The ability to understand cause and effect, figure out how things work, and solve problems – are essential to support critical thinking in our children.  One way to encourage these skills is by having children experiment with color mixing. Color mixing can help practice critical thinking skills like exploring cause and effect through observation of how colors blend together and engaging in problem solving by testing different ways to achieve a certain color.

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Both parents and children alike will appreciate this lighthearted presentation of a lesson in color. “Walsh’s cut-paper collage illustrations have bold colors and just the right simplicity for the storyline. A real charmer that’s great fun as well as informative.”–School Library Journal

Ellen Stoll Walsh – Author and Illustrator

Three white mice get into some primary hued paint pots, and emerge as artful members of a lesson on color and camouflage. When they are white mice, on white paper, the cat can’t see them. Then they spy three jars of paint, one red, one yellow and one blue.  “They thought it was Mouse Paint. They climbed right in.” Thus begins a flirtation with paints (mixing colors, making new shades, dancing in swirled puddles) that provides them with nearly all the colors in the spectrum, and when the paint dries, they bathe in the cat’s water bowl until they are white again.

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COLOR EXPLORATIONS FOR YOUR CHILDREN

A CIRCLE OF MICE

For your primary aged children………
Materials:  2 pieces paper (one white piece and one dark background color),  watercolors or markers,  scissors, glue and black yarn or Sharpie marker.

>Draw 6 ovals to create the bodies for the mice.
>Paint or color each mouse in one of the 6 colors of the color wheel and cut them out.
>Glue mice in a circle in “rainbow order” like the color wheel on your darker piece of paper.
>Add eyes, noses, whiskers and tails

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A BOLD COLLAGE
Materials:  Watercolor paints and paper, one piece of black construction paper, scissors and glue.

This bold and simple activity combines painting and collage.  Encourage your children to plan their painting to place colors in rainbow order.  Finally, cut black paper zigzags, wavy and straight strips, both wide and narrow.

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