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You are here: Home » Blog Posts » Printables » Educational Printables » Art Printables » FREE Printable Color Wheel Activity (fun & easy color mixing)

FREE Printable Color Wheel Activity (fun & easy color mixing)

By Jenn (aka Mama Jenn) • Last Updated: July 11, 2024
Note: This page may contain affiliate and/or advertiser links. Please review my disclosure policy.
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Mix primary colors to make secondary and tertiary colors with this fun and easy color wheel activity – FREE printable included!

What child doesn’t enjoy the “magic” of color mixing? This activity was a huge hit with my kiddos and they loved “magically” making their color wheels! This is a super fun, easy-to-set-up activity for children learning about colors. This hands-on lesson allows children to explore primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Great for a color-themed art project or science lesson.

Color Wheel Mixing Activity FREE Printable

This page may contain affiliate and/or advertiser links. Please review my disclosure policy.

Do you want to make some color magic with your kids? Here’s what you need for this color wheel activity.

Color Wheel Supplies:

  • food coloring (red, yellow, and blue)
  • paper towels
  • eyedroppers (this color eyedropper kit would be great for younger kids)
  • a cup/glass for water (we used a Mason jar)
  • 3 containers/cups for food coloring (we used recycled baby food containers)
  • toothpicks
  • laminator (with laminating sheets) OR page protectors
  • free color wheel printable (scroll for download instructions)

About the Color Wheel Printable:

I originally made the color wheel activity printable way back in 2010. However, I’ve since updated and enhanced the file. I’ve included both the original and the new versions of the secondary and tertiary color wheels. Download instructions are further below – near the bottom of the post.

Color Wheel Printable Activity

Color Wheel Activity Instructions:

First, prepare the supplies:

  • Laminate the color wheel printable or slide it into a page protector.
  • Dilute the food coloring a bit.
  • Lay out the supplies as shown below.

Next, provide the following instructions to the child:

1. Drop food coloring on the page.

Use the eyedropper to place a drop of each color onto the matching dot on the paper. For example – one drop of yellow food coloring on each yellow dot; one drop of blue food coloring on each blue dot on paper… and so forth until all the dots are covered with the appropriate color.

Helpful Hint: Be sure to clean the eyedropper in the cup of water each time you switch colors. Or use a separate eyedropper for each color. Make it easy with this jumbo eyedropper kit for little ones.

2. Mix the drops of food coloring.

Use the toothpick to mix the colors in each circle. Use a new toothpick for each circle.

Helpful Hint: We found it’s best to angle the toothpick a bit (as shown in the photo below). And, be sure to use a new toothpick for each circle.

3. Lay the paper towel over the food coloring.

Once all the circles of color are mixed together so that there are six little blobs of color (one in each circle), place a paper towel over the paper. It’s time for the color-mixing magic!!

4. Lift & discuss.

Lift the paper towel off the printable and voilà! Observe the color wheel and discuss how each color was made!

5. Read about it!

Check out some of the books below for supplemental reading about colors, color mixing, and the color wheel.

The Color Wheel Kids
The Color Wheel Kids
Kids Color Theory: Contemparay color mixing guide with pigmented colorants for children.
Kids Color Theory
Colors
Colors
The Wonders of the Color Wheel (My Little School House)
The Wonders of the Color Wheel
Color Blocked
Color Blocked
Play with Paint!
Play with Paint!
Mouse Paint
Mouse Paint
Splatter
Splatter
Mix It Up! (Herve Tullet)
Mix It Up!
Little Blue and Little Yellow
Little Blue and Little Yellow
Roald Dahl Colors
Colors
The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Rainbow Colors
The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Rainbow Colors
FREE Printable Color Wheel Mixing Activity

More Color-themed Fun:

Looking for some more color-themed fun? Check out some of the other color-themed activities here on the blog:

  1. Candy Color Wheel Experiment
  2. Colored Rice Tutorial
  3. Nature Hunt by Color
  4. Mouse Paint Color Craft
  5. Kool-Aid Color Play Dough Recipe



Download Instructions:

Ready to download the FREE Color Wheel printables? Click the button below to go to the special download page containing the pdf file.

Click here to get the printable!



I got the idea for this color wheel color-mixing activity from the Itty Bitty Love blog.

This post was originally published on January 23, 2010.

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Category: *Subscriber Freebies, 3rd - 5th Grade Activities, Art Activities, Art Printables, Educational Printables, Letter "C" Activities, Pre/K - 2nd Grade, Printables, Science Activities, Science Printables
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Comments

  1. Mitchie

    February 25, 2023 at 7:15 am

    Hi, I’m trying to download the color wheel with the username and password sent to me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. Can you, please kindly assist me with this?
    I appreciate it so much.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Mama Jenn

      February 26, 2023 at 3:25 am

      Hi Mitchie! Thanks for letting me know. The problem should be all fixed now.

      Reply
  2. Maria

    February 25, 2023 at 7:14 am

    Hi, I’m trying to download the color wheel with the username and password sent to me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. Can you, please kindly assist me with this?
    I appreciate it so much.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Mama Jenn

      February 26, 2023 at 3:25 am

      Hi Maria, I just fixed the download link. Please let me know if you continue to have trouble.

      Reply
  3. Mama Jenn

    October 26, 2014 at 4:51 pm

    Rachel, have you been able to download the files?

    Reply
  4. Rachel Califf

    October 21, 2014 at 12:21 am

    Thanks! I was able to download these and am so excited to do this activity with my Littles! I appreciate your sharing the activity with us!

    Reply
    • Mama Jenn

      October 26, 2014 at 4:50 pm

      You are very welcome Rachel!

      Reply
  5. Mama Jenn

    October 14, 2012 at 4:03 am

    You are so welcome! Let me know how it goes with your class!

    Reply
  6. E.Chandler

    September 30, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Thank you so much for this! It’s exactly what I needed and I’m very excited to use it with me class.

    Reply
  7. Umamah Learning Academy

    September 10, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    THANK YOU SOO MUCH for this wonderful post and the printables. Color wheel have always been cool but this beat sit all. I did this activity with your printable sand my kids just can’t have enough of it…. we’ve done it several times already for each of my lil ones 🙂 Not only that we just got MORE food coloring as they want to do it again. THANK YOU once again. I have posted it on my blog…. we did do it slightly differently as my kids wanted BRIGHT colors 🙂 You might enjoy this twist too…..
    http://umamahlearningacademy.blogspot.ca/2012/09/color-wheel-activity-part-1.html

    I found more tertiary color mixing printables like yours on another blog and will be posting about in our color wheel activity 2.

    Reply
  8. Mama Jenn

    August 1, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    Thank you so much for your kind words Georgia!

    Reply
  9. Georgia Hamilton (California)

    July 29, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    I stumbled upon your blog and am in awe of all that your have created here! Thank you for sharing and good luck to you and your beautiful family!

    Reply
  10. Cates04

    September 19, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    This is a great idea! Seems like it would really help them “get it”, more than just discussing, or using crayons or markers. Thanks for all your great resources!

    Reply
  11. Andrea

    April 15, 2011 at 12:53 am

    So very cool, my kids love art and messes! They’re going to love this.

    Reply
  12. Jim@ kids bean bag

    April 13, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    Love the project and this is fun to make. Thanks for links above.

    Reply
  13. The Education Of Ours

    December 5, 2010 at 1:26 am

    Thank you so much! It was a huge hit 🙂

    Here’s the link, where I mentioned your site:

    http://educationofours.blogspot.com/2010/12/fantastic-friday.html

    Reply
  14. Lori

    November 18, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    I absolutely LOVE this idea. Both of my boys (1 and 4) loved it too. I blogged about it here:

    http://mymontessorimoments.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/miy-color-wheel/

    Reply
  15. Heidi

    August 11, 2010 at 7:23 pm

    I did this yesterday with my 8 and 5 year old sons. They loved it! I didn’t have any way to laminate the color wheel page so I slipped them into a sheet protector. After doing the activity a few times they turned the sheet protector over to reveal the blank side of the paper. They they created their own colors and gave them names like sunset yellow or very berry blue. So fun! Thanks!

    Reply
  16. Debi Gull

    May 4, 2010 at 1:37 am

    The children in my preschool class love this work and for some the challenge of getting just one drop on each spot is perfect. Thanks so much. your newest fan.

    Reply
  17. Taylor's Mark Academy

    March 14, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    Thanks for sharing the original color wheel with us! I re-created the rest of the Color Wheels to use based on the original activities over at Itty Bitty Love. If any of you would like to download them, visit the Taylor’s Mark blog. Thanks for the great activity idea!

    Reply
  18. K-tribe

    March 13, 2010 at 1:56 am

    Thank you for this. Yes, I too love my Scotch Laminator. The Scotch brand also seems to be the best price for hot pockets as well! Staples was double the price and was not as thick… Have fun laminating!!! 🙂

    Reply
  19. Sippy Cup Central Mom

    March 10, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    This is a really nice idea, thanks, Karen
    Sippy Cup Central Mom

    Reply
  20. Julie

    February 17, 2010 at 11:15 pm

    TY for sharing! My son will love this! We already covered the color wheel but I think he could use a refresher on making secondary colors. This will be so much fun!

    Reply
  21. Julie

    February 17, 2010 at 11:15 pm

    TY for sharing! My son will love this! We already covered the color wheel but I think he could use a refresher on making secondary colors. This will be so much fun!

    Reply
  22. Preschool Mom

    January 29, 2010 at 3:33 am

    That is too cool!

    Reply
  23. Confessions Of A Homeschooler

    January 27, 2010 at 4:17 am

    I saw this on itty bitty love too and thought, too bad she didn’t have the colorwheel printout! LOL! But you do, so awesome to share, I’m all over this one, thanks!

    Reply
  24. Melissa: Mother to 3 Little Sprouts

    January 25, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    I have an award for you! Come on over!

    Reply
  25. Elise

    January 25, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    What a wonderful resource. My little girl will get such a thrill out of doing this. Thank you so much for creating this and sharing it.

    Reply
  26. Rusheika

    January 25, 2010 at 2:27 am

    thanks for posting this.. I had the color wheel in my lesson plan for last week and we never got to it… this activity is much better than the one I had planned to do!!!

    Reply
  27. Phyllis

    January 24, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    I really like this activity. Thanks for sharing your template.
    Love your blog.
    -Phyllis

    Reply
  28. Ticia

    January 24, 2010 at 4:57 am

    I so missed at first that you had laminated the sheet before doing this, and I was wondering how you were mixing this all together.

    Reply
  29. Sherri

    January 23, 2010 at 3:13 pm

    I like this idea!

    Reply
  30. Mars

    January 23, 2010 at 10:18 am

    Lovely! Can I try this in my class? 🙂

    Reply

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Hi there! I'm Jennifer (aka Mama Jenn).

My goal is to help you homeschool with both ease and creativity by providing educational activities, crafty ideas, and homeschool resources along with loads of free printables that can be used by anyone with a heart to make learning fun and engaging! Read more here >>

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