Mixing Colors: Create and Name Your Own Colors

Mixing colors is one of the most classic art activities for kids and is always a hit. We were inspired by Herve Tullet’s new book, Mix It Up!, to create our own colors by mixing paints. We saved our favorite colors on our Personal Paint Palette free printable and even named the colors ourselves!

I was provided this book for free, but of course all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

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*This post was originally posted on November 17, 2014 and has since been updated.

The Preschool Book Club is back this week with creative activities for kids inspired by Herve Tullet’s newest children’s book, Mix It Up! Every other week we’ll all be sharing some fun activities for kids based on the book of the week. (Be sure to check out all my activities for kids inspired by children’s books!)

Mixing Colors Activity for Kids Inspired by Mix It Up! 

A few months back we shared some activities for kids based on the  popular children’s book, Press Here by Herve Tullet. (If you missed them, be sure to check them out: Press Here Tossing Math Game, Press Here Playdough Activity, and our Press Here Necklace Craft.) The author just recently release a new book that we absolutely love- Mix It Up!

Just like the book, Press Here, kids are active participants in the story- using their imaginations along with their hands to splatter and mix colors all throughout the book. Children learn the basics of color mixing as they read this hands-on book!

Mix It Up! inspired us to get out our paints and get mixing! We created all kinds of colors and even named them ourselves using the free printable.

Materials for Mixing Colors Activity

• Tempera paint
• Paintbrushes
• Paper plates
• Optional: Free Paint Palette Printable and pencil

Directions for Mixing Colors Activity

Start by setting up your workspace. You want to have plenty of room for kids to explore paint mixing. We covered our kitchen table with our art mat and some large sheets of white paper. We placed all our materials right on the table so we were ready to go!

We started out our activity by following right along with the story- mixing the colors in the order they were mixed in the book.

We created green, purple and orange using the three primary colors. We explored what happens to colors when you add white or black to them and even what happens when you mix black and white together!

As the kids mixed colors, they’d save favorites they created on their free printable paint palette by painting in the circles.

After we had tried out all the color mixing demonstrated in the book, I let the kids mix all on their own.

Lucy began to paint pictures. She’d mix colors on her paper plate until she got just the right one to add to her artwork!

Theo loved creating designs right on his plate as he mixed colors!

After cleaning up, we sat down and named the colors we had created. I just love the names they came up with- “Happy Day”, “Stormy Night”, and “Dolphin” were a few of my favorites!

This color mixing activity was an absolute hit. Both Theo and Lucy have already mentioned more than once they want to do it again!

More Mix It Up! Activities

Be sure to check out all the creative Mix It Up! activities created by the other members of The Preschool Book Club Series!

Fingerprint Candle Craft from Sugar Aunts

Fun Fingerprint Art from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Mix It Up! Inspired Ornaments from Mama Papa Bubba

Painted Salt Dough Handprints from Homegrown Friends