Introducing Color Mixing

Posted by Meg | 0 comments

Even toddlers and young preschoolers can begin to learn color relationships, color theory, hues, and color mixing.

Here are some fun and creative ways we’ve learned about colors in our house!

Color mixing using water

Line up several clear glasses of water, each tinted with a primary color using food coloring drops. Also provide several empty clear glasses to be the “test tubes” (color mixing stations). Provide spoons, whisks, and pipettes (or basters) and let your child mix the primary colors together in the empty glasses to see what develops! (Bonus: This activity is visually stunning if done outside in the sunlight or inside in front of a sunny window.)

Color wheel coloring

There are several places to print out blank (or simply labeled) color wheels.  Let your child color them with crayons or watercolor paints. For younger children, they can color with the exact colors for each space (for example, a red-orange crayon in the red-orange segment). For older preschoolers, they can try to mix the colors together on top of one another, watching how the colors truly blend to make new colors. (This requires dexterity and bearing down hard on the paper.)

Color mixing using cellophane

Our photographer friend gave us some lighting gels of various colors, but regular colored cellophane will work. Give your child an assortment of colors and let him or her place one on top of the other and hold them up to a lamp or a window to see what happens. Another terrific product that takes this idea a step further is Learning Resources’ Color Mixing Glasses. These are super fun!

Color mixing using play dough

This was by far our favorite activity. It results in tangible, visible results but requires time and patience. Assist your child in mixing the correct colors, or simply let him/her forecast their predictions (with or without a chart) and then mix to find the outcome. Be sure to start out with enough primary colors so that there’s enough to create all of the color combinations. Once the secondary and tertiary colors are created, let your child mix them all together to find out what happens!

Meg Wilson is a devoted wife to her husband, Ken, of 10 years, and mom and homeschooling teacher to her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. When she’s not writing or creating something, Meg loves to cook for, host and entertain friends and family. She also enjoys reading, the outdoors, eclectic music, yoga, and studying history. You can read all about her adventures (and misadventures) at her blog, Muses of Megret and read her product reviews at Muse Reviews.