Exploring Color Through Playdough

I am so excited to share this activity with you! I love creating opportunities for children to explore colors and color mixing. We explore color through painting, coloring, tissue paper and colored water experiments and now we are Exploring Color Through Playdough!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR EXPLORING COLOR THROUGH PLAYDOUGH ACTIVITY

3 C flour
1.5 C salt
3 C water
3 TB vegetable oil
6 tsp cream of tartar
food coloring (red, yellow, blue)
COOKING TOOLS
measuring cup- 1 Cup
tablespoon
teaspoon
large saucepan
large wooden or plastic spoon

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT ENHANCED DURING THE COLOR EXPLORATION THROUGH PLAYDOUGH

color recognition (naming colors)
color mixing (exploring what happens when colors are combined to make new colors)
fine motor development
language development (verbally sharing observations)

MAKE THE PLAYDOUGH FOR THE EXPLORING COLOR THROUGH PLAYDOUGH ACTIVITY

Prior to exploring color through playdough you will need to make red, yellow and blue playdough. Using the recipe above pour the flour, salt, water, oil and cream of tartar into a large saucepan and stir together. Divide the mixture into three bowls adding red food coloring to one bowl, blue to the second and yellow to the third. Stir until combined.

Move each mixture into a saucepan and cook on the stovetop on medium heat constantly stirring. In the beginning the playdough mixture will look like very thick pancake batter. Continue to stir until a ball forms. Remove from heat and cool on a counter top. Be careful! The playdough will be very hot. Repeat with each color.
Introduce the playdough activity by giving each child three small balls of red, yellow and blue playdough. “Today we are going to use playdough to see how many different color we can make. Let’s start by choosing two colors and smushing them together. What do you think will happen?”

My children loved making a prediction about what would happen when they mixed two colors together and then seeing if there prediction was true. Added bonus? Combining the playdough together to make a new color is great for fine motor development which is necessary for early writing skills. Encourage your children to verbally express what is happening with the playdough. “Wow! Look! You are making a new color. What does it look like?”

Having multiple children work at the same table adds to the learning experience. My daughter, Luca (3), observed my son (5) making multiple colors. “Quinn, how did you make that green?” “Luca, try blue and yellow.”  Luca was able to learn through observation and then create the new playdough color through a kinesthetic (tactile) experience. She was so proud of herself!

When my children decided the activity was done we lined up the new playdough colors and observed our work. So many colors came from the original three!