All throughout the school year, we will partner with The Early Childhood Education Team to bring you valuable playful learning activities based on a weekly theme. This week, you’ll find resources to help your children learn about COLORS. Whether you teach at home, in the classroom, or in a childcare setting, we know your kids will enjoy the Mouse Paint Colors Activities for Playful Learning!
LEARNING ABOUT COLORS in PRESCHOOL!
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Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh is our “go to” beginning of the year book about colors. I haven’t met a preschooler who doesn’t like this story. The antics of the white mice are funny as they play with colors. Read the book to your kids and explore colors with the playful learning suggestions below.
Preschool Science: Exploring Primary and Secondary Colors!
Background Information for Parents and Teachers: The 3 Primary colors are Blue, Red, and Yellow. Secondary colors are the 3 colors that are obtained when combining 2 Primary Colors – Red + Blue = Purple; Blue + Yellow = Green; Red + Yellow = Orange.
After reading the story, explore PRIMARY COLORS (red, blue, and yellow) with your students. Look around in the classroom, childcare, or home for primary colored items. As the children gain confidence, they will begin locating objects daily! It’s amazing to watch young kids learn and begin to apply that knowledge to their everyday world.
Mixing Secondary Colors Activity
Materials needed:
- Eyedroppers
- 6 Small Glass or Plastic Bottles
- Water
- Red, Blue, and Yellow Food Colors or Gels
- Large Tray or Table Area
- Smock to Protect Clothing
Mix the red, blue, and yellow food coloring with water in 3 separate containers (one for each color). Invite the kids to use eyedroppers to transfer 2 water colors to separate bottles to create the secondary colors of orange, purple, and green.
Painting Secondary Colors Activity
Materials needed:
- Blue, Red, and Yellow Tempera Paint
- Paper Plates, Paint Cups, or Artist’s Cups
- Smocks to Protect Clothing
- Paintbrushes – this is a bulk pack as you’ll need many
- Large Tray or Table Area
- Sponge for Clean-Up
Place a small amount of the 3 primary paint colors into 3 separate cups or on a paper plate. Invite the children to mix two primary colors of paint to create each of the secondary colors. If using a tray to paint on, have the kids clean the tray with a small sponge when finished mixing colors. We keep a large bin of water and a drying cloths near the color mixing center for kids to rinse their sponges and dry their trays before proceeding to mix a different color. NOTE: this painting activity requires a lot of paintbrushes, but inexpensive brushes can be found in bulk online (see the link above) or at many dollar stores.
Our colors classroom center initially consists of the water color mixing trays, color mixing paint trays, and the colors/color words matching games below. We’ll vary the center (shelf) activities throughout the year, but it is one of the most popular areas with our kids!
Colors, Color Mixing, and Colors/Color Words Matching Games for Preschool and Kindergarten! – Printable Colors and Color Words for Playful Learning Games in Preschool and Kindergarten!
The printable file (linked above) can used for various color learning games in Preschool and Kindergarten. Below are a few suggestions:
- Print the file, laminate for durability, and cut out the individual color circles and color word cards. Invite the children to match the color to the color word and clip the two together on the edge of a plate with a clothespin.
- Print several copies of the file, laminate for durability, cut out, and invite the kids to match two of the primary colored cards (or word cards) to the created secondary color cards (or word cards).
- For an additional FREE color words game for kids to play as they gain confidence (color words are white), see here.
CLASS BOOK of COLOR EXPLORATIONS – print the free mouse template and have the kids choose one primary or secondary color to paint their mouse. After the paintings are dry, ask the children to verbally share whether they chose a primary or secondary color for their mouse. Compile all the mouse paintings into a class book for reviewing colors throughout the year!
For MORE ways to explore COLORS in Early Childhood, please visit the playful learning suggestions below!
Rhyming Activity: Crayon Color Chant by Growing Book by Book
Roll a Color Alphabet Game by Mom Inspired Life
Color Counting Book by Tiny Tots Adventures
“I See a Rainbow” Book-Making by Fun-A-Day
Color Insect DIY Book for Writing Practice by The Educators’ Spin On It
Free Color Sorting Mats with Spinners by Life Over C’s
Colors Snap Cube Pattern Matching by Learning 2 Walk
What Color Am I? Kindergarten Guessing Game by Capri + 3
Shades and Tints by Rainy Day Mum
Color Surprise Game by Still Playing School
Fine Motor Color Sorting Activity by Munchkins and Moms
We love this book! What creative hands on activities!
We just did a color mixing activity based on this book as well! You listed so many great ways to expand on the book, than you for the ideas!
Excellent activities for a color theme!
I love these great extension activities for Mouse Paint. What a great hands on approach to bringing the material to life!
Such a fun activity! We love “Mouse Paint”!
Oh we love the book Mouse Paint. Mix It Up! is another good one. I think we’ll use some of these ideas for our story time session coming up next week.
We love this book and the activities are great to go with it. I look forward to using the word activity with T.
Love the color exploring activities that go along with the book. We will have to check the book out and give this a try
This book is a favorite over here! Love the color experimentation!!