Skip to the content
Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Colors theme for 3 and 4 year olds: a week of activities

A colors theme lesson plan for 3 and 4 year olds: what a day looks like, then the week's circle time (ten to fifteen minutes, with a child holding the book), books, craft, song, snack, letter and outside time, each with what changes at this age.

Plan this week for 3 and 4 year oldsThe whole colors week

A day of the colors theme with 3 and 4 year olds

  1. Arrival, sign-in, and a job from the helper chart.
  2. Circle (ten to fifteen minutes): calendar, “What is your favorite color, and where do you see it?”, sing “lavender's blue”, then The Red Hat.
  3. Centers, with the craft at one table: color sorting mat.
  4. Letter C: trace it once, then hunt for C around the room.
  5. Snack: Rainbow Fruit Cup, with children pouring and counting.
  6. Outside: color hunt.
  7. Rest, then a longer read-aloud: Red, Red, Red.

Colors circle time

  1. Good morning song, then say each name together.
  2. Calendar: the day, the date and the weather.
  3. Ask: “What is your favorite color, and where do you see it?”
  4. Sing: Lavender's Blue.
  5. Read: The Red Hat (level 3).

Threes and fours: ten to fifteen minutes; let a child hold the book.

Colors theme books

  • The Red Hat (level 3, free on peabody.kids): A red hat and the colors around it.
  • The Red Bus (level 1, free on peabody.kids): A red bus picking up animals, for color and counting.
  • Six Cats, Six Hats (level 1, free on peabody.kids): Hats to sort and count.
  • Red, Red, Red (read aloud, level 4): A pattern book all about one color.

Colors craft: Color sorting mat

You need (4): white card, crayons, colored paper scraps, glue stick.

  1. Draw four circles: red, blue, yellow, green.
  2. Sort the paper scraps into the right circle.
  3. Glue them down and name each color.

With a grown-up. No heat, nothing hot.

Colors song: Lavender's Blue

The words

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green; When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen.

Traditional; public domain. From Top 52 nursery rhymes with lyrics.

Colors snack

Rainbow Fruit Cup from the Peabody Kitchen: picture steps, allergy swaps and safety lines on the recipe.

Letter C activities

CcC is for color. Print the two pages (a trace page and a color page).

Threes and fours: trace C and c once, then find C in the room and in the book.

Outside activity: Color hunt

Call a color; children run and touch something that color.

Colors theme for toddlersColors theme for 2 year oldsColors theme, all ages

Checked 2026-10-30