Colour My World #5: Why is the sky pink?

Light through milky water

Light through clear water

Child initiated inquiry: Why is the sky pink?

When we were playing in the playground one sunny afternoon, Natalya looked up at the sky and asked: "Why is the sky pink?" I told the Water Group about Natalya's question and we researched together. We found an experiment from The Science Book of Color. It shows us how to create a sunset with water, milk, and flashlight which the children eagerly tried it. They exclaimed: "It's orange!" as we shined the light through milky water. We learned that white light from the sun passes through the air. At sunset, only orange and red rays get through the air. Tiny particles of dust or smoke in the air stop all the other colors.

The children concluded the activity by painting their own sunset.

Colour My World #4 - Exploring hues, tints and shades

tints & shades

"Indigo looks like blue," said Aiden. "But it looks purple," said Natalya. This led to our discussion - what is indigo? 

We decided to mix blue and purple together to see if they make indigo. First we need the colour purple. The children mixed blue and red together until they got purple. Then they added more blue. Natalya exclaimed: "It's indigo." Enxin said: " We just need to add more blue." I explained to the children that indigo is a secondary colour and when we mix primary colours together we may get different secondary colours called hues. 

Enxin asked: "How about pink? I can't make pink with the primary colours."
I prepared some white paint and the children tried adding white paint to the primary colours. They observed that when white is added, the colour gets lighter. I let them know that they are making a tint. I asked if they can guess what will happen if black is added to the colours. They all knew the answer - it gets darker (shades)! So knowledgeable! 

hues of orange

I

Colour My World #3 - What is colour?

This week we explored one of Enxin's inquiries: How come there is colour? What is colour?

To help the children understand that we see colours through light, we did an experiment. First we sat in the dark and the children immediately noticed that they couldn't see anything. Then I asked the children to grab a piece of fabric from the dark and shone the flashlight on it. They each exclaimed the colour in his/her hands. 

They came to the conclusion that we cannot see anything in the dark (not even colours) and when there is light, we can see. 

I explained to the children that all light rays contain colour. When light shines on an object, only some colours bounce off it. Our eyes detect the colours in the light coming from objects and we see them as that particular colour. 

Sitting in the dark

It's a red scarf!

light beams passing through a triangular prism

It's green!

Making the light spectrum

Colour My World #2 - Primary and Secondary Colours

Testing the colours

The results 

The Water Group started off their inquiry on colour with the concept change in mind. The children became scientists and tried to figure out how primary colours can make secondary colours. They eagerly tested the colours and recorded their findings. I love the way that the children worked together and voiced their thoughts and questions as they did their experiment. I could hear them say: "Let's see what will happen if I mix red and blue", "How about mixing all the colours (red, blue and yellow) together." and "Hey, I can't make the primary colours."

"I made purple!"

What a group of thinkers!

Painting with primary colours

Painting with secondary colours

Colour My World #1 - Children's thought on colour

Exploring with colour tiles

Decorating a house with colour cellophane

Below is information on our new unit - Colour My World

Transdisciplinary Theme:  How the World Works

Central Idea:  Colour is all around us and make a difference in our lives

The three concepts that we are focusing on are perspective, function and change.

To let the children experience and start thinking about our central idea and lines of inquiry, activities about colours were set up. Below are comments/questions the children came up with during the activities:

Enxin: What is colour?
Pippa: Colours can change.
Aiden: I like blue.
Natalya: All the colours are in the rainbow.
Peter: I like it because it looks beautiful.
Andrew: Red and yellow makes orange.

Colour mixing

Circle of Friends #7 - Summative week (Pet rock)

    

We are nearing the end of our unit and this week all the children met together to give their thoughts on what they have learned about friendship. Wendy read the story Hunwick's Egg and told the children about a long time ago, a company created "pet rock" where people used the rock as something to talk to and take care of. After the story, each child picked out one rock from a pile that they would make into their own pet rock. They painted their rock and as they were painting there were asked to think about whether it is possible to have a rock as a friend and how they are going to treat it.

Circle of Friends #6 - How are we connected with our friends?

Last week, the Water group studied the characters in the book Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley. The children thought it was interesting to see two best friends with such different personalities and interests. They do agree that friends don't always have to like the same things, the two most important things in friendship are caring and helpful.
Then the children paired up and using a venn diagram compared their likes and dislikes with each other. They giggled each time they found a common interest between themselves.  At the end, they commented on how the two are friends and what they would do for/with each other.