Fun with Color!

For the past several weeks we have been playing around with color.  We've used all sorts of materials to see how different colors are made.  Here's a few of the activities and experiments we have done. 

On our work shelves I set out this color mixing activity.  Bean had 3 eye droppers and bottles with the 3 primary colors (watered down red, yellow and blue food coloring) in them and 4 small glass bowls for mixing colors.  Initially he was given the freedom to explore his own color combinations.  After we had done more talking about making secondary colors from primary colors I pulled this work off of the shelves and we used it to make secondary colors together.  But honestly most of the time he would take delight in mixing all of the colors together to make a dark greenish-brown concoction he would call "coffee".  At least at those times he was practicing fine motor control with the eye droppers, right?  :)

We have a couple of sets of these great color paddles.  We hung one set in the big window of the classroom so that we could enjoy the "rainbow" it would make as the afternoon sun shined through the window.  We also used the other set to play around with mixing colors.  We would put the red and yellow paddles together to see how it would be orange where they overlapped.  We did that for blue/yellow and red/blue as well. 

 For his birthday Bean had gotten a prism and now was the perfect time to bring it out again after we read the Rookie Reader "All the Colors of the Rainbow".  We used it inside and outside to find rainbows that it would make. 

Here are a couple of our favorite books we read about mixing colors.  Bean loved "Mouse Paint" since the mice jumped in the paint and stirred it with their feet.  I really loved "Color Dance" and would recommend it to anyone doing a color unit.  Dancers mix colors by twirling their colored scarves together as they dance.  It also talks about how white makes color more pale and gray makes colors darker.  Just a beautifully illustrated book overall.

I got a copy of these color 3 part cards from a friend.  I didn't make them into traditional 3 part cards.  Instead we used them to show how colors mix together.  At the top of the mat, I would put all of the single color cards.  In the middle I would lay down a mixed color card and ask Bean to find the two (or more) colors that make up the mixed color.  After all of our earlier lessons he breezed through this.

 We also watched as color danced and mixed in a cup.  We started with a glass of water and put a thin layer of oil on the top.  Then we would put a small drop of food coloring on the oil layer and wait patiently for it to drop down into the water where it would mix.  As we added different colors they would mix together to in the water to make new colors.  The most fun part is watching the color as it explodes in the water after making its way through the layer of oil.  Kind of like a lava lamp!

We also tried mixing color in milk when a drop of dish soap is added.  We had done lots of experimenting with colors and water and would see how they would mix to make new colors.  This activity was a bit different.  We started with a dish of milk and put one drop of each primary color of food coloring spaced out evenly around the edge.  Then we added a few drops of dish soap in the middle and then tried to bring the colors together to mix.  However the dish soap would keep the colors (mostly) apart and we ended up with a cool tie dye effect!