Our love of painting

There is only one thing more wonderful than the paintings the children create when they visit the art easel.

 



You might think it's the way the children explore the paint.



You might think it's how the children learn about shapes, colours and lines.

You might think it's the imagination the children show us through their creativity.

 



You might think it's how the children show us that they are connecting to the natural world.

And you'd be mostly right....But...

The one thing more wonderful than the children's paintings, is the stories the children tell when they share them with us!

Experimenting With Paint

Experimentation is something that we do very well with in the wonderful world of kindergarten.

When we experiment with the art materials, the children discover new ways to interact with them.

Paint doesn't only need to be spread and mixed with a brush.

Small squeeze bottles were offered with the paint. When pressed very softly, the air was not strong enough to push the thick paint. When pressed strong and quickly, the air from the squeeze bottles pushed the paint on the paper.

Some of the children used the spoons to push the paint on the paper, then used the squeeze bottles.

Some of the children pushed the bottles right into the paint and then watched small bubbles of paint pop as they pushed the air from the squeeze bottles.

Addison decided that the eye droppers might work better. They also push air out when they are squeezed.

Colours mixed together to become new colours.

Many of the children smeared colours together with the backs of the spoons, their fingers and the tips of the squeeze bottles and eye droppers.

It was very interesting to see what colours were revealed underneath other colours.

 

 

Donovan tried to squeeze paint into the droppers and push it out onto their paper.

Experimenting with paint is always fun...

and gives us all fresh ideas!

One Colour Experiment Deserves Another

The children enjoyed their experiment with mixing liquid, food colour, flour and baking soda so much... why stop there?  

Colour mixing continued with different materials.  This time Miss Moore invited the children to experiment with milk and food colouring.  What happened when drops were added to the milk?  What happened when more than one colour was added together?

The mixture swirled and swirled.  Paint brushes and paper were introduced.  How was the mixture different than the paint at the easel?  

Budding scientists and budding artists.  Oh the enjoyment of the wonderful world of kindergarten!

Colours That Mix and Kids That Predict

We can never predict where the learning will lead us! After a nature walk that resulted in painting and making prints with sticks, leaves and things we found, the children seemed to show us how interested they were in mixing the colours of paint they were using.  Miss Moore, the university student that is spending time with us, decided to take the colour mixing to a whole new level. And, of course, things never turn out as you plan them to!

The children watched the different food colours mix into clear liquid.  Some containers were water.  Some were vinegar. How were they the same?  How were they different? Would the food colour react the same in each liquid?

There were two containers that had types of white powder. One container had flour.  One had baking soda.  How were they the same?  How were they different?

What would happen when flour or baking soda was mixed with coloured water or vinegar?  The children delighted in seeing the fizzy reaction of the vinegar and baking soda! Then they started sharing the different colours of liquid and tried many combinations.  Some put more liquid, making the powder runny, smooth, lumpy.  Some put less liquid, making the powder clumpy, crumbly, gooey, 'like play dough'. Some observed.

Colours changed.  Matter changed.  Children experimented.  We all learned!