How do you make orange?

There has been alot of talk about colours within the room lately.  We often hear children talking about their favourite colour, the colours in the rainbow, the colours they are wearing and what colour certain animals are.  I decided to explore this further with the children and do a little intentional teaching.

Using food dye, eye droppers and paint pallets we set the scene using primary colours.

The children had not used droppers before so after demonstrating how to manipulate the end to suck up liquid they set to work exploring.  I explained that red, yellow and blue are primary colours, these are colours that all of the colours are made from. "But how do you make orange?" Ollie asked

"What do you think?" I replied, "I don't know" Ollie said.  I suggested that we might be able to find out by mixing some of the colours together.

Initially Jacob and Ollie began transferring individual colours, I could see I was going to have to be a little more specific, so I posed the question " I wonder what would happen if you mixed a little red into the yellow?"  Jacob was quick to answer "Nah I wanna mix the blue in the yellow"  and he began dropping "Hey check this out Ollie, look its gone a greener!" Jacob announced excitedly.  Ollie began smiling and dropped red into his yellow "Jacob this one makes orange see" he said.

 They continued mixing, experimenting and hypothesising together for some time.

Later in the session I observed Ollie at the paint table mixing two colours together on the paper.  He looked up "It just wont make orange Dani" he said.

We discussed what Ollie had observed in the dropper activity and Ollie noted there was no red or yellow paint out. I asked if he would like me to add some  more paint " Yes, but I want to mix it please" he answered.

I had some empty pump soap packs and filled these with paint and a little water to make it easier to pump out. I then added these with trays and brushes to Ollie's experience.

Ollie quickly set to mixing the colours.

He experimented with shade, mixing darker and lighter colours

Many other children experimented with colour and shade following Ollie's lead.  We will continue to offer both experiences on the program and will look at other options to engage children who prefer not to paint, such as the light table.

Throughout this experience the children have shown dispositions for learning, strategising and hypothesising while also adapting and taking learnt knowledge from one play area to another.  They have also shown strength in their communication skills with adults and peers