How to Teach a Child About Mixing Colors
Teaching your child about the various colors of the rainbow is not just about introducing him to the art world; it also helps him label the world around him. Instead of just explaining about the primary and secondary colors, make this a multisensory experience for your kiddo. Color-mixing lessons can be wonderfully entertaining, educational time-fillers.
Things You'll Need
- Non-toxic acrylic paint
- Paper plate
- Pencil
- Paintbrush, if desired
- Mixing bowl
- Mixing spoon
- 1 1/2 cups salt
- 3 cups flour
- 3 cups water
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 packets unsweetened powdered juice mix; red, yellow and blue
- Food coloring
- Water
- 3 glasses
- Spoon
Instructions
Make this a painting lesson. Draw lines onto a paper plate to divide it into six equally sized pie pieces. Place a drop of red non-toxic acrylic paint onto one pie piece. Skip a section and squeeze a drop of yellow onto the next section. Skip another slice and drop a bit of blue paint onto the next blank section. Allow your child to use a paintbrush or his finger to mix the red and yellow in the blank section between those two colors to make orange. Do the same for red and blue to make purple and the yellow and blue to make green. Whip up a batch of homemade play dough by combining 1 1/2 cups salt, 3 cups flour, 3 cups water and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large bowl. Incorporate the ingredients to form a soft dough. Divide the dough into three equal sections. Grab three packets of unsweetened powdered juice mix that are red, yellow and blue. Let your child work each powder packet into its own clump of dough. After the powder has colored the dough, ask your child to break off little sections of the dough and mix the different colors. Have her observe the different color combinations. Create a color-mixing guessing game. Set out three clear glasses of water and grab your food coloring. Drop a few drops of red dye into one glass. Ask your child to mix it gently with a spoon. Do the same for the yellow coloring and the blue. Have him predict what color will result if you add blue to red, red to yellow and yellow to blue. Once you have orange, purple and green, take it a step further and predict what will happen when you mix these colors with each other.