If you have preschoolers, you know how much they love putting things in and out of bins. They could take things out and put things in ALL DAY LONG! Preschoolers, and children who are developmentally at a preschool level, also love matching. They love finding like items and putting them together. Using children’s interests is always a great way to build skills – kids are more likely to learn when they’re having fun! They’re also more likely to want to do an activity when they find it fun. The task in this post is perfect for little learners because it uses their favorite activities as a way to learn about colors!

This color sorting activity is a great, portable, independent activity for your little one. It is super fast to put together and you most likely already have everything you need in your home. To build this color sorting activity, all you need are some containers or bins (plastic work best), colored construction paper (or white paper and crayons in a pinch!) and toys. I’ll walk you through each step of this color sorting activity below. I’ll also share some bonus ideas on how to keep your child learning and growing by modifying the task.

Why use a Color Sorting activity?

Children learn through play. They also learn through repetition. Most of all, children learn when they’re having fun! Sorting is a form of play that children, especially young children, particularly enjoy. As young children are learning about the world, they try to make sense of it by imposing order. Sorting and matching are simple ways young children can organize the world and help it make more sense.

By teaching a simple but important skill (colors) through a preferred learning strategy (sorting), children can begin to better understand their world. Some children love flashcards, but for many children flashcards can feel like work. Some children love worksheets, but for other children sitting still to complete a worksheet can be torture. Sorting is an active way of learning. Children physically manipulate materials, which engages multiple senses. Their bodies are in motion as they pick up and drop items into bins. For children who need even more motion, the bins can be spread apart so children have to walk around to complete the task. As more senses become engaged in learning, the information is better stored and, later, more easily retrieved. Learning through engaging, hands-on activities can help children learn information more fully.

Creating the color sorting activity

Step 1: Gather the materials

To start, just grab a few plastic containers from your cabinets. Your containers don’t have to match. You don’t need the lids for them, so this is a great task for those extra containers that you never use because the lids went missing years ago! Keep in mind that you’ll be sorting toys into the bins, and preschoolers toys are often pretty big – you’ll want to select bins that are big enough to hold a few toys. No tiny bins for this task!

Next, find construction paper in a few colors. If you don’t have any construction paper, you can absolutely use regular white paper. Just color in a section of it with crayons, pencils or markers, then cut out that section to use for your bin.

Once you have colored paper (or paper you’ve colored!), attach one piece of paper to each bin. Depending on your containers, you may want to put the paper in different spots. You can see I put it around the edges for the tall bins, but set it on the bottom for the short, wide bins. As long as your child can easily see the color, it is fine to set it up however you prefer!

Next, take 5 minutes and walk through your home (or classroom if you’re building this as a classroom activity). This is a great time to do something with all those small, random toys that are always sitting out. When I made this color sorting activity, I grabbed a handful of cars because the child was a serious car lover, but you can use any toys. Lego, wooden blocks, toy food, crayons, anything works! You can also use a mix of random toys – they don’t have to match. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the toy should be MOSTLY one color. You can see in the picture above that the yellow fire truck has some red lines on it, but when you see the truck – it’s clearly YELLOW. If you have a toy that has lots of colors on it, or is more evenly split between two colors, skip it. It needs to be completely clear what color the toy is so the child is focused on matching, not on deciding what color the toy is supposed to be!

Step 2: Teaching the Color Sorting Activity

Once you’ve got everything gathered, you’re ready to teach the child how to use the color sorting activity. Begin by setting out all the bins and the toys. Model how to use the activity for your child. I usually say something like, “Look, this is car is red. It goes in the red bin. This car is blue, it goes in the blue bin, and this car is yellow, it goes in the yellow bin.” I put the cars in the bins as I talk. Then I say, “Look, this is another red car. Where should it go?” I hand it to the child and see if he or she can sort it properly. If the child struggles at all, I help make sure it gets into the right bin with lots of prompting, matching, and praising. If you’re not sure how to prompt, check out this post here to learn more! We’ll keep going through all the toys until they’re all sorted.

The first few times you introduce this color sorting activity, be sure to sit with your child and make sure they understand the goal and are doing it properly. Once the child has it mastered, I usually store the materials all together. You can stack all the bins inside one another and then store the toys in the top bin. You can even take this toy with you when you go places, just consider adding a lid to the top bin so toys don’t fall out during the travel!

Bonus ideas

Help your child keep learning by modifying the color sorting activity as they grow and learn:

1. Add new colors of construction paper to teach them to identify and sort other colors
2. Write the color names on the paper so they begin to identify the written word with the color. I usually do this step in phases. First, I write the color word on the construction paper. When the child is sorting with the word on the colored paper, I switch it up and use white paper and write the color word in a marker that matches (e.g., I write RED in red ink). After that, I fade to only the first letter in the matching ink and the rest of the word in regular black ink. Finally, I write the whole word in black ink on plain white paper. Remember, before fading to the next step, be sure your child is correctly sorting at the current step!
3. Add new items, some of which may have multiple colors on them, to help children work on decisions in addition to sorting. For example, if I had 3 bins (red, blue, and yellow) and gave a child a car that was half blue and half green, the child would have to think through the problem and solve it. The child must realize the car could go in a blue or green bin, but since there isn’t a green bin, it must go in the blue bin! This is a hard skill, and you may have to help prompt your child through the decision making process step by step.
4. When your child is able to sort easily, consider trying other sorting activities, like the letter-sound task described here!

Using just a few simple items that you already have, you can build an engaging, fun, and educational activity for your early learner! Remember, children learn best when they’re having fun. They also love to have their favorite adults playing with them. Your child is more likely to love this activity, and choose it, if you play with them!