Madame Rigolotte, Expert In Colors.
Today is about colors — topic of excellence to officially welcome our latest fellow, Madame (Mme) Rigolotte, from the Land of Seven Colors, but also a great topic to enter and elevate young children’s thinking, a core element of Giggles and Chisels.
Whether it is an infant having their attention caught by primary colors, a toddler starting to use color attributes as they extend their sentences, a preschooler adding on more and more colors to their drawings, there are dozens of daily opportunities for grown-ups to deepen those young children’s understanding of the colorful world we live in. Colors surround us; colors are all around.
There has been a lot of research related to colors in the context of early childhood — the perception of colors by infants, the impact of colors on young children’s learning, how colors can trigger various emotions in young children, how they learn and make sense colors, etc.
Today will be our first, but not our last, post on such fascinating topic, with a first step on noticing, talking about, and engaging young children with colors.
Noticing colors
In one of our first posts, I emphasized the importance for us, not-so-young children anymore, of slowing down our busy life pace to listen and further develop the fantastic brains of young children.
Noticing colors with young children is a simple task that can be done naturally throughout the day.
What shirt would you like to wear? The pink one? The blue one? The purple one with white dots?
What apples should we get? The green ones or the red ones?
Color hunts are often a hit with toddlers (and perfect to keep them busy when they have to wait for any reason).
Can you spot something green?
Now your turn. Which color do you want me to spot?
Talking about colors
As with anything, a critical element to extend any young child’s language skills is to extend those noticing moments with conversation — on a walk, in the care, in the home.
Discussing colors found in nature can offer shades beyond industrial colors from toys or classroom materials, which are often more straightforward to identify.
What colors are those flowers? Brown or red? Purple or pink?
Engaging with colors
Once children become comfortable discussing colors, noticing shades, they can fully engage with colors, giving us a chance to assess their understanding of colors and push their exploration a step further.
One activity I recommend with preschoolers is sorting out paint swatches and listen to their process.
This one is blue … this one is green… this one is… this one is tricky! It’s blue and green!
Young children do need to engage with this kind of struggle, and thinking. And for us, not so young children anymore, it provides another opportunity to witness their amazing way of thinking.
As always, thanks for joining us. Please feel free to reach out through our contact form or add a comment below.
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