“A Pallet of Colors”

The Ivy Room, Pre-K Class

Children in the Ivy Room notice the great variety of colors nature so graciously offers us! Inspired by the color variations found in leaves, grasses, and flowers, the children brought their subjects into the classroom. Soon the room had a particular area designated for investigation where leaves, plants, branches, seed pods, pine cones and tools for exploration took up residence. Through their daily encounters, the children have been getting more familiar with the varieties of color that nature presents, particularly found in leaves.

Keeping with our school’s intention of using mark-making to express knowledge, the children began mixing paints to use in nature paintings. The teachers observed the children searching for new words to describe the unique colors. Using words like yellow-ISH, red-ISH, and brown-ISH did not satisfy the children, so they continued to build a new vocabulary of adjectives. “Chalky blue,” “golden yellow,” “salad green,” “popsicle orange,” and “raspberry red” are just some of the descriptions the teachers noted. The children often connected well-known words representing an object and a color, such as raspberry, and incorporated them into their narratives.

In addition to building a new vocabulary of color, the children are encountering scientific concepts of transformation and reaction as they problem-solve to make a darker or lighter shade, a shade that leans into yellow versus green, or a shade that gradually creates an ombre effect. Over time, the children have developed a pallet of colors to use in the future.