At Ringwood Uniting Preschool we saw the children enjoying the experience of shining torches through cardboard cylinders …

with the ends covered in different coloured cellophane.

They shone them onto white paper and could change the colours by shining two torches, using different coloured cellophane  together onto the one spot.

At Kurburoo, they picked up on this idea …

covering torches with cellophane and shining them onto a white board.

They added a twist. They had coloured, transparent paddles which the children could hold over their coloured beams of light.

They could change the colours easily and at will.

Both of these ideas are fantastic and what a great, simple science, colour mixing experiment it is!

We have posted before on salad spinner art using paint …

but last week over at Highvale Preschool, the children in Narelle and Pam’s group where creating their salad spinner art using coloured water and pipettes.

They picked up a couple of salad spinners for just $5 from Ikea!

Pippets are so great for fine motor muscle development. It can be quite a challenge to squeeze and release while managing to suck up the liquid at the same time.

The children were already noticing the colour mixing taking place even before they gave it a spin.

Not only a great activity for those hand and finger muscles …

this one gives the whole arm a good work out!

We love the children’s wide eyed reaction when they take off the lid.

Another great colour mixing opportunity to add to ‘the list’!

Usually fairly early in the kinder year we ask the children to choose two of the primary colours to paint onto their hands.

It is a great way to find out if they have an idea of their colours.

They press their hands onto paper to make brightly coloured handprints.

By rubbing their hands together they create a new colour which is a process they love so much – slippery and smooth!

Before they do this we ask them if they can tell us what colour will emerge, which is that next step in their understanding of colour.

For some reason this year we didn’t get round to doing this when they first started with us, so decided to give it a go now.

It was very interesting to see how very many children knew exactly what colour combinations created what colour. A year on makes a huge difference!

The children continued their colour mixing experiments and enthusiastically created  a rainbow of new colour variations!

Painting two hands different colours can be tricky so it’s always lovely to see the wonderful …

teamwork and co operation that takes place.

Of course independence resulting in messy, sticky paint brush handles is to be celebrated too …

right?!?!

Donna popped into our favourite recycling centre during the holidays and came back to kinder with lots of goodies.

Amongst it all were some plastic bottles with pump action squirters.

She filled them up with coloured water and put them at the outside easel.

We thought the children would press them down with their index fingers like we would, but as doing it that way was a bit difficult for them … actually it was tiring work …

they came up with clever ideas to get around the problem … like the two finger approach …

the middle finger for strength …

the thumb for power…

and the whole hand action for speed!

Lining up that tiny hole so it pointed towards the paper was an added challenge. (We must admit a couple of children did squirt themselves in the face … but being only coloured water no harm was done … phew!)

The resulting paintings were fabulous …

each one unique …

and the children just kept queuing up to have a go.

Not only was it a great exercise in patience, turn taking and using both fine and gross motor skills …

it again became a wonderful colour mixing exercise!!

We picked up this great idea the other day from ‘Teacher Tom‘.

We were attracted by the a post titled -‘Boy Art‘ and we figured any idea that attract boys to try creative activities is definitely worth giving a go!

We’ve always enjoyed offering the children marbles to paint with.

It’s a fun creative exercise where the children dip marbles into paint …

drop them into trays lined with paper and roll them around.

It provides a wonderful opportunity for pattern making …

and any one who’s been following our blog for any length of time will know we believe you can never have too many opportunities for colour mixing!

Thanks to Tom we were able to add a new dimension to this popular activity.

Using our removable tray-table-top we headed outside into our wonderful Melbourne, autumn weather …

and using ping pong balls dipped in paint, instead of marbles, we set the children free to create!  (We believe any activity we offer the children inside should work just as successfully in the great outdoors.)

Tom invited his children to move the balls around by blowing through straws but the children found this to be very hard work, the balls kept getting bogged in the thick paint.

So, just like Tom’s students, our Red Group children used the straws to hit the balls around on the paper.

They said it was like playing mini golf!

The children played and created here all morning …

resulting in the paper being replaced several times!

When the Blue Group children arrived we thought we’d mix it up a bit by changing the colours of the paint …

but like the other children, they too found the balls hard to move through the thick paint …

so they elected to roll them around…

using their hands!

They really got into the sensory experience …

with relish!

ooooh soooooo goooooood!!!

Both groups had a ball creating their art …

and we’re sure you’ll agree the different results were spectacular!

Oh and the boys ?

They had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Thank’s ‘Teacher Tom’ for the irresistible idea!

Be sure to visit Teacher Tom and tell him Sherry and Donna sent you!

Many children at this early stage of the year still love to paint their hands and swirl them all over the easel paper. Such a wonderful sensory experience!

An added bonus of this is that they create wonderful mixes of colour and enjoy telling us what they have made.

As some children don’t enjoy getting paint all over their hands we thought that they could have a colour mixing experience which wasn’t so messy.

We mixed together primary coloured paints with glue and put them into bowls with little spoons.

The children popped little dobs of the gluey paint onto waxed paper, placed another sheet on top …

then spread the colours around with their hands.

The result was varied and interesting.

When they had dried out, the children cut around their shapes …

and we put them on the window …

so the light would shine through like stained glass.

One child said that they looked like stegosaurus spines.

As a precursor to an activity we will be inviting the children to do soon, we put out some eye droppers and coloured water for them.

They LOVE using eye droppers! We also put out a variety of papers over a week or so.

When the paper had a sheen to it, the paint ran off in interesting dribbles.

The children often put way too much on, so they also ended up with a big blob all intermingled, which looks pretty interesting too.

Watch the floor as they try to juggle their pictures outside to the drying rack!! It is a good idea in this case to have a container for them to carry their masterpieces out in.

When the paper has a little more absorption, the paintings ended up being a mix of runny and blobby, depending on how much the children squirted on.

Lastly we put out paper towel which has huge absorption, so again, quite a different look to the end result. In every case there was a wonderful mixing of colours and many excited children exclaiming about the magic they had performed.

A simple and delightfully smelling sensory activity is shaving cream. Sometimes we just pop it onto the work space straight out of the can.

Other times we (or the children) choose to add some ‘colour’ to the activity, we add sprinkles of edicol dye (not too much as it stains the children’s hands) which the children then mix in to make it look different and beautiful.

It is also a simple and fun colour mixing activity.

Shaving cream has a beautiful texture which enables the children to do some creative drawing.

And as shaving cream is simply soap in a can a bucket of water and a towel kept beside the table makes for a quick had wash when the children have finished. Sure beats a shaving cream trail being plopped along the floor all the way to the bathroom.

Colour is all around us. It represents beauty and irresistible things. Just like adults, children are drawn to it, and paint is a wonderful way to experience sensual colour.

Children really enjoy the cool and slimy feeling of paint on their skin especially over their hands and between their fingers.

The children were interested in creating new colours with the paint but found that mixing the paints together on the paper using a brush caused all the paint pot colours to become spoiled. A couple of the children started to experiment by painting their hands different colours and mixing them together and created some wonderful new colours which they enjoyed printing.

It became a guessing game among the children as they experimented making different colours with each child anticipating the results different colour combinations would make. And what fun they had in trying them all out.

blue + red = purple

No longer just a sensory, artistic experience it turned into a lesson in maths and science as well… and we so love it when that happens!

Many new discoveries were made as they tried out  different colour combinations.

Many children new what colours different combinations would create; red and yellow makes orange, blue and yellow makes green etc., but to other this was a new experience

Some of the children wanted us to write a story about the process they had taken. An example of this was “I mixed red and blue together and made purple” or “I mixed red and blue together and thought I would make green, but I made purple” and so on. It proved to be another wonderful learning experience inspired by the children.

We have found this to be an activity the children re-visit often and is a really enjoyable way to teach them colour recognition.

make it irresistible

Painting hands is fun, sensual and messy!

Whether children are experiencing sensual paint simply because they love the way it feels on their skin, or are experimenting with hand printing and colour mixing remember the paint is going to be all over  their hands, possibly up their arms and definately all over the paint brush handles.

In order for the activity to remain inviting to other children,  supply a towel and a bucket of warm soapy water with a sponge to allow each child to wash off their hands and paintbrushes when they have finished the activity.

They will probably enjoy diving into the warm soapy water  as much as they did the painting!

This activity does not need to be confined to paper and an easel. The children could use other surfaces like table tops, concrete or windows, and materials like boxes, bricks, wood, cardboard, plastic, fabric etc.

As children tend to think outside the square, ask them what kinds of surfaces or materials they think would be good to try!