Paint Mix Matching (Science)
Preschool to Kindergarten
Get an assortment of paint swatches from your local paint retailer. Set them out at your art table, and cut pieces of white paper into small squares. Put out some different colored liquid tempera school paint, and give the  kids fine tip brushes and paint mixing trays. Have them mix colors in the paint tray, and paint it onto the white squares to make their own paint swatches. Challenge them to match the color as best they can to the paint swatch from the store.

Color Swatch Sequencing (Cognitive)
Preschool to Kindergarten
Go to your local paint retailer and get a variety of paint swatch strips. Cut each color square apart, and set them out at your table. Have the kids try to assemble the colors again, arranging the shades in sequential order, from one shade of that color to the other.

Making Crayons (Parent Preferred)
Preschool to Kindergarten
Collect all those old crayons you have lying around. Peel the wrappers off and set them in a tub at your table, along with pieces of aluminium foil, butter knives, and a cutting board. Have kids use the butter knives to chop the crayons into small pieces. Use a marker cap as a mold to shape the aluminium foil pieces into cylinder shapes for crayons. Have the kids create new color combinations by mixing different crayon pieces and adding them to the aluminium molds. Set the molds on a baking tray, and bake them on high heat until the crayon pieces melt together. Let them cool and harden, an set the new crayons out for the kids to use.

Colored Bead Sequencing (Parent Preferred)
Preschool to Grade 2
Get an assortment of colored beads, and string up 5 or 6 different color patterns with them. For example, make one purple, blue, red, green, purple, blue, red, green, another pink, yellow, pink, yellow, etc. Give the kids string, and have them create necklaces or bracelets following one of the color patterns you set for them as an example.

Color Creations (Science, Parent Preferred)
Set out 4 bowls of water at your table, and add a different color of food coloring to each one. Provide the kids with eyedroppers, along with medicine cups or another small, clear container. Have them mix colors in their clear container using the eyedroppers to see what new colors they can create.

Drop Cloths (Art)
Preschool to Kindergarten
Provide each child with a piece of white fabric or felt  paper. Mix up different colors of food coloring with water, and set them out in bowls at your table along with eyedroppers. Have the kids drip colored water onto their cloth using the eyedroppers. See what new colors can be made by putting a drop of one color over another.

Color Sorting (Group Time)
Toddlers
Gather 7 or 8 small boxed or plastic bags, and affix a white label to each one that lists the name of a color and a big swatch of that color.  Next, look through magazines and cut out an assortment of pictures of different things in different colors: a red barn, a yellow duck, a white house, etc.  If possible, laminate these pictures so that they will last several group times.

Gather the kids, and start out each group time by showing them each bag and saying its color.  Then set the bags down on a table or floor near you.  Next, pick a picture from your stack, hold it up, and pick a child from the group to come up. Have them say the color of the picture and drop it into the appropriate color box, giving a clap when they select correctly.  Swap out pictures every so often, and this will become a fun group time activity for the kids that you can use all year to teach toddlers their colors.

Resources to teach kids about color