Here’s a fun cooking activity to do with kids based on the story, Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni. Explore color mixing while making these Little Blue and Little Yellow cookies that look just like the characters in the story!

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We’re back again this week with our newest post in the Preschool Book Club Series. This week’s book is Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni! After reading about our Little Blue and Little Yellow cookies, be sure to check out all the other creative activities to go with this book linked up at the end of this post!

Little Blue and Little Yellow Cookies

Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni has always been one of my favorite books to read to young children. Kids seem to relate so well to the simple events in the story and, of course, the story lends itself perfectly to lessons on mixing colors (like with our playdough mixing activity based on the story). We decided to incorporate mixing colors into a snack making activity!

You can pretty much use any recipe to make your cookies as long as it’s the type of cookie dough that you roll out and normally use cookie cutters with. We used the recipe below for our sugar cookies.

Ingredients for Rolled Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions for Rolled Sugar Cookie Dough

1. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a large bowl cream together the softened butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Cover and refrigerate the dough at least an hour. (We refrigerated ours overnight.)

Making the Little Blue and Little Yellow Cookies

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper and place them on the table where the kids will be working.

Take out a handful of dough and knead it a bit to soften it. Once it’s softened, roll it out onto a floured surface with a rolling pin. You’ll want to dough to be anywhere from 1/4-1/2 inch thick.

When we had previously read Little Blue and Little Yellow, we noticed how the all characters looked like torn paper. We tried to recreate that look with our dough. The kids and I imagined our dough was a sheet of paper and carefully ripped off our cookie pieces and placed them on the cookie sheet.

Once you’ve filled your baking sheets with the torn cookie dough, bake them anywhere from 4-7 minutes. Miss B’s cookies were so tiny that they were done right at four minutes.

Once the cookies are finished baking, remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack.

Color Mixing with Glaze

Once your cookies have completely cooled, you’re ready to add the colored glaze! (Making your own glaze does get a bit messy. If you’d prefer something less messy, you can always buy cans of white frosting already made and color that instead.)

You’ll need 3 small bowls for your glaze (one bowl for blue, one for yellow, and one to combine the two colors to create green.)

Place about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into two of the bowls. (You’ll leave the 3rd bowl empty.) Stir 1 tablespoon of milk into each bowl. Keep stirring until all the milk is absorbed. It should resemble a thick paste. If it’s too thick, thin it by adding a tiny bit more milk. (You can also add about 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla to each bowl for flavor.)

Once you’re happy with the consistency of your glaze, add a few drops of blue food coloring into one bowl and a few drops of yellow food coloring into the second bowl. Mix the food coloring in completely.

Now it’s time to make the green glaze. Take a couple spoonfuls of the yellow glaze and place it in the empty bowl. Now add a spoonful of blue glaze to the bowl. Mix the two together to make your green glaze. (The kids loved this part!)

Ice your cookies using your homemade glaze. (We used clean paintbrushes to brush the glaze onto our cookies.)

Once your done icing the cookies, set them aside to let the glaze dry and enjoy!

More Little Blue and Little Yellow Activities

We’ll be back next Tuesday with another contribution to the Preschool Book Club series. In the meantime, be sure to check out all the creative Little Blue and Little Yellow activities created by the other participating blogs!