Most people shudder when they think of their little ones mixing play dough colours. Normally, I would agree with them but there is one exception and that is intentional colour mixing as an interesting, hands on experiment. Colour mixing is a great activity for creative kids of all ages and play dough is a such a great resource for trying this out at home.

Our Sensory Dough Making Kit is perfect for this activity and includes everything you need! The make your own play dough kit comes with 4 packets of pre-weighed dry mix and 3 sachets of natural dyes that will colour your dough in vivid shades of red, yellow and blue. You also get a simplified instruction card, a colour mixing chart and your own wooden spoon.

Or, if you'd prefer, you can of course buy all 3 colours from our new rainbow collection of play dough.

If you want to create the whole rainbow then you will need to divide each of your 3 colours (red, yellow and blue) of play dough into 3 parts; 1 half and 2 quarters. Keep the half of the original colour safe to one side and then use your 2 quarter sized pieces to mix with another colour like so:

You will have to work hard, squishing, rolling and kneading your 2 colours together but it is amazing to watch as they slowly start to blend together to form a new, different colour! Mix your yellow and blue doughs to make a gorgeous green, mix your blue and red to get a perfect purple and mix your red and yellow to get a bright orange.

Top tip, I would suggest taking your lighter colour (eg the yellow) and slowly adding the darker colour until you reach your ideal shade.

You could further extend this activity by trying to create different shades of each colour. Use the 4th bag of dry mix (if you're using the Sensory Dough Making Kit, otherwise a natural or white dough would work) to mix up a batch of natural dough (follow the instructions that come with the kit but just don't add any of the dye) and then slowly add this to your coloured doughs so get softer, pastel shades.

And there you have it, a full rainbow of gorgeous play dough colours! Have I tempted you to try encouraging your children to mix the colours for once?!

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All the colours above were made using our Make Your Own Sensory Dough Kits.