We planned to paint a rainbow world on a big piece of paper using 3 primary colours – Red, Yellow and Blue in our group time. Firstly to stimulate their interest, we read a book about rainbows and discussed how we could make other colours using the 3 primary colours to draw our rainbow world. The children were so excited about making new colours and showed great curiosity about the science experiment.
We mixed the colours to make Orange, Green, and Purple. Sometimes our guesses were wrong but finally we made it!! Now we know that Red + Yellow makes Orange, Yellow + Blue makes Green, and Red + Blue makes Purple. And also we learnt that the quantity of colour we mix makes different shades of colours.
We drew two rainbows using our created colours. One with the teacher’s assistance but another one was done all by the children!!
After drawing our rainbow world, children painted their own butterflies using decalcomania skills. They were fascinated about how their painting changes beautifully when they open the paper. Children wanted to do it again and again. This also introduced the concept of symmetry. It was very fun and engaging.
We extended the mixing of colours and decalcomania painting experience to stimulate their learning and cognitive development. It is based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development that the provision of activities which stem from the children’s interest and the role of the carer in providing a suitable environment for play and learning are very important aspects of early childhood learning.
To achieve this goal, we planned another activity to give them an opportunity to experience different ways of painting and new colours. This time, they were provided with 4 strings and 4 different colours - red, yellow, blue and green to experience string painting.
When asked the children what will happen when we mix the colours, Aelta said “colour changes” and other children also agreed with her. Then they were encouraged to remember the experiment of mixing colours that they did last time. They were asked how they could make an orange colour. Children used their cognitive skills like memory recall, guessing and trial and error to answer the question. Rewhenua and Chase answered “red and blue” the teacher said “red is and blue is not. Red & blue makes a different colour. Do you know what that is?” Jasmine answered “Purple, purple.”
After several trial and errors, we all figured out how to make the colours orange, purple and green. The teacher praised the children for attempting and using their thinking skills, then explained what they were going to do to discover new colours.
Children were asked to paint each string with each colour and put them in one side of the folding paper as they wanted. Then they were advised to fold the paper and pull the string out. As they pulled the strings, the string made a beautiful painting and the mixed paint created lots of new colours. We discussed about how the new colours were made, and how many colours they could see etc.
They were involved in this experience and fascinated about the new way of painting a lovely picture. They had an opportunity to develop the concept of symmetry and cognitive skills through this experience.
How this experience links to EYLF outcomes: Outcome 2.1: Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation.
Outcome 4.1: Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
