Color Mixing and Creating with Candy #Kids #Activity

So what do you do when you have some cool Melissa & Doug Spill Proof Paint Cups and a bag of Skittles? Make paint of course! Well, if you're like me, you might also eat some Skittles. 

Did you know that you can make paint from Skittles and even teach kids about color mixing? Well, you can and it could not be easier to do.

You will need: 

• Clear, plastic cups (I love the Melissa & Doug ones because they are spill proof and my kids are not. They also come with easy on and off lids that helps paint stay fresher longer.)
• Skittles (you will want a big bag of these since it takes quite a few to make the colors really bright.)
• White construction paper
• Paint brush

We started out by sorting the Skittles by color. The kids learned some important math skills as they sorted the candy and counted how many were in each pile. 

Then we placed the various colored Skittles into corresponding colored cups. We put about 10 Skittles of each color into a cup. Because this is a water based paint, you will need a good amount of Skittles to make the colors show up on paper.

After we placed our Skittles in the cups, we added some water. You will want to add enough to cover the candy, but not much more than that or the paint will be too runny. When you add the water, swirl it around in the cup. With these no spill cups you don't have to worry about making a mess.

Once we made some primary colors of paint using our candy, we decided to try mixing different colored candy together in the water and seeing what colors we could create. My daughter tried mixing red and yellow skittles and made orange paint. My youngest was excited to see what would happen when she mixed yellow Skittles with purple ones.

After she dropped in her candy she swirled it around...

And got brown. It wasn't the pretty color she was expecting.

Finally, it was time to paint! First, we tried painting on plain white paper but it didn't show up very well. I figured something with more texture like construction paper would work better. As you can see, it looks like ordinary water color paint. But my daughter says it smells better. If you try this yourself, remember, the more candy you put in your cups, the less that the kids (and you) can eat.

Vicky Perreault is a busy mom to three kids - 3 year old twins and a 2 year old. She believes that kids learn best through play and hands on activities. As a former teacher, Vicky finds great joy in facilitating learning and play experiences for her children and sharing those ideas with other parents on her blog Mess For Less.