Sometimes, I have zero time to set up an activity for my toddler. I just need fifteen minutes to get something done, and I don’t have even one minute to pull an activity together.
Color mixing is one of those awesome go-to activities that
- is practically zero set-up,
- helps kids learn,
- keeps kids busy,
- is NOT expensive or complicated.
As an added bonus, Elena just loves any kind of water play.
This morning, I needed a few minutes to make breakfast and needed a screen-free activity to keep Elena from talking about how hungry she was.
Color mixing is a really fun, really easy activity to set up and supervise from afar. Once you see how easy it is to do, you’ll be color mixing your way through breakfast/lunch/dinner without any whining or tears.
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Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
How to Set up a Color Mixing Station
The supplies needed for this activity are pretty simple:
- food coloring,
- water,
- dropper or pipettes
- little pans, bowls, or jars
To help with clean up, I set a tray down on the table to catch drips, and an old towel under the table to catch even more drips.
On top of the tray, I had three little plastic containers. The two smaller ones had water with a couple drops of food coloring, and the larger one in the middle was empty.
Sidenote: we tried this activity before where I set out all three primary colors, and Elena just kept mixing all three colors together each time. Go figure… So I learned from my mistake and only set out two colors at a time.
Lastly, I added this fancy dropper we bought recently and invited Elena to come play.
Exploring Color Mixing with My Toddler
Elena knew exactly what to do. She’s worked with pipettes before, though the dropper we used for this activity was a new one.
First she explored squeezing the dropper, and then worked on getting the liquid to go inside the dropper.
Next, she squeezed some of one color into the empty middle container, and mixed in some of the other color.
I asked her to tell what color she made.
“Orange!”
Once the colors were thoroughly mixed, we dumped the colored water out and started over with new colors.
What color does red and blue make?
Black!
😅
A little tip for you, don’t use too much blue food coloring when trying to make purple!
What We’re Learning
There was a lot going on in this simple activity. Obviously, Elena was learning about primary color mixing and secondary colors.
She was also conducting her own color experiment when she requested two colors to mix together.
“I want to mix green and red and see what that makes.”
FYI, it makes brown, and I’ve never seen anyone so excited about the color brown before.
Elena also learned how to squeeze a dropper and strengthened her fine motor muscles. She had to figure out how to coordinate her movements so that when she squeezed, the dropper end was in the liquid and could suck it up.
Your Turn to Explore Color Mixing with Your Toddler
My final big tip for this activity is to set out only as much water as you are willing to clean up. We used tiny little plastic containers and filled them only halfway full of water. I was expecting the water to spill everywhere. Surprisingly, Elena kept it pretty clean! But that was the first time that’s happened!
We loved using this fancy twisty dropper and watching the water zig-zag up the tube, but any pipette or even a medicine dropper will do. You can even use a different dropper for each color if you’d like.
Remember to let your toddler explore the colored water on his own. He will figure out what to do. Help him voice his observations and conduct his own color experiments.
And just in case you don’t remember what colors make other colors, here’s a little cheat sheet for you.
- red + blue = purple
- red + yellow = orange
- blue + yellow = green
- green + red = brown
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!