A Tasty Color Wheel

I've been wanting to do a color wheel project with Trevor for awhile now, and having a playdate provided the perfect opportunity.  I gave Trevor and his friend three Nilla Wafers and had them frost the flat side of each with one of the three primary colors.  

I asked what would happen if we mixed equal parts of blue with yellow, red with yellow, and blue with red.  They knew that the primaries would mix to make orange, green and purple. They did the mixing and frosted three more cookies with the new shades.  I told them these were called secondary colors.  

 

I gave them each 6 more cookies to arrange between each primary and secondary color.  I asked what would happen if we mixed a primary with a secondary.  Trevor guessed that we'd get an "ish" color, like "greenish-yellowish."  Good answer!  I reminded them of the terms primary (meaning first) and secondary (meaning second) and asked what they thought this group of colors might be called.  Trevor guessed "thirdary."  A good guess, and fairly close to the correct answer, tertiary.  They mixed up the colors.   

 

Here they are with their completed color wheels.  

 

And now, the best part... eating them!  

 

For the record, I usually serve fruit and/or crackers when a friend comes for an after-school playdate.  This is the first time I've ever served 12 frosted cookies as a snack!  But it's justified in the name of education and experimentation, right?