This Play-Doh colorwheel is a great way to teach the color-wheel for young children. I’m not sure where this lesson originated but my typewritten copy is by Lois Ann Lynn from Rosamond, UT. Thank you Lynn!
Print out the Color Wheel Chart PDF and photocopy onto card stock. Each container of Play-Doh yields about 30 pieces (this is dependent on how big you make the balls. I would try for the size of a red grape).
Each child receives a color wheel sheet plus 3 balls of Play-Doh. Place the yellow ball on the “yellow” on the colorwheel. Do the same for the red and blue. If you are working with very young children who don’t know how to read, you can place the balls on the sheets for them.
Pinch off a piece of the red ball and a piece from the yellow ball and squeeze, squish and roll together. You’ll know whether you are on the right track by the squeals of delight from the kids.
Once the color is created, place that color ball on the space between the two colors that made it.
Repeat with the other colors.
Press the finished pieces onto the card stock to dry.
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this is so wonderful…. can’t wait to try this with young students that I work with
this project was great!!!
Thank you so much. This will help especially with my little ones who LOVE Play Doh!
What an awesome extension for our color wheel unit! I love bringing in different mediums!
I have been doing this with Model Magic for years and it is a real favorite with the younger grades. You can also include tinting and shading with white and black.
Is this a permanent project? Does the when the play-doh dries does it stick to the paper? I’m looking something good for Kindergarten but that they could also bring home.
Nevermind. I just saw the last step. Just wondering how it sticks after it dries. 🙂
Not too permanent but enough to take home. Add glue if you wish. I didn’t and it worked fine. 🙂
I love this! I had to share on pinterest and will use it even with my older students who love doing things in multiple formats.
I love using play doh with the toddlers and preschoolers I have at story time. This will be fun!
I like the simplicity of this as a tool to teach color and the wheel.
Creative and fun … I will try it … Thank you …
Amazing lesson. Thanks!
AWESOME
I do this as well, but model it first as a magic trick…… “Abra kadabra. hocus pocus, make this play doh turn to (color).” The kids LOVE it! And yes, so many squeals of delight!!!
love this!
I love this lesson. I laminated my color wheels so I could use them over and over. I allowed the students to do the lesson then I allowed them to explore and create their own colors… I gave each student a small baggie and let them take home their play-dough. They were thrilled!
I love this idea, I was trying to think of how to minimize printing and thought about laminating a class set. Thank you!
great idea!
Wonderful
I used this idea with my Kinders. They loved it! Even though we discussed primary and secondary colors and watched two videos, the mixing of the colors didn’t really come together for them until we did this. It was so exciting to hear them say “I made orange!”. “I made green!” ” I made purp!e”!
This looks great! Do you think it would work with Pre-K (4 year olds)? I’m having difficulty figuring out what they should be able to do.
Oh yes…I think it would be a great tactile experience. They won’t be able to mix really well, but it’s certainly a project you should try.
i dont think they will have trouble
Establishing a curriculum in a school that has never had an art program. This project is perfect for my K-1st graders. Thank you!
Whoops. The color wheel is showing the secondary colors. Shouldn’t that kind of be a surprise when they mix the primaries together?
Hi Jane,
This template is designed for kinders. The secondary colors are on the wheel so that they can match their own colors to the ones on the worksheet. The fun (surprise) part will be that they are able to mix these colors by themselves. For older grades a blank color wheel would work better 😉
-Hannah (Team Sparkle)
OMG i loved the project!!!
did you like the project?