Reading the Rainbow, Books about Colors 🌈

Reading the Rainbow

Books about Colors 🌈

     Children learn to distinguish colors at about 18 months and then name colors by 3 years of age. We use colors to describe things all the time. What color is the car? Which underwear would you like to wear today? Blue! 

     This is a time period of the child wanting to learn about, sort and say colors so why not couple their eagerness of colors with books about colors. With the seasons changing from winter to spring and St. Patrick's Day with the pot of gold under the rainbow, seasonally it is also a good time to be reading books about colors. I've been reading the Growing book by book website and I recieve her emails where a few weeks ago she had the idea of doing a color reading challenge. We decided to jump on the challenge and read more books about colors. We just finished doing her 7 Day Read the Rainbow Reading Challenge. 

Below are 15 color books we've enjoyed and would recommend for you to check-out. For fun I've also listed 15 activities with colors to go along with books about colors.

Rainbow / Multicolor

What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz Illustrated by Dona Turner 

This is a Magic Ribbon Book. My mom gifted us this book. Each page adds a color of the rainbow and a ribbon and the last page is a pop up rainbow with sun. Our daughter loves reading this book. 

Colors by Nicole Kavanaugh

This book has a lot of objects that are categorized by color. We like to find and name objects on each page. I like reading the Nicole's Kavanaugh Report blog and listening to her podcast Shelf Help.

Poke-a-Dot! First Colors and Poke-a-dot! What's Your Favorite Color?

How can you go wrong with a poke-a-dot book?! If you haven't read one of these books with your child yet then I highly recommend that you look at a thrift type store, online or interlibrary loan and read a poke-a-dot book with your little one. I've heard that the poking of the dots can help with focus and tracking which are pre-reading skills. Some kids really like the reward of hearing the popping sound. When we went on a long car ride last summer, our daughter enjoyed reading a poke-a-dot book in her carseat. 

Color Dance by Ann Jonas

Children in leotards are dancing with scarves and overlap to make other colors. A great introduction to the color wheel and primary colors making secondary colors. If you are looking at purchasing scarves, this company just had a 70% off anniversary sale that we punched from for a birthday gift. Sarah's silks

Red

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown pictures by Felicia Bond

We first read this book when she was a year and two months old. One of her Grandma's found it for her. We love the big pictures. Each page gets slightly darker and the last page is the dark night sky. 

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood

We didn't own this one and so watched a reading of it on YouTube. This would be a good one to re-read in a year or so and talk about problem solving ideas since the mouse was trying to figure out a way that the Big Hungry Bear wouldn't eat the red ripe strawberry. 

Red Red Red by Polly Dunbar

We read this one two months ago, so we didn't use it for our rainbow challenge, but it is really good. We all get frustrated and see "red, red, red" and in the book the mum suggests counting to ten. Great book with a great ending, a must read!

Orange

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett

With few words, this story shows a bear with an apple an orange and a pear and different variations of those words; the fruit on top of the bear's head, juggling the fruit and of course, eaten fruit. 

Yellow

Black Bird, Yellow Sun by Steve Light

We read this book last year and I remember really liking it. A board book perfect for the toddler years. 

Blue vs. Yellow by Tom Sullivan

Which color is the best? Or are they better together? Or will there be another color that challenges them?

Green

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Did you guess that that would be the book for green? This may have been out daughter's first Dr. Seuss book and she loved it! March 2nd was Read Across America and was the 120th Anniversary of Dr. Seuss's birthday. He died in 1991 at the age of 87. 

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

A Caldecott Honor Book. With peek through die-cut pages, each page has another shade of green and then there is no green and the last page is forever green. I love it! I also loved hearing my daughter say "all green" and "no green" after me on those pages.

Blue

Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle Illustrated by Jill McElmurry

We love the animal sounds and love that Blue came and helped get Dump the truck unstuck. 

Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton 

Books are made for reading and for re-reading. We have read this one over and over and had our daughter say the "oops" for this time around reading the book. 

Indigo/Violet or Purple

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

This book is a little long for her to sit through but we love the imagination and problem solving that the main character, Harold, has in this book. My husband likes the book more than I do.

Activities we did or may do with colors:

1. Food dye in bathtub
2. Food dye in water or milk
3. Food dye in vinegar and baking soda
4. Food dye in shaving cream
5. Playdoh
6. Taste colors Blog about colors
7. Colored pom poms and more check out this blog about color-matching activities.
8. Chalk
9. Rainbow Rice Wonder of Color
10. Easter Eggs 🪺
11. Color Hunt
12. Coloring with markers or crayons
13. Painting
14. Feed the monkey colored bananas. We made version like this version on Teacherpayteachers.
15. Colored coffee filters hanging from the ceiling to jump up to get. Sight word jump and grab

Leave a comment and let us know if there are books about color that you are enjoying and/or if there are activities with color that you love to do. Have a colorful day! And Happy Easter!