These free color books are wonderful for helping toddlers learn their colors.
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I have an adorable little toddler who loves to look at books with real images. In fact, for her birthday I printed and assembled my letter books with photographs and put them in a little tin lunchbox. She often asks me to read the books from her “oot-case.”
For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to create more books with photographs. They’re quick, fun read alouds, and they’re perfect for little hands to flip through all on their own. Plus, they’re fantastic for building speech and vocabulary!
Yesterday I printed the books and sat down on the bottom step to read them with my Two.
Today we plopped on the couch and pulled out the stack again. This time, I asked her to point to things. “Where is the dog?”
These books are great for building vocabulary! She didn’t know what an owl was, but she will after hearing these a few times.
I started asking harder questions. “Which one do you put toast in?”
“Which of these can you eat?”
“Which one is a flower?”
“Which one lives in the water?”
My just-turned-Four was interested, too. He wanted to take a turn with the books. So I asked, “Which of these would you sit under for some shade?”
We also played a fun game where he chose which object on each two-page spread that he would like to have.
“Yuck!” My picky eater didn’t want either of these!
How to use these books
- Teach colors by reading them aloud to your toddler. Repeat the color word on each page. “Yellow cheese. Yellow pencil. Yellow chick.”
- Entertain your infant by snuggling and reading the books aloud. Babies love real photographs! And even though your baby doesn’t understand the words yet, he will some day!
- Let your preschooler read the books. Once you’ve read through the books a few times, your preschooler may recognize all the pictures and be able to name them without your help. He’ll love that he can “read” these little books all by himself!
- Use these with ESL students to teach English vocabulary.
- Print single sided and cut apart for flashcards. I’m not much of a flashcard fan, but if you’d really like to, you can print the pages single sided and cut them apart. Stack them as flashcards or punch a hole in the upper left corner and connect with a metal ring. Just don’t tell me about it. 😉
- Build thinking skills. As shown in the above examples, ask questions about the pictures. “Which one can you eat? Which one can you wear? Which one is alive?”
- Teach rhyming. When you have a page open, name a rhyming word for one of the pictures. “Which picture rhymes with bee?” (tree) You can use nonsense words too, especially for kids just getting started with rhyming. “Which picture rhymes with mabbage?” (cabbage)
We hope you enjoy these books as much as we do!
This is a big file! Be patient as it downloads. It contains books for the colors red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, pink, gray, black, white, gold, and silver.
How to assemble
- Print pages 3-50 on cardstock. Be sure to print front to back.
- Cut a horizontal line across the center of each page.
- Fit the pages together, making sure the cover is on the front. The other pages can go in any order you choose.
- Staple using a long-armed stapler (they’re cheap – and totally worth it!).
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© 2016 – 2018, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Galina says
March 9, 2016 at 7:36 pmAnna, thank you very much for your colour books. They are very helpful for learning colours.
Anna Geiger says
March 11, 2016 at 3:56 pmYou’re very welcome, Galina!
Holly B. says
March 9, 2016 at 10:36 pmAnother great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Anna Geiger says
March 11, 2016 at 3:56 pmYou’re very welcome Holly!
Melissa S. says
March 10, 2016 at 7:56 amCan’t open them. Error message about PDF doesn’t exist. Downloading using google chrome as I always have in the past from the page where it says download here!!!
Anna Geiger says
March 10, 2016 at 8:10 amDid you try right clicking and “save as” to your computer?
Sue says
March 10, 2016 at 8:14 pmI would love to download the 12 printable color books, but I don’t see any other options except “pdf” I have a mac, so I don’t have a “right click” to save it to my computer. Usually I can find the original blog to download, but I’m having trouble with this one:(
Where do I go to get to the original blog without the “pdf”?
Thank you for your help!
Anna Geiger says
March 10, 2016 at 8:16 pmHi Sue!
When it talks about the pdf in the troubleshooting page, that doesn’t apply to you because you’re on the blog post. It’s when people share the pdf link instead of the blog post link that they run into trouble.
So you’re in the right place, at the original blog post.
I am only familiar with PC’s. Why doesn’t right clicking on the image (“to get your free printable click HERE”) not work with a Mac?
Sue says
March 10, 2016 at 10:19 pmI downloaded Chrome. I then was able to download the books. This is the first time since I began downloading from your site that I needed to have Chrome.
I’m glad to have these books and the student I work with will definitely enjoy the pictures to go with the colors!
Thank you!!!
Anna Geiger says
March 11, 2016 at 3:56 pmI wish I knew why it works sometimes and not other times! Glad you were able to find a solution 🙂
Carmel says
March 14, 2016 at 9:41 pmHi Anna
First let me thank you for the lovely work you do. I teach Vietnamese kids from 2 to 5 in a Kindergarten with a very small budget, so your materials are priceless and highly valued.
I have printed all but 2 of the “colour” books and they are gorgeous. However there are some images missing.
Brown book, page 29 is missing the leaf image.
Yellow book, page 19 is missing the title image, and page 20 is missing the lemon image.
Please keep well and happy, and producing you valued work.
Carmel
Anna Geiger says
March 14, 2016 at 9:48 pmHi Carmel! When I click on the download link, all the images appear in the preview. Have you tried opening and printing with the free Adobe Reader? That often takes care of printing issues. You can get it here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/
Carmel says
May 18, 2016 at 10:29 amThanks so much, Anna. The pages are now glued to colored card and laminated, then bound into books which the children are loving.
Bee Positive says
April 5, 2016 at 7:58 pmWhat kind of printer do you use/have?
Anna Geiger says
April 5, 2016 at 8:02 pmIt’s listed at the top of this post: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/materials-list/
Mama Mermy says
April 20, 2016 at 12:40 pmWhat an AMAZING free resource! Thank you so much for these printables! Honestly, I can’t wait to start printing and sharing with my little toddler! I applaud you!
Anna Geiger says
May 2, 2016 at 4:31 amThank you so much! I hope your toddler enjoys these! My toddler was just enjoying them yesterday. 🙂
Maisa says
December 3, 2016 at 4:59 amWOW !!!! I LOVE IT ..THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Anna Geiger says
December 3, 2016 at 5:12 amI’m so glad you can use these, Maisa!