Introduction: Teaching Colors With Frosting

About: I love piggies, crafting, scrap booking, sewing, and cooking. I have degrees in Computer Science and Teaching.

What more yummy way to teach colors then with frosting and food coloring.  This hands on activity lets students make their own primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.  Start by labeling the Cups from 1 - 12.  Then take spoonfuls of frosting and drops of food coloring for each color to be made and put the frosting into Dixie cups (12 each) according to the table below.  For students, they can then  write down what colors are made in each cup.  The idea is that we want students to see that the colors are mixed together to form the new colors.  The students should label the cups 1 - 12 and mix accordingly to allow closure to be uniform.  The students should be prompted to put drops of food coloring into the cups and then mix as follows:
Primary Colors
Cup 1: 7 spoonfuls frosting / 14 drops Blue                                      Blue
Cup 2: 7 spoonfuls frosting / 14 drops Yellow                                   Yellow
Cup 3: 7 spoonfuls frosting / 14 drops Red                                       Red
Secondary Colors
Cup 4: 2 spoonfuls Cup 3 frosting / 2 spoonfuls Cup 1 frosting                  Purple
Cup 5: 2 spoonfuls Cup 3 frosting / 2 spoonfuls Cup 2 frosting                  Orange
Cup 6: 2 spoonfuls Cup 1 frosting / 2 spoonfuls Cup 2 frosting                  Green
Tertiary Colors
Cup 7: 1 spoonful Cup 2 frosting / 1 spoonful Cup 6 frosting                 Yellow Green
Cup 8: 1 spoonful Cup 2 frosting / 1 spoonful Cup 5 frosting                 Yellow Orange
Cup 9: 1 spoonful Cup 3 frosting / 1 spoonful Cup 5 frosting                 Red Orange
Cup 10: 1 spoonful Cup 3 frosting / 1 spoonful Cup 4 frosting               Red Purple
Cup 11: 1 spoonful Cup 1 frosting / 1 spoonful Cup 4 frosting               Blue Purple
Cup 12: 1 spoonful Cup 1 frosting / 1 spoonful Cup 6 frosting               Blue Green

Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to mix colors together
Students will be able to name colors

Materials (per setup)
12 Dixie cups
Frosting (21 spoonfuls in all)
Food Coloring - Red / Blue / Yellow
6 Plastic Spoons (for scooping)
9 Plastic Knives (for mixing)

** Note for the ible I only made three tertiary colors due to a limited number of cups and plastic utensils in the home at this time **


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