful rainbow that stays! However, as people start to lose interest in the rainbow, Ava learns that sometimes the rare and special things in life are the best of all! This could be a great book for your weather unit too!
A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
Only the chameleon seems to have no color of his own! Chameleon learns an important lesson in this story and finds out something that may be even more important than having a color of his own!
How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors by Jane Yolen
How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors is another fun book in the dinosaur series by Mark Teague and Jane Yolen. This simple story names colors and familiar objects making it a great choise for younger preschoolers. It’s also available as a board book!
Cat’s Colors by Jane Cabrera
What is Cat’s favorite color? This book follows cat as he explores the colors around him like the green grass and the yellow sand on a sunny beach! This is a great book for the young preschooler with bright colors and familiar vocabulary.
Press Here by Hervé Tullet
Children and adults alike will love reading this interactive book! Each page instructs the ready to push the button, shake it up, and more! This is a fun book to read aloud again and again.
The Color Monster: A Pop-up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas
This fun book illustrates emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and calm. Each page of this book has a 3-D pop-up and bright colors that children will love!
Mix It Up by Hurve Tullete
This simple and interactive book about colors includes young readers. Simply follow the artist’s simple instructions, and suddenly colors appear, mix, splatter, and vanish! Mix It Up will engage child’s imagination and help them see how colors work together.
Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Colors, colors everywhere! Can you find colors just like Bear? Explore colors with Bear in this fun book by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman! Children who are familiar with the other books in this series will love recognizing familiar characters in this story.
Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story About Colors and Counting by Emma Dodd
In this colorful story, the dog starts off the day with one black spot. However, throughout the day, he collects spots made of red jam, blue paint, pink ice cream, and more! When he arrives back home, Dog has ten different colored spots and it’s time for a bath! Preschool kids will love learning colors and counting in this fun book.
What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz
Learning about rainbows and what colors create a rainbow? This book is educational and teaches the color and orders of the rainbow!
White Rabbit’s Color Book by Alan Barker
In this book, White Rabbit finds three pots of paint and discovers the magic of colors! This is a great story for budding artists to discover color mixing or lead to open-ended painting, etc. Other books are available in the series to teach shapes, numbers, and letters too!
Pink Is for Boys by Robb Pearlman
This book tackles the stereotype that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. It’s an empowering book for children and adults to express themselves in every color of the rainbow. It also encourages children to do what they love!
A Day With No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch
When Liza’s mother takes away her beloved crayons, her world suddenly goes gray. Liza responds angrily by squirting her toothpaste and stomping through mud puddles. In the end, Liza creates art and discovers color in the world all around her!
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
It’s hard to believe that this classic book is over 50 years old! This simple story is told with colorful pieces of torn paper and few words. Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends, but one day they can’t find each other. When they finally do, they give each other such a big hug that they turn green.
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
One day three white mice discover three jars of paint! The mouse quickly experiments with the red, blue, and yellow paints. This playful introduction to colors will appeal to any young artist or curious preschooler.
Sky Color by Peter Reynolds
The author of The Dot, is back with another book for the young artist! This story is about a girl named Marisol who loves to paint and is asked to help with a mural. But, how can she paint a sky without blue paint? This story is sure to inspire creativity by looking at the world around you!
Mixed: A Colorful Story by Arree Chung
The reds, the yellows, and the blues all think they’re the best color. When the colors decide to separate, what could change their mind? This story promotes a message of acceptance and unity.
Five Colorful Crayons by Lee Taylor
Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Purple crayons try to guess what they will be able to create with their colors. When a group of students finally puts them to use they get quite a workout as they work together to make a giant rainbow!
Strategies to Teach Colors Without Books
If you are looking for some other strategies for teaching colors, here are a few centers focused on colors and color words.
In this pocket chart activity, students will sort pictures by color. They will match each colored object to the color word. The color word is written in the correct color to help non-readers complete the activity.
This pocket chart activity is available for the following themes:
Winter Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Valentine’s Day Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Spring Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Easter Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Summer Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Fall Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Halloween Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Thanksgiving Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Christmas Preschool Pocket Chart Activities
Color Sorting
Students can also benefit from sorting by color. There are many objects that can be sorted by colors incluidng toys, math manipulatives, and food! You can read more in this post, Fruit Loop Sorting Mat.
Color Mixing
Students can learn a lot about color through play and mixing colors. Preschoolers will benefit from having some time to play and experiment with color!
Preschool Books About Colors FAQ
Why Is Color Important in Children’s Books?
Color plays an important role in children’s books. Since young children are unable to read, they rely on pictures and illustrations to help tell the story. Different shades can help set the mood and tone of the story.
What Is the Most Popular Color for Children?
Bright colors such as red, yellow, and blue are popular among children. According to Sciencing, children have a preference for colors that are brighter on the color spectrum than more dull ones because they are able to distinguish between them easier while their eyesight is still developing.
Each color psychologically makes people (including kids) feel a different way. For example, yellow and orange are associated with hunger!
How Do Bright Colors Can Affect Brain Development?
Bright colors can also affect brain development. For example, learners of all ages recall information in color than in black and white. There have also been studies completed about how color in the classroom can affect different learners as well.
Color Books for Preschool: The Bottom Line
Colors books are a valuable tool for teaching colors to preschool students and color plays an important role in the classroom.