Since it is February and so dreary outside, I thought that we should bring more colour again into our homeschool. We had already learned all about Rainbows last year when learning about the letter R, so I wanted to do something different. I decided to check out both Pinterest and YouTube for some lesson inspiration and happened across this video for Walking Water.
I instantly started planning. I decided that we would concentrate on primary colours. We would use them to create the secondary colours in the colour wheel. I put together two easy lessons for the kids. I always like to start the lesson with a sampling of books that explain the main concepts that we are learning that day. These books are the ones that I chose, although you can find an extensive list here.
We then used these two worksheets An Early Reader: Color Words and this colour printable for writing practice. I really love the site Teachers Pay Teachers because the worksheets are so affordable. (even for a Canadian). This shop even had a freebie that was exactly what I needed for this lesson.
Next we moved on to the kid’s favourite part of the lesson; science! Surprisingly enough I had not done the milk and dish soap experiment with my older kids, so I took the opportunity this time to do so. The colours looked so neat mixing in the bowl.
What You Need :
1 carton of animal milk. (Don’t use Almond or Soy. You need a high fat content.)
Shallow Bowl
Food Colouring
Dish Soap (Dawn works best.)
Q-Tip
Pour the milk into the bowl, and place a couple drops of the food colouring around the perimeter. Then have the child place a Q-Tip in without dish soap on it. Observe what happens. Then coat the other end of the Q-Tip with dish soap and see what happens. Don’t Stir. Just place. Pretty amazing hey? Here is a great explanation of why this works.
The second experiment that we did was the walking water experiment that I mentioned above. Not only does this experiment show how primary colours can mix with each other creating secondary colours, it also explains the concept of Capillary Action. The kids thought this experiment was phenomenal.
Here’s a breakdown of how to do this one too!
What You Need :
Clear Glasses.
Paper Towel. (The more absorbent the better.)
Water
Food Colouring
Place nine glasses side by side.
Fill the first glass with water, and then every second glass.
Place 6 drops of Food Colouring in the First and Last glasses.
Place 6 drops of Yellow in the Third and Fourth glasses.
Place 6 drops of Blue in the Sixth and Seventh glasses.
Fold one sheet of paper towel into thirds lengthwise.
Place in First and Second Glass.
Repeat for Second and Third, Fourth and Fifth, Fifth and Sixth, Seventh and Eighth, and finally Eighth and Ninth.
Observe what happens.
I left the experiment out overnight to see if the colours would get darker and I was pleasantly surprised. The colours are much more noticeable the second day.
I had the kids use a simple colour mixing worksheet to record their observations. You can find your own here.
To end our lesson we let our creative juices flow with some art. Finger-painting is a tactile way for those kinaesthetic learners to explore colours first hand (pun intended).
These colours are definitely mixed! As the kids were mixing they were explaining to me what each colour was called and how they could make black and grey and purple.
There are so many more ideas and experiments out there for teaching colours. If you have some resources on colours that you would to share with me or my readers, please leave a link in comments.
And as always please check out my Pinterest Boards and Instagram for more inspiration.
PIN IT FOR LATER
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2 thoughts on “Learn About Colours | Homeschool Lesson Plan”
Amanda - Raising da Vinci
(February 10, 2016 - 8:50 pm)I love the color walk activity! I’ve actually just added it to next months learning packet! (I create a monthly learning packet with 4-6 learning activities for my subscribers)
Alisha
(February 29, 2016 - 12:39 am)Isn’t it just the best? I can’t believe we had never done it before!
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