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

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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

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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I originally made the color wheel activity printable way back in 2010.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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Comments

  1. Mitchie

    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

  2. Maria

    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

  4. Rachel Califf

    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

  7. Umamah Learning Academy

    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

  9. Georgia Hamilton (California)

    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

    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

  15. Heidi

    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

    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

  18. K-tribe

    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

  20. Julie

    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

    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

  26. Rusheika

    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