One of the first activities that young children can do is color sorting. Color recognition and color sorting activities are a fun way for preschoolers to learn about color and classifying objects, which is one of the very first preschool STEM activities that a preschooler can try! When my middle daughter was two, I set up this super easy and fun color sorting printable activity so that she could learn to sort things by color and learn how to start thinking like a scientist!
The color sorting and classifying activity is one of the best ways that I have found to introduce scientific classification to preschoolers!
Color sorting is one of our favorite easy STEM activities for preschoolers. If you have a printer and can print in color, then you can make this color sorting activity in just a couple of minutes!
I love the brightness of this preschool STEM activity as well as how much fun it is to teach kids about how scientists classify things in our world. This is one of the first STEM activities that I introduce to preschoolers.
It’s surprising how quickly they can think of other ways to classify objects!
Color Sorting Printable Activity Lesson Plan
In this lesson, you’ll be helping preschoolers sort items by color. Sorting and classifying objects by specific traits is one of the fundamentals of STEM thinking and the scientific method.
At the same time, you’ll be helping preschoolers learn their colors.
Print out all the colored circles (or you can just use construction paper or foam sheets so the kids can’t tear them) and collect about 10 items for each color.
Explain that scientists often sort things and that is one way we can learn about the world by finding what things are alike, and what things are different.
You can also explain some of the very basic types of scientific classification, such as animal, vegetable, and mineral.
Have the preschoolers suggest other ways that things in the world could be sorted other than by color.
What You Need for the Color Sorting Printable Activity
This preschool STEM activity is super simple and also makes a super easy preschool STEM activity.
If you like this activity, check out my book, STEM for Little Learners, which has tons of easy and age-appropriate STEM activities for preschool and also includes a guide on the best practices for completing STEM experiments with little ones.
Color sorting is one of our favorite easy STEM activities for preschoolers.
More Preschool STEM Activity Ideas
Preschoolers are super curious and it’s a lot of fun to do safe STEM activities with them! After you do this preschool color sorting activity, try some of my other favorite STEM activities for preschoolers:
How to Do the Color Sorting Printable Activity
Get the printable lesson plan for the color sorting printable activity below!
Color Sorting STEM Activity for Preschool
Teach preschoolers about scientific classification in this fun color sorting printable activity! Preschoolers will sort objects by color and learn why classification is useful in science.
Materials
- Circles printable (or construction paper or foam sheets)
- Small toys in various colors
Tools
- Printer
- Scissors
- Color ink
Instructions
- Before starting the activity, discuss why scientists classify things and have the preschoolers suggest some options for classifying items. The kids might suggest things like: size, material, shape, or texture.
- Explain that today, the preschoolers will be classifying objects by color.
- Lay the different colored papers on the floor. Mix up the small toys and place them in a pile.
- Have the preschoolers find objects that match each color and place them on the correct circle.
- Talk about what each color is and if things are multiple colors, discuss what color they think it most matches and why. Remind your students that scientists have to make choices like this, too!
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