Mixing colors

 

 

 

 On Monday, the children came into the classroom and  many were drawn to the fresh paints on the  easel and the bright sunlight which was streaming into the window.Noah painted a design with deliberate strokes that created geometric shapes. Rachel worked on a rainbow and  said "I don't have purple" and  she was encouraged to mix her own purple. Rachel  mixed her purple and created a "gum ball machine" in the center of  her work.As Ellen walked through  the rooms she took some photos of the artists and shared a book with me called The Language of Arts.

On Tuesday, we began our lesson by looking at some of the easel paintings that had been done on Monday. Children asked questions and made comments about what they noticed.  The  children were so intrigued by creating  new colors that  we decided to use the book to begin a systematic exploration.  of color mixing. Today, we started to mix black (a strong color) and white (a weak color). The children  used small spoonfuls of black then slowly added white and as Eliza noted  that she was getting different "shades." Some children stayed as long as 45 minutes as they explored the various shades.