Color Walk/Alphabet Walk Preschool Activity

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I just love to go on walks with little ones.  I love nature walks, neighborhood walks, park path walks,… you name it.  We can make that next stroll a walk preschool activity that incorporates learning in a way that doesn’t feel like learning.  When my children were little, we could walk and happily name the things we saw.  It was a great opportunity to teach children the names of things and animals around us.

It is also a great opportunity to teach or reinforce colors.  As my little ones began to approach kindergarten age, I would work really hard to incorporate those skills they needed for kindergarten into as many routine tasks as possible.  What color Popsicle do you want? How many pieces did mommy cut the sandwich into?

Beyond a doubt, the color walk was my favorite, though.

Challenge:

How many different colors can we find on our walk?  Can we find every color that we know?  What color did we see the most?

Turning it into an alphabet challenge

Remember the alphabet car game from your childhood days?  We can play the alphabet game on walks with our little ones, too.  It is helpful to have a plan for Q and X before you leave.  Maybe bring LO’s favorite quilt or toy x-ray.  Xylophone or queen?  Or just the letter Q and X from a magnet set or puzzle.

If your little one isn’t quite ready for that, you can still use the walk as an opportunity to talk about letters, letter sounds, and beginning sounds as you point out the things around you.  Squirrel starts with S because we can hear the S-sound sssss in the beginning.  The squirrel has an acorn.  Acorn begins with A.  The A at the beginning of acorn says its name, A.

Not just letters and colors

Let’s see if we can find a house with just one tree?  Two?  Three?

Let’s see if we can find any circles?  Squares?  Ovals?  Triangles?

There are so many ways to use a simple walk to introduce, teach, or reinforce skills with little ones.

I miss those days, but I do still take walks with my teenage boys.  We still talk a lot on those walks.  We talk about what we’re covering in school or church, what’s going on in their lives, and questions.  It still amazes me even after all these years just how much more open they become on a walk.  Things they would never say at home just comes flowing out when we start walking.

So many of the patterns we have in place now began when they were just little ones.  They have evolved, changed, and grown over time, but the pattern is still very much there.  If you are the parent of a little one, I recommend you think about the relationship you will want with your teenager.  Start early.  If you want your teenager to talk to you, begin by listening to your little one.  If you want your teenager to trust you, begin earning that trust with your little one.  Your future self will thank you.