At our nursery we have been exploring colour mixing, and the children really enjoy the 'magic' of producing new colours from the primary colours.
Many of the younger children have never seen two colours turn into another one before, and the older children enjoy experimenting with different shades and mediums, such as food colourings. Colour mixing is a great way to give children a good art base, and they love it.
Some of the activities that we have done are:
* Table-top colours. Put large blobs of red and blue liquid paint on a table top and add a generous squirt of washing-up liquid (this makes it easier to wash the paint from the children's hands). Encourage the children to blend the colours together to create purple. If you wish, make a print of the designs created by the children's fingers on the table top by laying a piece of paper over the table, pressing it down and lifting it off. The four in the picture (left) got a little carried away!
* Colour squeezy bags. Half-fill a see-through plastic sandwich bag with shaving foam, add a small amount of paint in two primary colours and seal the bag with a knot. When the children squeeze the bag, the colours will gradually blend together in the shaving foam until the bag is a totally different colour. This is a very tactile activity that children love. Try other colour combinations of paint, or ingredients such as tomato ketchup and mustard, to produce similar results!
* Circles of colour. Place a drop of paint in the centre of an A4 sheet of white paper. Create a circle of paint in a second colour around the dot, followed by a third colour circling both. Then demonstrate how the colours can be blended, by teasing out the paint from the centre outwards with the wrong end of a paintbrush. As the colours mix into each other various other shades are formed, giving a starburst effect. Children are fascinated by this activity as they have to paint with the wrong end of the paintbrush.
Liz White spoke to Katie Simpson
