C is for Color! Letter C: Preschool Activities and Lesson Plan

This lesson was SO much fun for Little #3 and me! There are a ton of incredible ways to learn about and experiment with colors. It was hard to narrow down the activities to fit in one day, but what we ended up with was awesome. Epic, in the voice of my eight-year-old. Epic.  😉 So I hope you follow along with this free preschool lesson plan Letter C is for Color and enjoy it as much as we did!

Before we get into the details of today’s plan, I want to mention that I hope your home preschool adventures are also going well and that these lesson plans are helpful for you. If you haven’t seen my quick tips for getting started with successful home preschool, check them out. This is the third in our Alphabet Lesson Plan Series. Find the first two lessons HERE.

Feel free to use and share these plans to talk, sing, read, write, and play your way through the alphabet. Those are the foundational habits of raising strong readers! You can use our full lesson plans, or, of course, pick individual activities to do with the Littles in your life. I am also a budget-friendly Mama, so no worries there: our activities are always easy on the pocketbook. Now, let’s get to it!

This post contains affiliate links. By shopping through these links you support Lovin’ Life with Littles at no additional cost to you. Thank you for that support! Here’s the full disclosure.

Visit the Preschool Lesson Plan Index to see what free plans are published or in the works!

Update: You can now get ALL of the Alphabet Lesson Plans, Checklists, and Printables, (plus Bonus Ideas and 75+ exclusive preschool printables!) all in one budget-friendly digital product…A to Z and Beyond! Preschool Curriculum.

Introduction for Letter C Lesson Plan

Gather on the floor for circle time and start with a welcome song. Since this was our third week singing our new welcome song, “Hello to All the Children of the World,” I asked Little #3 if he could remember any of the ways to say hello. He thought of quite a few (even more if we count “nearly said it right.”) We repeated all of them: hello, bonjour, buenos dias, G’day, guten tag, konichiwa, ciao, shallom, dobrey dyen. We followed along with the video for the full song.

PLAY: Letter C Body Shapes

Introduce the round shape of the letter C. Little #3 remembers it as a half-circle. Connecting new information to ideas that kids already know is a great way to help them learn and remember that new information. The challenge today to help us learn the shape of the letter C was to find how many ways we could make that shape with our body.

You can use your whole body (for example, a back bend) or just parts of your body (for example, your fingers). Sometimes the first one is the hardest. Once the kids pick-up on the idea, their imaginations are pretty limitless!

PLAY: Rhyming Words with Letter C

Next, we talked about the two sounds the letter C makes. I like to introduce both sounds right from the start. I say we use the hard C sound more often, and then we focus on that.

In order to practice the sound, we played Rhyming C’s. One person says a word that begins with the letter C. The next person thinks of a word that rhymes. Then trade roles.

Some good C words for rhyming include cat-bat, car-star, cap-tap, cent-bent, crib-bib, call-ball, crab-grab, and cook-book. Rhyming with nonsense words is age-appropriate for preschoolers. You can say, “That’s a great rhyming nonsense word! Now can you think of a real word that rhymes with car? Think about something you might see up in the sky.”

READ: Rainbow Book

Now it is time to use a book to introduce the focus for today’s lesson: colors. We read a child’s version of Noah’s Ark. One thing I appreciate about home preschool is that I can weave religious beliefs and morals into our learning. As these are foundational to how I approach life and challenges, I love being able to pass this on to my kids.

Click image for purchasing information.

We have A First Bible Story Book by Mary Hoffman. Our book came with a CD. We were given it years ago, and the kids love the versions of the 13 stories from the Old and New Testaments.

Here are some other good stories to introduce the colors of the rainbow:

Click image for purchasing information.

In A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman (the author of the beloved Corduroy), a boy tries to catch a rainbow. He dreams what it would be like to have a rainbow of his own, and then he finds some real rainbow magic.

Click image for purchasing information.

What Makes a Rainbow? A Magic Ribbon Book by Betty Ann Schwartz is a story about how Little Rabbit learns what makes a rainbow from all of her different colored animal friends. The words and pictures are sweet, but the most fun is the ribbon rainbow that grows with each page turn.

Click image for purchasing information.

Rainbow Rob (Touch and Feel Picture Books) from Priddy Books is a delightful little book about Rob, who tries out all the different colors. In the end, he realizes that “being yourself is the way to be.” The rhymes and things to touch help make this a great book.

SING: Rainbow Song

I found this “Rainbow Song” on YouTube. It was perfect for us because the tune is simple and the words are easy to catch on to. Only one warning: the words are “red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink.” Yes, if your Littles are anything like mine, a LONG conversation about why anyone would say pink is in the rainbow is sure to ensue. You may want to avoid the whole potential disaster and pick a different song. But as I said, after listening to quite a few, I liked the simplicity and melody of this one. 

TALK and PLAY: Make Your Own Rainbow

What does it take to make a rainbow? We figured out together that we see rainbows when the sunlight shines through the rain. So we need light and water. Do we have those things around here? Do you think we can make our own rainbow?

Let the kids think about possible ways to make a rainbow. You can experiment with those different ways or steer them toward a configuration that should work right away. If you want several ideas, here are 3 methods for making rainbows.

We put water in a glass and let the light shine through onto a piece of white paper. If it’s not sunny, you can use a flashlight. Depending on your Littles’ previous knowledge and interest level, you can talk briefly about how white light has all the colors of the rainbow in it. When the light goes through water or a prism it separates.

The experiment was a little underwhelming for us as we couldn’t clearly see all the colors, but Little #3 still thought it was pretty incredible that he could make his own real rainbow!

WRITE and PLAY: Colors Scavenger Hunt

It was a beautiful day, perfect for heading outside. I wrote up a quick scavenger hunt paper, but I’ve included a nice Printable Colors Scavenger Hunt in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST for you guys.

We took our scavenger hunt paper, a pencil, and a cup for collecting treasures and went for a little walk around the house and down the block. Little #3 was enthusiastic about drawing pictures of the things he found for each color. For the rainbow square he found something that had a lot of colors on it, as opposed to all the colors.

Today’s free printables are included in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST. Click HERE to have the checklist sent to your inbox.

There were of course so many choices for each color. He ended up drawing a red fire hydrant, dry orange pine needles, a yellow flower, green grass, a blue hose faucet, a purple flower, a dried violet bloom, and a multicolored leaf.

Sing: Three Primary Colors

Now that we have learned about all these colors, what happens if we start mixing colors? Something about the costumes and strong beat make the “Sesame Street: OK Go – Three Primary Colors” song a hit at our house. It is a great introduction to primary and secondary colors. Be sure to get up, sing along, and dance!

Read: Mouse Paint

After singing the song, we reinforced those ideas about color mixing by reading Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

Click image for purchasing information.

In this book, three white mice play in paint and learn about combining colors.

You could also mix things up by watching a video reading of the book.

PLAY: Flashlight Color Mix-Up

Can you remember the what we just sang and read about? What happens if you mix red and yellow? What about if you mix red and blue or yellow and blue?  After hearing about mixing colors, it was time to do some mixing of our own.

We turned out the lights. Using a flashlight and some tissue paper in red, yellow, and blue, we experimented with mixing the colors by overlapping the tissue paper on the end of the flashlight and shining it on the wall. You can fold the paper over the sides of the flashlight and put a rubber band around the flashlight to help hold the tissue paper in place.

There is something about flashlights that never grows old for my Littles!

Eat: Foods that Start with Letter C

For our snack, we chose celery with peanut butter and raisins on it and carrots on a cow plate. 🙂

Other options for snacks that begin with letter C are crackers, cornbread, cantaloupe, cucumber, or cashews. If you feeling up for a little sweet, you could also opt for Cap’n Crunch, candy, corn chips, cookies, and cake. Wow, there’s a lot of good C foods! 😉

Bonus Riddle: What kind of cup does not hold water? Answer: A Cupcake! Hehehe. 🙂

Later in the day, we carried the theme into lunch and enjoyed a colorful fruit and veggie rainbow!  We ate red sweet peppers, orange carrots, yellow pineapple, green string beans, blue blueberries, and violet raspberries.  YUMMY!!!!

PLAY: Magic Milk Preschool Science

After our snack, we were ready for a little preschool science, AKA Magic!

This activity was the highlight that Little #3 talked about with everyone that would listen for the next few days. This in fact might be what made the whole lesson epic.

The experiment is simple, uses common ingredients, and has a great wow factor. I got the details here.

Pour milk into a plate as full as you dare. The fattier the milk the better.  Squeeze drops of food coloring into the milk. 

Next, squeeze drops of dish soap into the mixture. The colors will move and mix as the fat in the milk is attracted to the soap. 

Lastly, use a cotton swab to further swirl the colors and see if anything new happens.

WRITE and CRAFT: Painting with Colors

Of course, one of the most fundamental things we love about colors is creating with them. Free painting (or process art which is done without instructions) is a fitting activity for today’s lesson.

We used the primary colors so that Little #3 could experiment with mixing.  I wrote “C is for Color!” on a piece of paper (for our Alphabet Book). He painted the letter C and then painted whatever he wanted.

I was surprised that he decided to paint a scene as he usually is a full color on the full page type of artist.  While he didn’t mix colors as much as I thought he would, he enjoyed painting.

I actually love painting, coloring, and creating alongside my kids. I always wait to get started until my kids are well into their own projects though. If I don’t, I find that some kids choose to copy me instead of using their own imagination. I love to see what they come up with!

PLAY: Colorful Crystals Preschool Science Experiment

After Milk Magic, this was the second talk of the town. And as the experiment progressed over the next couple weeks, it definitely took center stage.

We set-up a crystal growing experiment. I had heard of growing crystals at home but hadn’t ever done it. When planning this activity, I read about crystal growing here, here, and here. We added our own twist and decided to set up a comparison experiment. We called it “Colorful Crystals.”

Here are the materials you need for the crystal growing experiment…

• Water
• Small pan for boiling (optional- you can mix without heating, but it goes a little better with heat)
• 3 salts/substances (We chose alum, baking soda, and salt. Other options could be sugar, borax, or Epsom salt. This is where the experiment comes in. Some substances grow crystals, while others don’t, and the crystals that form are of different structures.)
• 3 clear cups
• 3 pencils
• Yarn
• White board or paper for a sign
• Camera

How to Set Up the Crystal Growing Experiment

Please have careful adult supervision and participation with this!

1. Make three different solutions by dissolving your salt/substance in water at a low boil or near boil.
   • The crystals grow best with supersaturated mixtures, but we only had two tablespoons of alum. In order to keep the other variables constant, we used two tablespoons of each substance (I would use more of each next time) and 3/4 cup water, or as close to those as a four-year-old measuring gets. 🙂
   • First, mix water and alum.
   • Second, mix water and baking soda.
   • Third, mix water and salt.
2. Pour each mixture into a clear cup and make each a different color with food coloring.
3. Set a pencil over each cup with a string tied to it that hangs down into the water.
4. Write a sign that says “Day 1” (we used a small whiteboard) and take a picture.  Talk about what you guess (hypothesize) might happen.  Little #3 guessed that all of them will make crystals, but they will all look different.

How to Do the Crystal Growing Science Experiment

Each morning change your sign and take a picture to see how the crystals grow and change. I will report back on how this turns out, as we decided to watch them for two weeks. The whole family is involved and interested now!

With that in mind, note the addition to the sign by day two. It didn’t take us long to add that tidbit!  🙂 Little #3 is loving being in charge of this experiment, writing the number of the day, and taking the pictures.

Update: To learn more about crystals and see the results of this Colorful Crystals Experiment, check out the post Colorful Crystals Preschool Science Experiment.

SING: Goodbye Song

We finished up this jam-packed preschool lesson by reviewing our letter of the day. What does letter C look and sound like? I also took a brief moment to express my gratitude for colors and the wonder we are able to see with healthy eyes in this beautiful world.

Lastly, we sang a goodbye song, and see you next week!

Coming up we will dive into how we investigate the world using our five senses. We will start with the sense of taste with the free preschool lesson plan “Letter D is for Delicious!” Oh yeah!

I hope you and your Littles are enjoying your time together with some of these activities. I would love to hear your feedback in the comments section. Also, share pictures of your preschool adventures using #lovinlifewithlittles, and follow Lovin’ Life with Littles on Instagram. To get preschool lesson plans, insights, and funny stories sent right to your inbox, please follow by email!

Pin this for Later!

Shared at A Little Bird Told Me and Small Victories Sunday Link-Up.

Do you like what you’re reading?

Subscribe to receive more great tips, free downloads, and inspiration to simplify your parenting life. Following by email is the best way for us to help each other. And don’t worry…I hate spam too!