Our Colour Inquiry - Part 1

For the past few weeks, our students have been very interested in learning about "shades" of colours.

This is how it all began...

I set out a colour provocation...red and blue water (food-colouring added) were left at the table with eye droppers and a tray with sections.  The students were encouraged to mix the 2 colours (using the eye droppers, of course, so our fine motor skills were utilized!) and see what happened.

Not only did they discover that they created a new colour but they also realized that there were multiple shades of this colour.

As the week continued, we tried mixing other primary colours the same way.

Today I placed all 3 primary colours on the table.

On the other side of the table, Mrs. Petrone, my DECE brought in a beautiful fall plant and we added some paint colour samples of the colours that were found in the plant.  

Although simple looking, the table was a huge hit!

Everyone wanted to explore the new plant and try to reproduce the colours in it.

One of the leaves fell on the table and some students were so intrigued to make the colours that they saw up close!

There were so many shades of green on this one leaf!

Some students used the paint colour samples to recreate the various shades of green.

Other students really wanted to draw the plant and find markers, pencil crayons, crayons, pastels, and water colour paints to make sure the colours were as close as possible.

We spent a lot of time exploring and wondering here today!

I bought these colour changing boards last summer at the Lakeshore Learning store in Las Vegas (along with lots and lots of other goodies...don't ask me how I got through customs!).

I left the boards out on our Discovery Table and the children quickly realized that depending on how hot or cold your hand is, you will leave a coloured mark.

They absolutely loved using these boards!

These water beads were inside our Water Table today.

I also opened a new pack to show the students how they grew into small water beads.

Mrs. Petrone thought of a great experiment to try today.

We placed 4 white carnations in clear jars of water.

Then we added food colouring to the water.

We asked the students to document what they saw, thought and wondered...

and now we wait until we come back to school tomorrow and see if anything happened!

Some students wanted to see if the stems would also change colour in the food colouring.  They cut them so they would fit in the jar and placed them beside the carnations.

 

The students brought home a Beautiful Junk letter today along with a small brown paper bag.

Over the next few days, we are hoping to collect materials...who knows where there materials will lead us as we continue on our colour journey...

stay tuned!