by Miss Callaghan

The children have been enjoying participating in a wide range of science activities this month. This provides a great opportunity for children to explore materials and observe changes.

   

“What happens if I mix that one and that one (yellow & red). It’s orange!”

We have been exploring colour mixing with primary colours and pipettes. The children have been growing their confidence in using charts for information and have been using them effectively to make choices and plan which colour they would like to mix. The pipettes have been great for developing fine motor skills and children have enjoyed discussions around colours and how they change.

   

“I want to make green – I need blue and yellow. It’s green!”

We then focused on using different materials to investigate change and colour. The children used glue to create a pattern on a piece of paper then covered it in salt. Children were able to use their problem solving skills to predict what would happen when they used the pipettes to drop colour onto the salt and glue.

“I think the colours will mix.”

  

“It moves slow!”

“It looks like fireworks that I went to watch.”

The children were excited to see the colour droplets expand as they travelled through the salt and when they added another colour beside it, the colour would mix and travel.

     

Lastly, we expanded on our materials and made puffy paint. The children used flour, baking powder, salt and food colouring and mixed it together to make a cake-like consistency. This also involved the use of instructions and a recipe, the children were able to recognise numbers and count out how much they needed. The last set of instructions was to put our creation into the microwave for 30 seconds and watch the painting come to life! The picture puffed up and the children were delighted with the result, this was a great opportunity to explore cause and effect and it left an open ended opportunity for discussion.