If you’re looking for a simple way to teach kids about primary colours and color mixing, give this simple experiement a try!
Supplies: ice cube trays, food colouring, clear or white cups, stir sticks, water
Set Up (prior to experiment): Put a few drops of red, blue, and yellow food colouring into three separate containers and add water. Pour coloured waters into ice cube containers and freeze.
The Experiment: Pop a coloured cube out of the ice cube tray and into a cup. You can stir the single ice cube to watch it melt if you like. Add another ice cube (of a different colour) and continue stirring so both cubes start melting. How do the colours mix?
Things to talk about: How do the colours mix? Make a colour chart showing how the primary colours make other colours, ie. red + blue, red + yellow, yellow + blue. What happens if you mix two of the secondary colours together? What is your favourite colour and how do you think you can make it, starting with the three primaries?
Other (non-colour) things to talk about: What happens when you stir the ice cubes? Does it make the ice melt faster or slower?
One of our favourite teachers tried this with her class: ” I used one of your Craft Caravan ideas a few weeks ago with my students. It was a great hands on way to teach the magic of primary colours. I made ice cubes with a few drops of colour in each. Thanks for the idea.”