The best art activity ever – Primary color mixing

This activity is one of my all time favorites, it is completely open-ended, and children love it as much as I do.  I start by covering an entire table in white paper. This is important because it really encourages collaboration between the children, and they can see the colors that they have created on the white background.

Then I set out cups of paint – red, blue, yellow, and white (you could also use black, but then everything seems to turn black).  I tell the children at the beginning that they can mix the colors all they want.  They love this! Some times when I do this activity the children spend more time mixing than they do painting, which is totally fine.

I also make sure to tell them that they can mix the paint any way that they want. Some will mix the colors on the paper, while some will mix the paints in the cups.  Either way, the end result is usually the best artwork that I get all year!