Our students express interest in many topics throughout the day. One of the interests that emerged and remained fairly consistent is a fascination with rainbows and colours. We decided to take a closer look at colour and colour mixing.
At first, we became creative while using the primary colours - red, yellow, and blue. Beautiful paintings were being made and some discussion developed around the need for other colours. Some children found that other colours were created when paint was accidentally mixed! Several Sk students gathered around and explained some key points to the Jk students:
yellow + blue = green
blue + red = purple
red + yellow = orange
We decided to experiment using coloured water. Food colouring and water were mixed to make the primary colours. Using the primary colours the students helped us to mix some of the colours to see what would happen. Secondary colours were created! We now had our very own rainbow made from the original 3 primary colours!
A curious student asked: what happens if we mix all the primary colours together? "We made black!"
What do you think will happen if we place paper towel over rainbow jars and allow the paper towel to dip in each colour?
“We will have a rainbow snake!” EF
“The paper towel will soak up water and the colour will go on the paper towel” CW
“Maybe it will be like tie dye” AA
When water is ‘sucked’ up by the paper towel we learned that this is because the water is being absorbed. Students immediately began using the word absorbed when describing what they were seeing. As the day went on the students spent quite a bit of time observing and wondering what would happen next with the water and colours.
What do you think will happen if we placed one side of paper towel in the yellow water and the other side in the empty jar? What if we placed another piece of paper towel in the blue water and the other end in the empty jar?
“Maybe something will turn green?”
Teacher: What do you think will turn green?
“I don’t know! There is no water to change colour”
Teacher: Let’s try and see what happens!
Students were fascinated that the water was absorbed into the paper towel and began filling the empty middle jar. Since water was coming from both the yellow and blue jars the result was green water!
As we continued to experiment with colour we shared in another experiment. Using some common household items together with the class we set up the experiment then questioned the students as to what they thought would happen next.
Baking soda was poured into empty jars. Then coloured vinegar was slowly poured into each jar at the same time. The mixture erupted and overflowed - as the coloured liquids began mixing a new colour formed. We now had some purple forming in the middle of the container.
We look forward to more colour exploration as the year continues!
