Making your own homemade toys is one of the best ways to save money and keep your kids busy. With that in mind, here’s our DIY colour matching game for toddlers. It’s super simple to make. All you need are a few recycled items and 5 minutes to create it!
My toddler is at the age where he’s ready to learn colour names. So this week I made a quick homemade toddler toy to help his learning. It was 100% free. He played with it for ages. And when he grows bored of it, I can throw it in the recycling!
Make Your Own Colour Matching Game For Toddlers
My toddler loved his colour matching game so much, I wanted to share with you how I made it. It’s a great interactive toy that doesn’t need batteries. Pop it in your bag or use it in the car for a quick, no prep activity. Or add it to a busy bag as a quiet time game.
What You Will Need to Make a Colour Matching Game For Toddlers
You don’t need too many supplies to make the game. Here’s what I used:
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Cardboard
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The base and bottle top lid from a cardboard milk carton
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Paint
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Scissors
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Glue gun
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Pen
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Paper or card
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PVA glue
How to Make the Colour Matching Game For Toddlers
Follow the steps below to make your own colour matching game for toddlers.
1. Start by preparing the bottle lids
Open up the milk carton and cut around the base of the lid. Remove the excess cardboard so that you’re left with the plastic base and the bottle top. Repeat this step until you have all the bottle tops you need. I used 5.
Note: Remember to wash them out thoroughly before using.
2. Cut your cardboard to size
Next, grab your cardboard and cut it to the size you want. Resting your bottle lids on top of the cardboard will help you work out the size you need.
I cut out a rectangle shape. But it’d also be fun to use a more circular or hexagonal shape. The choice is yours!
3. Cut out the holes for the bottle lids
Now place your bottle tops back on your cardboard. Turn them upside down and draw around the smallest part of the lid. Poke your scissors through and cut out the circles.
4. Glue down the lids
You will need to use your glue gun to secure the lids into place. First, remove the bottle tops (put them to one side) so you’re left with the base. Then glue around the base. Next, push the whole lid through your cardboard shape so that it sits firmly in place.
Tip – Make sure the glue doesn’t touch the part you screw the lid onto.
At this point, the lid and the part you screw onto it should be poking out of the front of the cardboard. If you turn it over, you should see the base of the lid on the other side.
5. Place paper or card underneath the cardboard
Use the holes to draw different coloured circles onto the paper. Then remove the paper and colour the circles in. When you’ve finished this, put it to one side.
Tip: Don’t worry about making the circles perfect when you colour them in. Just make sure you colour the circles nice and big.
5. Glue down the paper and trim
Next, glue the edges of the paper and secure it to the back of the cardboard. Trim around the edges so that it’s the same size as the cardboard shape.
7. Paint the Lids
Finally, get your bottle lids and paint them in different colours. Leave them to dry. To finish, coat with PVA glue. This will stop the paint from coming off easily when your toddler’s playing with them.
I tried this, using Sharpies but it came off straight away. Spray paint may work better but I had to use what I had at home!
8. Screw the lids on and play!
As soon as the lids are dry, screw them onto the game and start playing!
Colour Recognition Activities, Including Sorting and Matching
Here are a few ways you can use the colour matching game with your toddler at home.
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Have your toddler unscrew the lids to reveal the colour hidden underneath
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Use pom-poms for a sorting activity. Get your toddler to put the correct colours into the holes
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Take off all the lids. Ask your toddler to screw them onto the correct colours. Make this more fun by hiding them around the room so they have to find them first! This is a good colour recognition activity that will help you determine what colours they know.
Skills and Learning From Using the Colour Matching Game For Toddlers
Here are just a few of the ways your toddler will learn from these colour recognition activities.
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Fine motor skills – unscrewing the lids, placing them back on
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Identifying colours
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Problem-solving
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Learning through trial and error
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Concentration
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Listening to and understanding instructions – Eg, Find the red lid
So there’s one of our homemade toddler toys you can make to help your toddler’s learning.
We’d love to hear your ideas of other things to make out of cardboard boxes for kids. Let us know in the comments section below.
Looking for more ways to teach your toddler their colours?
Check out our other blog posts:
Or take a look at our Pinterest board.
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