1) Prepare trays of red, blue and yellow paint.

2) The children can then choose two colours and put a hand in each.

3) They then print each hand and rub their hands together to mix the paint.

4) Next, they can print with the new colour.

This activity can be used in a number of situations:

• When the children are making a painting
• When you want to teach children about how colours can be made by mixing others. A worksheet to help with this activity can be found here.

Worksheet Explanation:

In the top row of boxes, children should make a mark (a blob, a finger print, a line etc.) with the colour indicated at the top of each column.

In the middle row of boxes, children should mix the pairs of colours indicated at the top of each column, and make a mark in the boxes below, using the colour that is made.

The bottom row of boxes are for children to experiment with colours. They can try to make new colours and make marks in the boxes (showing which colours were used to make the new colour in the boxes at the top of the column).

This worksheet could be saved for future reference when the children are painting.