Painting with Ice

Summer is just around the corner here and summer vacation has already arrived for some of our school aged friends. Here is one great way to continue some science learning and stay cool. Painting with ice!

Usually we only think about ice in the winter, but it makes for a fun summer activity too.

I mixed regular tempera paint with water so it was about equal parts water and paint. I used small plastic cups and froze them for about 30 minutes so they were slushy but not solid. I stuck the sticks in - some I had to prop up with other sticks to get them reasonably straight.

Then I waited. That was the hardest part. But to make them solid, I waited overnight.

Then I popped the plastic cup in warm water to unfreeze it just a tiny bit and then we painted. As you can tell, we only use primary colors and as the paint defrosted during use, we created secondary colors.

Rainbows

Yesterday we explored color science with preschoolers. We learned the primary colors (red, blue, yellow), mixed them to create secondary colors, (orange, green, purple) and made some art. We used some science tools: medicine droppers, egg cartons, and bath tub color tabs. Here are some other great ways to explore rainbow science

Make a rainbow book – take seven sheets of white paper and staple the edges to make a book. You can add construction paper for a cover if you like. On the first page draw the red line for the rainbow, on the second page draw the orange arc, on the third page draw the yellow arc, etc. Now cut out pictures from magazine and paste them on the correct color page.

Eat a rainbow – you can talk about how we should eat all the colors of the rainbow each day to be healthy. What are some of the colors you all like to eat? Can you make a rainbow meal with something from each color?

Jello Rainbow – you can make a rainbow snack with layers of jello. You can get just the primary colors and mix them, but remember that you have to let each layer fully set before adding the next one.

Rainbow Streamer – cut the center out of a paper plate. Add construction paper streamers off of one side in the colors of the rainbow. You can staple or glue them on. Hold it like a tambourine or turn it into a windsock by putting a string thru the hole and hanging it up.

Color Scavenger Hunt – take crayons or small pieces of paper on your next walk. See if you can find something that matches each color. Are primary colors easier to find?

Books:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? By Eric Carle

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Elhert

Color

Let's face it, we are visual creatures. We love the shape, shadows and color of objects. Our eyes are build for color vision and given all the colors we wear, paint our houses, choose in our cars, and plant in our flower beds, we love color a lot.


Kids love color and it is an easy way to explore some pretty darn cool science with your favorite preschooler. At the Messy Fingers program at the library we put food coloring into milk (above) then added one drop of soap. The colors mixed and mingled creating a new design each time we looked.

We also used bath color tablets to make primary colors. We used clear egg cartons on white paper to see them nicely and droppers to mix two primary colors at a time to form secondary colors. To record our observations, we put drops of primary colors on to coffee filters and watched where they merged into ... none other than our secondary colors (orange, purple, and green).




Here are some ways to explore color at home.

Eat a rainbow – you can talk about how we should eat all the colors of the rainbow each day to be healthy. What are some of the colors you all like to eat? Can you make a rainbow meal with something from each color?

Jello Rainbow – you can make a rainbow snack with layers of jello. You can get just the primary colors and mix them, but remember that you have to let each layer fully set before adding the next one.

Rainbow Streamer – cut the center out of a paper plate. Add construction paper streamers off of one side in the colors of the rainbow. You can staple or glue them on. Hold it like a tambourine or turn it into a windsock by putting a string thru the hole and hanging it up.

Color Scavenger Hunt – take crayons or small pieces of paper on your next walk. See if you can find something that matches each color. Are primary colors easier to find?

Books:
Mouse Paint by Sue Walsh
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Elhert