Exploring Color

Color Box 1 (Primary Colors)

At an early age children begin to notice and become interested in color. Adults noticed that children were fascinated with spools of colored thread. Originally, spools of colored thread were given to children and the children enjoyed looking at the colors and sorting the spools by color. However, over time the thread would get worn, dirty, and tattered. Therefore, today, manufacturers provide bright colored tablets made out of plastic. The colored tablets help draw the child's conscious attention to color.

At first, the young child is given just the primary colors to look at and match. Children like to organize and make sense out of their world, and they enjoy organizing the colors by placing matching colors together. After they have been matching the colors, an adult can teach the child the names of the colors. For teaching names, a technique is used which is called "The Three Period Lesson."

 

Color Box 2 (Secondary Colors)

After children have explored the primary colors, they are ready to be introduced to more colors. In color box 2 they find all the secondary colors (the colors that can be mixed by combining the primary colors together), plus pink, grey, brown, black and white. The children like to lay these colors out and organize them by matching colors. After the children are familiar with these colors, an adult can introduce the names of these colors by using "The Three Period Lesson."

 

 

Color Box 3 (Shades of Colors)

When children know their basic colors they can be introduced to shades of color. Color box 3 provides 7 shades of each of the basic colors. Children enjoy laying out the colors by shade - from dark to light or light to dark.

 

 

 

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