"Orange" You Glad it's Time for Pumpkins!!

originally posted 10/08/2015; Updated: 10/07/2020

I am so tempted to write this whole post in orange...but I'll spare you!! But I do want you to know that I love talking about and teaching toddlers and preschoolers about colors.

Teaching Big Sister her colors was one of my favorite things. We had so many fun activities that we did while we were learning...so many in fact that I've started writing a book on that topic! I hope one day to finish it!!

In the meantime, I'd like to share a few activities with you to help you teach your child his colors!

There are lots of ways to teach colors, but I have found that the most effective way is total immersion (or at least as close as possible!) into that color!

We will be starting with ORANGE at our house. He already knows pink...not sure how that happened. Maybe it's all of Big Sister's stuff that's pink! Regardless, when you ask him "what color is this?!" He always responds "Pink!"   Another reason we are starting with orange is that it's pumpkin time! There are pumpkin patches and orange Halloween things everywhere, so it's going to be easy to point it out.

I believe a good first step when introducing  color is to just point it out. You don't have to completely ignore other colors, but focusing on the one targeted color is a good start. He gets to hear the word used in context (orange + pumpkin) in a variety of language complexities.

We said "orange," "orange pumpkin," "another orange pumpkin" "bye orange pumpkin" "get an orange pumpkin" "Oh, I see an orange pumpkin" "See that pumpkin? It's orange!" "hug the orange pumpkin!" "Where is another orange pumpkin?" Single words, phrases, sentences and questions. He got to hear them all!

I probably said "orange" a thousand times!  We both had so much fun!

As we walked around the store we found a few other orange objects:

Please don't feel obligated to buy every orange item you see or play with. We were gentle with all of the items and we only bought the oranges (although we do have two giant pumpkins at home or else I don't think I could have walked away from the ones at the store!!)

COVID UPDATE! I know the transmission of germs from surfaces is low, but we are being careful ... so, these days my kids aren't touching a lot at stores... and my guess is, yours are not as well! A few alternatives would be just to point them out and talk about them.

You can also take pictures with your cell phone and make a special Orange album! I love making albums in my pictures of things I want to show others. You child can scroll through the Orange album and you can tell what the pictures are over and over! You can also have your child show the album to dad or grandma or Auntie or a sibling!

You can also collect items from around your house that are orange!

Ok, now it's your turn! Where will you go to and point out the color orange?!

Pin this for later :)

Happy searching!

-Lauren :)

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