I recently checked the Mouse Paint book by Ellen Stoll Walsh out of the library (and liked it so much I bought it!). It’s a simple and fun picture book about three mice who find some paint and learn about mixing colors.
The red mouse stepped into a yellow puddle and did a little dance. His red feet stirred the yellow puddle until…
‘Look,’ he cried. ‘Red feet in a yellow puddle make orange!’
The illustrations are made with paper collage and are bold and effective. Maia and I have both been enjoying this book.
Mixing Colors with Kids
I wanted to try some color mixing activities with my daughter and used Mouse Paint as a starting point.
She often mixes colors on paper (and in the paint bowls) when she’s painting, but the haphazard color mixing usually ends up a muddy brown.
Here are some more specific color mixing projects::
5 color mixing activities for kids
You could try this rainbow in a bag color mixing experiment that we’ve had great success with.
Or do cotton ball easel painting inspired by Mouse Paint (over at Pink and Green Mama).
You can also fill an ice cube tray with water and give your child a dropper and some food coloring to experiment with color mixing.
Or read this lesson in mixing colors for kids by Amy Broadmoore (inspired by another kids’ book, Color Dance).
Or do handprint color mixing as Teach Preschool did.
Any other color mixing activity suggestions that would go well with the Mouse Paint book?
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7 Comments
Mommy Bee
February 22, 2008 at 8:49 amWe love that book, too!
Gwyn
February 22, 2008 at 10:02 amAnother thing we’ve done a few times in summer is that I freeze different colour ice cubes and then add blue and yellow ones to water, for example, and as they melt the new colour emerges. Easy.
MamaBird
February 22, 2008 at 7:00 amlayer tissue paper (wet or not)
colored glue (food coloring)
I used to make up spray bottles and squeeze bottles of different colored water (food coloring) and let my kid mix in her water table, the tub, spraying on big sheets of paper taped up outside
colored translucent plastic like you get on the outside of an easter basket? if you get any of that, hang onto it. playing around w/multiple colors is fun. HTH
MamaBird
February 22, 2008 at 7:01 ammouse count is cute too
Ke
February 23, 2008 at 2:42 amLove your blog! Great ideas w/ the tissue paper ice cubes too!
Geselle
October 14, 2008 at 12:29 pmanother fun and yummy activity to do with children is to mix two primary food colors: red, yellow, or blue, into an indivividual size vanilla pudding snack. they don’t don’t only see the creation of the new color, but get to eat it too.
15+ Book-Based Mouse Paint Activities for Kids
May 13, 2019 at 5:37 am[…] five fun color mixing activities your preschoolers can enjoy after you read Mouse Paint to them. Artful […]