Accidental learning activities are the best. This was one of those. In our preschool time, we accidentally made color wheel color cards and they were all painted by my 2-year-old.
You can set this up intentionally to talk about colors, color identification and color mixing with older toddlers and preschoolers. That is what I will share here.
For a full toddler curriculum at home, get the 20-day of toddler activities guide Play and Grow for Toddlers.

Child Painted Color Wheel Cards
On our easel, like this one, I often put up a clean paper so the kids can color as they want. As a former preschool teacher, I set up our playroom area as a little preschool room. When we had the space, it was fun.
For painting activities, I always stood by my child so that the mess did not get crazy. For this color wheel painting activity, I put two colors of paint at the easel with two separate containers and brushes. I knew that eventually my child would mix the colors, but it was about naming each color to teach the color name.
Using these facts about color to talk about fun color info and science is great for preschoolers and older children who may be home with you too!

Then, as the colors blended on the paper, we magically had color mixing cards.
I made sure to point to the yellow and say its name. Then I pointed to the blue and said, “blue.” Then, as my child painted I would talk to them about the colors mixing to make green. That is how we encourage language development in our toddlers.
After the painting dried, I cut out a small rectangle where the two colors blended into a new color. We took that paper down and put up a fresh piece and two new colors: red and yellow.

Just like in the photo, red and yellow were mixed to make orange. I wrote the word orange on the small piece of color mixing cards art and we taped it right to the wall. Teaching pre-reading by learning color names in this way is so effective.

The next day my daughter painted with red and blue. Where those colors mixed on the paper, she made purple. Same process was followed to let it dry, cut out a small rectangle and label it. Then my daughter could clearly see two colors on each card and the color they created by being mixed.
I taped the color wheel color mixing cards to the wall of our playroom. That way the kids could see them every day for more color and language learning.
Accidental learning is fun. When you teach at home every day leads to a new discovery. Color mixing cards are a simple way to learn color identification.
In Toddler Play and Grow, your toddler will engage with activities that teach in all the learning domains. From fine motor to numbers to sensory, to gross motor games, the toddler curriculum is casual enough to be appropriate for toddlers, but structured enough to teach concepts they need to know for preschool.
Get your copy of toddler play and grow activity guide from the SAHM Guide shop.
Check out more color learning activities for kids here on the SAHM guide.
