Materials Needed:

• 7 glasses or clear cups
• Red, yellow and blue food coloring
• 3 paper towels
• Scissors
• Water
• Spoon

Steps:

• Line the 7 glasses up in a row. Then pour water in every other glass, starting with the first one. You should end with water in Glasses #1, #3, #5 and #7.
• Then add the food coloring in the glasses with water.
  • Add 6 drops of red food coloring into the 1st glass. Mix with a spoon.
  • Add 6 drops of yellow food coloring into the 3rd glass. Mix wi.th a spoon.
  • Add 6 drops of blue food coloring into the 5th glass. Mix with a spoon.
  • Add 6 drops of red food coloring to the 7th glass. Mix with a spoon.
• Take the paper towels and cut each piece in half long ways.
• Fold each piece of paper towel in half longways.
• Take one piece of paper towel and put one end in the cup with red water, then put the other end in the empty glass next to it (glass #2).
• Take another piece of paper towel and put one end in the same empty glass (glass #2) and the other end in the glass with yellow food coloring.
• Take another piece of paper towel and put one end in the glass with yellow food coloring, then put the other end in the empty glass next to it (glass #4).
• Take another piece of paper towel and put one end in the same empty glass (glass #4) and then put the other end in the glass with blue water.
• Take another piece of paper towel and put one end in the glass with blue water and the other end in the final empty glass (glass #6).
• Then take your final piece of paper towel and put one end in the same empty glass (glass #6), then put the other end in the last glass with red water in it.

That's it! Just wait a few hours to see what will happen! Here are some questions to ask your child while you wait:

• What do you predict will happen?
• What do you think the paper towels are for?
• Why did we leave some of the glasses blank?

You can also come back every 20 -30 minutes to see what has changed. Log your observations in a journal or take a video of your child discussing their observations like a documentary.

Additional activities to learn about color:

• 7 activities to try from Artful Parent
  • Rainbow in a Bag - Make colorful gels and observe what happens when you mix them
  • Mixing paint in mini mason jars
  • Baking soda and vinegar mixing (messy!)
  • Liquid watercolor mixing activity
  • Colors and shaving cream mixing
  • Color theory for little ones
• You can do an activity similar to the one in this blog post, but instead of using paper towels to mix the colors, you can experiment by pouring two primary colors into an empty glass.
• Flip through magazines, newspapers or coupon lists and help your child cut out pictures with different colors. Then, you can sort the pictures by color and glue each color onto a piece of paper.
  • You can also use these photos to make a rainbow! Just paste the pictures of each color in the shape of a semi-circle until you have a full rainbow.
  • You can use the pictures you cut out to make other pictures. For example, you can use all the red pictures you find to make a bright red firetruck, or use the yellow pictures you cut out to make a sun and the blue pictures to make the sky.

If you want to show us how you experimented with color, we'd love to see them! Send them to durhamprek@childcareservices.org or tag us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at @durhamprek. You may see them on our website and social media!