Follow these steps to make your own 3-Part Montessori Color Nomenclature Cards for sensory learning at home. Your 3 year old will love them!

Total time: 1 hour

1. Print the Free Nomenclature Color Cards Printable

   

   Find the “Free 3-Part Color Nomenclature Cards” link at the top of this post and click the download button. Print the PDF in full color onto your white cardstock.

2. Cut the Cards From the Cardstock

   

   Using your paper cutter, cut the card from the cardstock along the edge. You will have three cards per color.

3. Glue Cards to Light Pink Cardstock

   

   In traditional Montessori classrooms, light pink is the color used to color code sensorial material. While many nomenclature cards are blank around the edges and on the back, I prefer to color code them to make them easier to organize. So, the printable I created has a pink border. All we have to do is adhere to the pink cardstock.

   Glue the cut-out cards to the pink construction paper. To make it easier during cutting, try to align the edge of the white cardstock cards to the edge of the pink cardstock.

4. Cut the Cards from the Pink Cardstock

   

   Using sharp scissors, cut the cards from the construction paper along the edge, making sure not to leave any extra border.

   If you’d like to use a paper cutter for this step, you certainly can. However, I’ve always thought it was a bit easier and faster to cut construction paper with sharp scissors instead.

5. Laminate Each Card

   

   Place each card that now has the pink backing in the lamination sheets. I prefer to use 5mm thickness for the lamination sheets to ensure a bit more durability. Send the lamination sheets through the laminator. Sometimes, you may need to send it through twice to make sure you have a good seal.

6. Cut Each Card from the Lamination Sheet

   

   Once the cards have been laminated, cut each card from the lamination sheet. To save a little time, I use sharp scissors for this part too.

7. Set Up Nomenclature Cards for Learning & Give Child Free Access to Use Them

   There are several different ways you can use your nomenclature cards for learning in your home-schooling classroom. Our go-to activity has always been matching and pairing the colors and labels.

   Make sure that your nomenclature cards are always available for the child to access and play with. In a typical Montessori classroom, where everything is neatly organized by subject, these cards would be placed next to the other sensory materials (colors = sensory). Since we home-school, this type of organization is not always economical or realistic given the space we have available, so I place the cards the kids are working on in a small basket on top of our shelving.

   Children who use these cards regularly will learn their colors quickly and will begin to recognize the name of the color, encouraging success in their language arts studies.