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.
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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I originally made the color wheel activity printable way back in 2010.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 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.
More Color-themed Fun:
Looking for some more color-themed fun? Check out some of the other color-themed activities here on the blog:
- Candy Color Wheel Experiment
- Colored Rice Tutorial
- Nature Hunt by Color
- Mouse Paint Color Craft
- 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.
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.
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!
Mama Jenn
Hi Mitchie! Thanks for letting me know. The problem should be all fixed now.
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!
Mama Jenn
Hi Maria, I just fixed the download link. Please let me know if you continue to have trouble.
Mama Jenn
Rachel, have you been able to download the files?
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!
Mama Jenn
You are very welcome Rachel!
Mama Jenn
You are so welcome! Let me know how it goes with your class!
E.Chandler
Thank you so much for this! It’s exactly what I needed and I’m very excited to use it with me class.
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.
Mama Jenn
Thank you so much for your kind words Georgia!
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!
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!
Andrea
So very cool, my kids love art and messes! They’re going to love this.
Jim@ kids bean bag
Love the project and this is fun to make. Thanks for links above.
The Education Of Ours
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
Lori
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/
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!
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.
Taylor's Mark Academy
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!
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!!! 🙂
Sippy Cup Central Mom
This is a really nice idea, thanks, Karen
Sippy Cup Central Mom
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!
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!
Preschool Mom
That is too cool!
Confessions Of A Homeschooler
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!
Melissa: Mother to 3 Little Sprouts
I have an award for you! Come on over!
Elise
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.
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!!!
Phyllis
I really like this activity. Thanks for sharing your template.
Love your blog.
-Phyllis
Ticia
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.
Sherri
I like this idea!
Mars
Lovely! Can I try this in my class? 🙂