Free Printable Color Sorting Mats

Color sorting made easy! These free printable color sorting mats are the perfect resource for helping preschoolers learn their colors!

Do you have a child just learning their colors? Does your little one mix up blue and purple or yellow and orange?

Add this color sorting printable activity to your free preschool printables, and you’ve got everything you need to set up a fun independent activity for preschoolers.

Free Printable Color Sorting Mats

This color sorting printable features eleven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, white, gray, and pink.

Each card features a child wearing the color and the color word. There are 66 color cards featuring six items for each of the eleven colors featured.

SETTING UP THE ACTIVITY

Print out each color sorting mat and card. I suggest printing on cardstock for stability. Then, I would laminate them for durability.

Cut each of the sorting mats out so that it is all one large card. Cut the cards apart so that you end up with 66 individual cards.

If you’d like this to be a transportable activity (perfect for restaurants or church), add velcro dots to the empty squares on the sorting mats and the backside of each color card.

SORTING COLORS

The activity itself is pretty straightforward. Your child will match each color card to its corresponding color sorting mat.

There are a variety of ways to differentiate the activity, though.

For young preschoolers, start with one color at a time. Talk about the color. Show your child the color sorting mat, and show them the color word. This is just to begin familiarizing your preschooler with color words not for them to learn to read or spell it.

Talk about things that are the same color as the one you’re discussing. They may already be able to identify a few items from their surroundings that are the same as the featured color.

After you’ve discussed what they know, share the color cards with them (just the ones for the featured color to start). Have your child name each item as she adds it to the mat. “An apple is red. A bow is red.”

Once your child is familiar with those items, introduce the color cards for a second color. Mix them up, and let your choose which ones go on the color sorting mat you’re working with.

As your little ones become familiar with the color cards and can confidently choose the correct cards from a set of two, introduce two or three color sorting mats at a time with their color cards.

Mix them up and let your child sort them accordingly. For an added challenge, choose three mats and four sets of color cards so that not every card has a mat.

For an added challenge, choose three mats and four sets of color cards so that not every card has a mat.

When your child is proficiently sorting multiple cards/mats at once, add the entire set to a center or quiet time box for your child to use independently.

PRESCHOOL COLOR BOOKS

Fill your book basket with a great collection of preschool color books. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore.

If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.

Mix It Up (Interactive Books for Toddlers, Learning Colors for Toddlers, Preschool and Kindergarten Reading Books)The Day the Crayons QuitThe Mixed-up Chameleon (Picture Puffin) by Carle, Eric New edition (1988)

 

Mix It Up! – Great for toddlers, preschoolers, and early readers to learn about combining colors in a fun and imaginative way.

The Day the Crayons Quit – Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: His crayons have had enough! They quit! 

The Mixed-Up Chameleon – There once was a small green chameleon that wished to be handsome like a flamingo, smart like a fox, and funny like a seal. But with each transformation in size, shape, and color, the chameleon learns that maybe being yourself is best of all!

TEACHING RESOURCES

Preschoolers can work on color recognition and sorting as well as fine motor skills as they build a rainbow on this gorgeous wooden rainbow color sorting toy

Kids will build hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as they drop the colored sticks through the right hole in this wooden fine motor matchstick color drop activity.  

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