"Mouse Paint" Color Wheel

Earlier this year we discovered fun, color changing bath tablets. These fizzy tablets come in blue, yellow, and red and are great for breaking up bath time boredom. We find them at a local pharmacy at a great price. We've loved exploring what colors we can create when we drop two tablets into the bathtub.

The other day inspired by our bath time color fun, we read Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. We also had my Little Niece visiting (who's the same age as Big Brother) and both three year olds loved the book. Three white mice dip themselves into three different paints and then dance in different colored puddles. In the end they wind up with even more colors than the three they started with! It's a great way to help teach kids about color mixing.

Before reading I had divided two paper plates into six pieces. I put one dollop of each primary color (red, blue, yellow) onto three of the divided sections. I spaced the colors out so there was a section between each primary color. 

After reading I used face paint to paint one hand on each kid to look like a little mouse. This included adding little feet at the tips of two fingers. 

Using their mice hands the kids then danced their fingers in two different colors and mixed them in the blank space in between. 

They continued to mix the different colors in sets of two. Each time they "danced" in two different colors and mixed them we talked about what color they were creating. 

They worked on the plates until they had mixed all the colors. (It didn't take as long as I expected, but it was also pretty hot and the pool was tempting them when they realized they could rinse their hands off there.) It was neat to see how the two plates were similar, but each very different.

The next morning Big Brother was excitedly sharing his color wheel with his daddy and "reading" him the book. So I know it was a hit! I'm looking forward to some more color mixing projects we can try. 

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