To establish color recognition in your preschooler , always begin from the basics - primary colors - and work your up.  The trick is to move up one step at a time, rather than having her understand and recognize many different colors in a single session.

If your preschooler is familiar with the three primary colors, use this activity to establish these colors before moving on to the other colors.  Cut out pairs of colored paper in red, blue and yellow, and ask her to match these.  Ask her to name each color.

If she can do this easily, introduce her to secondary colors with these color recognition activities for preschoolers.  Next, cut up pairs of colored paper again, but this time include green, purple, orange, pink, black, white, brown and gray, besides the primary colors.  Ask her to match the pairs.  Tell her the names of each color.

Once all these colors have been firmly established, and she can name colors without much prompting, place all the colored papers in random order, and tell her to arrange from the lightest to the darkest shade.  An older preschooler might find this last activity easier to do than a three year old.

Tip: Introduce color recognition activities into every day life - while in the kitchen, during dinnertime, at the supermarket, at the traffic signal, while dressing up etc, during story time etc.

Have fun!