Color Mixing for Toddlers

Today, on this sunny and glorious day, I feel the need to hold onto the coat tails of summer as she turns to leave this part of the world. So, in honor of my feelings I'm going to share a fun experiment that Little A and I did as part of our summer activities.

We did color mixing using ice cubes. I set up the ice cubes on some parchment paper, my hope being that some of the color would soak into the paper. My ignorance of kitchen papers was pretty apparent as the water beaded on the top of the slightly waxy surface.  

It's funny how the mishaps in an experiment end up being more interesting and teaching us more than if the experiment had gone according to plan. The way the water beaded up on the paper was beautiful and provided so much conversation about the different colors and how they were mixing. 

Little A was very intent on mixing up all the colors together; she even tried "pushing" the individual droplets together with her fingers.

 The patterns were just so beautiful.

I decided to get some cardstock out to save some of the patterns and colors as a piece of art. Little A was very interested in how the droplets didn't stand up on the paper but how they sunk in. 

She liked the change of pace with being able to make patterns on the cardstock that would 'stay' where she put them. 

We learned so much from this color mixing experiment. We explored "cold" and what it felt like to hold the ice. We talked about how you can put different colors together to make new colors. We learned that colored ice tastes just like water, not like a Popsicle. AND we got to create some beautiful artwork.

Little A was pretty tuckered out by the time we were done.