Playdough Color Mixing Activity

Last Updated on July 15, 2025 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Put together a playdough color mixing activity that works fine motor skills. Fun for toddlers and preschoolers!

If playdough is a staple in your classroom like it is in ours, you love finding new ways to use it!

And if you use playdough and have more than one color, you will notice the pleasure children get in mixing those colors.

It might even drive you crazy!

But what if it could be turned into a hands-on lesson?

Playdough color mixing fun! Watch the video:

If you’ve watched any of my classroom set-up videos, you know that one of our centers is playdough.

And for good reason!

Playdough is one of the best ways to strengthen the hands, it’s a great sensory experience, it offers the children a chance to be creative, and it even helps bring comfort to those who are experiencing separation anxiety. (Which is why I make sure it’s close to the door the children walk through when they arrive.)

My favorite playdough recipe can be found here!

I came up with this particular idea during our St. Patrick’s Day theme when we were exploring the color green, so we mixed blue and yellow.

However, you can use any two primary colors depending on the color you want to create. (For example, we’ve also mixed red and yellow during our pumpkin theme.)

Playdough Color Mixing Activity

Supplies

Two primary colors of playdough
Your choice of playdough tools

Set Up

Place mats or whatever you normally use at the playdough table for each spot. (We love to put our playdough on mirrors.)
Then, place a ball of each color at each place.
Provide favorite playdough tools.

Invitation to Mix Colors

Most likely your children won’t need any instructions for what comes next. Children usually will take two different colors and mix them immediately. But if your children are hesitant, encourage them to use their hands to mix!

As they are mixing the colors, ask them if they see a new color!

And this is where the fine motor comes in.

Rolling, pulling, pinching ….

…and cutting!

(We had introduced scissors at the playdough table prior to this activity, so they were familiar with using them.)

Of course, rolling pins are a great way to mix the colors, too!

For younger children, like my two and young three year olds, it took awhile for the colors to mix well, since they don’t have as much strength as older preschoolers. We kept this out for two weeks, so each day the children just continued to work on what was already mixed.