Mix It Up: Mixing Colors Preschool Activity

color mixing activity

No books captivate my preschooler more than Herve Tullet’s interactive picture books. His stories demand active reader participation on every page, while teaching and exploring fun concepts. Mix It Up is no different, exploring the magic of color mixing. And this fun mixing colors preschool activity is a great way for your preschoolers to explore color mixing.

Color Mixing with Mix It Up PIN

Mixing Colors Preschool Activity with Mix It Up

In Mix It Up, Herve Tullet uses his interactive picture books to teach preschoolers about the magic of primary colors and color mixing. As the pages turn, or as he directs you to mash pages together, children can pretend to mix primary colors, yellow and blue, to make secondary colors, green.

He then goes one step further, introducing white and black. Children learn to add white and black to colors to create lighter tints or darker shades.

color mixing for preschool

Mix Up Your Own Colors

After reading Mix It Up, your kids will absolutely want to do some color mixing themselves. Using colored ice, water, and baby food jars, you can do just that!

Color Mixing Supplies

  • Water – you will use this to make the different colors to place in the ice cube trays
  • Ice cube trays – use these to make colored ice cubes in the primary colors, plus black and white
  • Food coloring – tint the water in the ice cube trays
  • Black and white paint – use this paint so your preschoolers can experiment with making colors different shades and tints
  • 4-5 small jars – You will use these by having your students add the ice cubes to the jars to begin experimenting with color mixing.
  • Bowl of water – pour warm water over the cubes to help the color mixing process along.
  • Tongs (optional) – To keep the little one’s fingers clean, you can transfer the colored ice cubes using the tons. But this optional.
  • Turkey baster (optional) – To add the water to the jars, you can use a turkey baster to make this process easy.

Mix It Up book for color activity

Preparing For The Color Mixing Preschool Activity

  • To prepare for this activity, you will need to make colored ice cubes in each of the primary colors, plus black and white.
  • Fill an ice cube tray with water and add a few drops of food coloring to each space.
  • Use more drops of yellow than of darker colors, like red and blue, for best results.
  • For the black and white ice, add a few drops of black or white paint and mix well with the water in the ice cube holder. Freeze overnight.

Fine Motor Challenge

Once the ice is frozen, remove cubes to bowls, sorting by color: red, yellow, blue, black, and white. Set the bowls of ice on the table, along with a large bowl or cup of warm water. Give each child a small jar, and let them add two pieces of colored ice to their jars.

For an added fine motor challenge (and to save your fingers from turning all different colors), you can transfer the ice cubes with tongs.

tongs moving colored ice to jars

Next, use a turkey baster or pour water over the ice cubes to fill the jar. Now for the fun part. Close the jar tightly and Mix It Up! Shake the jar vigorously, until the ice melts and a new color is formed.

color mixing ice activity with red water

Make Color Mixing Observations

Your preschoolers will be fascinated by creating their own new colors. Encourage them to make observations about what they see. What happens when you combine two colors? What happens when you add white? Or black?

three jars of colored water for color mixing activity

And of course, when you are done, they will want to play and make potions with it all. A messy table is a sure sign of a successful hands-on learning activity!

bowls of different colored water

BIO: Meghan is a former hedge fund professional turned SAHM to Big M (4), Lil’ M (2), and Baby M (8 months). She writes at Playground Parkbench, where she shares kids activities, parenting tips, and financial savvy for families. When she’s not busy changing diapers or scrubbing glue off the craft table, you can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!

More Activities for Colors
Monsters Love Colors: Watercolor Resist
Dog’s Colorful Day: Color Matching
Colored Corn Mosaic Art
Transportation Color Sorting and Mixing

Colors Pinterest Board
Follow my Colors Pinterest Board for more great ideas!

1 thought on “Mix It Up: Mixing Colors Preschool Activity”

  1. Pingback: The Mixed-Up Chameleon Paint Mixing Activity - Munchkins and Moms

Comments are closed.