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
More Books About Colors
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?
This is a great activity by itself to teach color mixing, but I especially love that you did it along with this book. Now I want to go buy this book and do this activity with my kids ASAP. 🙂
Thanks! Definitely check it out~ fun little book! 🙂
Perfect way to understand colours
I think my kids never tire of wanting to mix colors!
We just checked this book out from the library. I’m excited to read it to my son along with the play dough. 🙂 What a great idea.
Thank you for sharing this!
This is really great! Thanks for sharing at DelicateConstructions, I will have one more activity for my daughter’s birthday party! 🙂
Gosia @www.kiddiefoodies.com
This is such a wonderful book and I like your activity. Thanks for sharing at The Children’s Bookshelf.
We had a Waldorf painting book for educators that talked about activities like this.
This is a great activity! Thanks for sharing. Would love it if you linked up on our Toddler and Preschool link up. http://teachingmama.org/clothespin-dinosaurs/
This is wonderful! I love this author! Thanks for linking to Share It Saturday, I am featuring your post tomorrow!
Thank you so much for the feature, Karyn! Always love seeing the neat stuff on Share It Saturday!
What a fun activity. I must get this book.
Thanks for linking to the Sunday Showcase. I’ve pinned it to our board.
We absolutely adore Little Blue and Little Yellow. So many directions to go with this book! We read when studying the color wheel and had fun mixing our own colors!
What a great idea! I’ll be doing this with my preschoolers next week when we learn about colors! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thank you for this! I have ordered the book and will be using the lesson in my pre-school class (in South Africa). Much appreciated!