Playdough Color Mixing Activity Inspired by Little Blue and Little Yellow

Here’s a fun color mixing activity using playdough! The hands-on, sensory activity for kids is inspired by Leo Lionni’s popular children’s book, Little Blue and Little Yellow. The post also includes a free printable for teachers to send home to parents so their children can enjoy the activity at home. Such great way to encourage a school and home connection!

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Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni is such a wonderful story and really lends itself to so many extension activities! (Be sure to check out how we made Little Blue and Little Yellow cookies!) In this story two friends, Little Blue and Little Yellow, are so excited to see each other that they hug. They mix and turn green and run around playing and having fun. This causes a few problems once it’s time to go home.

Playdough Color Mixing Activity

One of my favorites things to do with the story  is something I did as a Kindergarten teacher- mixing blue and yellow playdough to make green! The kids always loved to explore the mixing of colors with this hands-on playdough activity.

After we explore the activity in the classroom, we would put together little baggies containing a little yellow and little blue ball of play dough for the students to take home. (Here’s a recipe for our favorite homemade playdough. It’s very soft~ perfect for mixing colors!)

We attached a note to each baggie  inviting the parents to ask their child to retell the story using the little balls of play dough.  The students were always so excited to do this and couldn’t wait to bring it home.

Wouldn’t this be a fun activity to pass out to your child’s class after being a guest reader in their classroom and sharing this book?

Here’s a free printable with directions to attach to each baggy.

Other Activities Based on Little Blue and Little Yellow

• Use tear art to create your own pictures similar to the ones in the book. Tell a story using the picture you made.
• Do our chromatography experiment showing which colors make up the color green.
• Talk or write about any connections you have to the story. Did it remind you of anything from your life or any other books you’ve read?