I used to love colour by numbers pages when I was little! I couldn’t wait to see how it looked once it was all coloured. For young children, these are great because they practice two essential skills: fine motor skills (which are needed for writing) and math (by teaching your child numbers and colours in this case). Plus, these are a nice quiet activity that helps your child develop focus and concentration while you are working beside them.

You can download this colour by numbers page here.

Best Ages for This Activity

Two to five

How to Make It

What You Will Need

Let’s get started!

  • Print the colour by number sheet and set it up in a quiet, sunny space where your child can colour. Put on some classical music if you like! Set up the coloured pencils next to the sheet so your child can easily access them.
  • Invite your child to colour and show them how to do it on this sheet:
    • You look at the number on one area
    • You see what colour corresponds to that number
    • You colour inside the whole area that has that number
    • Now look for the next area and see what number it has, and what colour corresponds to that number, then colour the entire area
    • If this is your child’s first time, or if they are very young, colour one are with them to demonstrate, and stay with them as they try another area
  • If your child prefers to choose their own colours and not to colour by number but instead to colour whatever colours they choose, that is great too! They can use it as a colouring page and let their own creativity flow. You can always print the sheet again if they want to try colouring by number!

Learning Opportunities

This activity will give your child literacy skills: they will learn to read the numbers and the names of the colours. They will also learn writing skills by trying to colour within a confined space. This takes different fine motor skills than drawing, and are a great precursor to writing. They will learn math by learning the numbers as well as the colours. Your child will also learn vocabulary by telling you about what they see on the page, and what they are thinking about while they colour. They will learn about music if you play classical music (or jazz, or any music) for them while they colour and tell them about the composer (or singer, or band).

Extended Learning Opportunities

  • Draw on the back of this colouring sheet. This is great for their imagination and creativity, as well as for their fine motor skills. They can also add to this colouring page once they finish colouring it (for example, add a sun, more butterflies, different flowers, clouds, or anything they like!
  • Invite your child to cut the colouring sheet (once finished) into a few pieces and then put the pieces back together (a home-made puzzle). This will help them acquire scissor skills.
  • Help your child write their name at the bottom of the practice sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

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