Learning about Color Mixing with the Color Kittens

The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown is a simple Little Golden Book about two cats, Brush and Hush, who love to paint with colors. There is a hint of fairy tale in their story (as it is the explanation of how the world has so many colors) and the text has a pleasant but irregular rhyme that makes it a delight to read aloud. Brush and Hush’s adventures in making “all the colors in the world” are childlike and loveable. Color mixing and making our own paintings is a natural progression from reading The Color Kittens together.

In The Color Kittens, the kittens search for green paint, which is their favorite color. They mix the red, yellow, and blue paints together in various combinations and keep getting the wrong color. Finally, they mix yellow and blue, of course!

Strawberry and I used our watercolors to do our own color mixing activity. She helped me find just the red, yellow, and blue paints on the tray. Then, I put three circles on the page, one in each of those colors. Finally, we used the brush to mix the colors together and see what they created!

I love how bright the colors are in the watercolor set!

Of course, since the color kittens got to paint everything they saw, then it was time for Strawberry to do the same (on paper, however!). I love finding little familiar things in her abstract and colorful painting. She found shapes in her painting, and, as it dried, the wet and less wet spots dried in different colors. She loved oooh and ahh-ing over it, and she loved making it.

We’ve done color mixing activities in the past. She remembered mixing the colored water as a time filler activity a few months ago. This week, as she painted, she loved seeing her cup of rinse water change colors as well. What color would the water become the next time she rinsed her brush?

Mixing colors is a simple lesson to learn. It’s one she’s learned before, and we’ll do these activities again. Putting the painting activity in the context of The Color Kittens gave her a purpose and a fantastic story to go along with her creation. It made our lesson all the more memorable.

This post is a part of the Homeschool Blogging Network’s series, 10 Days of Tips for Homeschooling Moms.

This week, I’m going to share 10 days of Picture Book Preschool Lessons. 

Click over to the landing page to see the other posts I will be sharing. You can also see what tips the other homeschooling bloggers are sharing on their blogs.