Playdough-makers and colour-inventors

September 17th 2011

We began the week with a play dough making session, while another group of students experimented with mixing and inventing new paint colours.  I explained how to read and follow a recipe, then asked one of the older students to make sure that they were taking turns.  They did a beautiful job, and when the play dough was ready, they came up with some very creative sculptural designs.  I presented them with a few textured objects to experiment with, including a fossil and a piece of wood filled with wood bug tunnels.  They began making prints with the dough, and were particularly curious when they saw the reversal of the fossil shell pattern.  There have been a lot of questions regarding fossils lately, and today a little girl shared her understanding of how Haida Gwaii originated from volcanic rock.  Another boy added his knowledge of underwater volcanoes while the rest of the children considered how quickly lava might cool under water.  Unexpected conversations like these help guide my practice by revealing my students interests and curiosities.  I will bring in some argillite and ask the children to search for fossils on our beach next week and see where our research takes us.  

The second group worked away at mixing and inventing their own paint colours on a visual recipe sheet.  They were very excited to experiment with paint, and were curious to see what happened when they added black or white to their colours.  They were delighted to see the results and began shouting out ideas for colour names.  They made connections to nature and objects in the classroom, and came up with some very inventive names, including Skunk Grey, Razor Red, Whirlpool, Sky, Banana Slug Grey and Old Fashioned Battery, (a purplish burgundy brown).  One little boy was afraid to look at his page when he saw the resulting colour, claiming that it was "too spooky".  He named it Spooky Grey and carried on mixing.  This week I showed the class an amazing rainbow-making plastic sheet, and one of the parents brought a kaleidoscope and a prism for us to play with.  I look forward to experimenting with these next week.  I will be sewing up some 'home bags' this weekend with Bobbi-Lee.  I hope you enjoy yours!