By Alexis Teasdale of The Festive Co.

Kids love colour. Colour fuels their imagination and creativity and it provides the perfect theme for a day of activities that stimulate their senses and works fine motor skills helping with coordination and dexterity. For those days when the toys have lost their shine, you can't possibly draw another truck and are on the verge of giving in and letting them give you a makeover. Here are five of my favourite ideas for playing with colour.

Toy Scavenger Hunt

If your little ones have lots of colourful toys in their room, encourage them to go through their boxes and shelves and find different colours from a checklist and sort them into piles of colours. This works particularly well with small shapes like little cars and animals. Once they have made piles of each colour, it is time to turn it into a rainbow!

Book Colour Coding

Children’s picture books are a treasure trove of colour, stimulating shapes and designs. Whether your shelves are front-facing with the covers showing, or stack side-by-side, kids will be able to colour code their shelves with ease. The satisfaction of the end product is so good, but we can’t guarantee it will last long!

Nature Walk

Even during the cooler months, you’ll be amazed by the kaleidoscope of colour outside, once you look for it. Go on an adventure walk with your tiny humans and look for as many different colours as you can find! Once home, challenge your kids to tape them all down onto a sheet. Then, over the following days, they can check on it to see how the colours change as the flowers and leaves try out.

Find Colours in Bubbles

The most magical rainbows can be found on the iridescent surface of a glorious bubble. Try creating your own at home using dishwashing liquid and warm water. If you’re up for it, apparently corn syrup or gelatin gives bubbles extra staying power! Then try fashioning a ‘wand’ out of a plastic cup with a hole in the bottom, or even a rope tied into a circle, with two sticks attached for you to hold and swing it around.

Rip and stick

A simple but satisfying task, give kids sheets of coloured paper (or they can paint them first!) and get them on to ripping them into small pieces. Once they’ve finished, they can sort the pieces into groups and then get onto gluing them onto a sheet of cardboard, in a big, colourful rainbow. Go big and turn it into a wall hanging!

For more of Alexis' free downloadable activity sheets, head to The Festive Co.

And download her Rainbow Challenge here.