How To Make a Colour!

The ladybugs have been focusing on the 'how to' aspect of their creations. As the educators observe we are seeing the children talk a lot about the process rather than the outcome itself! For example when building a snowman... how to we make the ball? what if the snow isn't sticky? how can we make them all different sizes? These are all questions that are being considered while making a snowman, and once it is complete the mission is over! On to the next creation!! 

I wanted to see what would happen if I gave them the 3 primary colours of paint at the art table, would they be able to create their picture with only 3 colours? would they ask for different colours such as green, purple, orange, brown? Or, would they figure out how to construct these colours themselves? What does this look like?

During this experience, I noticed a couple of things... I observed that the children came to the table with an idea of exactly what their picture would look like. Each child had a plan in their head of what colours they would need, and in what order. 
Hold your curser over the images below to see what they were saying!

"I need brown... How do I make that? Maybe I just mix them all together..."

"I need to get green for grass but there is no green... OH but there is blue and yellow!"

"I don't even need the colour wheel, I know how to make all the colours"

"If I mix blue and yellow will it make green? Or dark blue? OH YEAH IT MAKES GREEN"

"I need to make brown, I'm going to try um... yellow and red..."

"Ou look, it made a greenish colour!"

"It looks like ketchup and mustard mixed together because I mixed yellow and red"

The children took their time while making the colours. We learned that when you add blue and yellow it makes green... but if you add way more blue than yellow, it might just make a lighter blue and won't look green! This activity provided the children with a chance to get creative and really practice their problem solving skills as they worked through making each selected colour!

The pictures turned out beautiful, as if the children had a full pallet of paint. They were all so proud of themselves at the end seeing the finished product knowing that they created many of these colours on their own, and that theirs stood out from the others!

- Amberly