Inspired by Chalk Academy, I decided to try a color sorting activity with my daughter. She’s 15 months old and I wasn’t expecting much from the activity. This is my first time doing any sort of activity that would test her understanding of colors or concept of sorting. You can definitely try these 3 fun chinese color sorting activities with your toddler too.
When to Start Teaching Colors
I started talking to my daughter in Chinese since she was born and even focused on certain colors each week. After a while, I stopped because I forgot/got sidetracked with my teachings. Blue 藍 (lan sik) was the first color she learned and I would point to everything that was blue. Guess I stopped because I thought she was too young but should have kept on going.
3 Fun Chinese Color Sorting Activities for Toddlers
Below are the color sorting activities that I did with my daughter. Since this was her very first time, I was truly shocked at how well she did. She completed 2 out of three activities very well. I’m sure the second time we try it she would continuously to do better.
Colors in Chinese
We started with only 3 colors to keep it simple since she is only 15 months old. Colors I chose were:
- Blue, Green, Red (Lan , Lok, Hóng/藍, 綠, 紅)
a) Color Sorting Activity – Toys
We had lego and other building block toys so we did some color sorting with it. I know I couldn’t use small construction paper because she likes to rip paper, and since I wanted to sort large toys, it would be easier if she could place the toys on the paper. On the large board, I wrote in large Chinese letters the color, or of course you can use colored paper as Betty does in her post. Instead of using a printer to print the Chinese word, I wrote the chinese characters myself so I could get some learning out of it too.
What you need:
- Large colored Bristol Board/colored paper
- Black Sharpie to write the letters on the board
- Colorful toys – Lego, Building Blocks, Toy Food, Stacker Toys,
Result:
Since this was her first time she had a hard time understanding we were sorting the blocks by colors. She wanted to play with all the blocks and kept shifting them around. But that’s the fun about learning while playing. So we just played. I kept on repeating the colors to her, pointing to the right colors, placing the object back on the color.
b) Color Sorting Activity – Sticker Dots
After playing with the toys, I decided to use the same supplies as the last to continue with sticker dots. I didn’t even know about sticker dots until I read in Chalk Academy that kids love to play with them. After my daughter peeled a dog sticker off a toy train and eat it, I realized that this might be true for her too. So I bought some sticker dots for a color sorting activity. I didn’t make it as complicated as Betty did for her color sorting activity by writing the Chinese letter of the colors on each sticker. It will definitely be something I incorporate into her learning experience in the future. I think right now my daughter is just learning and I really had no high expectations.
What you need:
- Large colored Bristol Board/colored paper (same one as above)
- Black Sharpie to write the letters on the board (same one as above)
- Sticker dots in multiple colors
Result:
I bought the 3/4″ size Sticker dots. We started off peeling one color at a time (red) and I would point at the right color. First she had some challenges peeling the sticker off her finger after I handed it to her, then she had troubles sticking the sticker onto the board because it would stick onto her finger. After some laughs, she got the hang of it. We moved onto another single color (green). She was doing really well. Then came a test came and I gave her a red sticker again, she moved to the red bristol board and put a sticker there! I was in shock. She actually understood that we were sorting sticker colors. I gave her more stickers alternating between the two. Then I introduced another color (blue). I had to help her at first and there were some hiccups in between but she slowly understood. I gave her a red sticker and she put on the blue board. I left it there but later she looked at it and tried to peel the red sticker off the board to put it on the right spot. It was really a success. So impressed with her.
b) Color Sorting Activity – Pompoms
After such a successful last activity I moved onto using pompoms. I repeated the steps I did with the stickers.
What you need:
- Large colored Bristol Board/colored paper (same one as above)
- Black Sharpie to write the letters on the board (same one as above)
- Pom Poms in multiple colors
Result:
The pompoms I bought her were too small. I realize that now. The pompom’s I bought her were probably 1cm. The minimum size should get are like 1″. Next time I try it will try with bigger pompoms. As soon as I gave her a pompom she tried to eat it. Then I gave her the pack and she was shaking it and scattering little pompoms’ everywhere. It was so much fun for her, while I was trying to throw each color on the right board, it was useless. The game was done. She was having fun throwing pompom’s everywhere, scattering pompoms’ to every inch of the room. This one didn’t work out well. She was even feeding the pompom’s to her daddy. In the end, it was fun for everyone.
Overall:
It was a great Chinese learning experience with mommy and baby. She ended up having so much fun she was running through the condo with the red bristol board. Now I’m going to be dreaming up more color sorting games for her since she did so well. Well 1/3 is still good right for the first time. We’ll see how she does after a few more times. We loved this fun Chinese sorting activities, perfect for young ones between ages 0-18 months. Of course younger the child the more interaction and help you will need to provide.
Mommy Dragon
