New unit: Colour our World

Welcome to our new unit on Colour!

The following are the concepts and lines of inquiry which will guide us in our conversations
and activities with the children:

Function- People use colour to communicate with one another and to decorate themselves and their homes.
Perspective- Colours can sometimes make us feel a certain way
Change- mixing can change colours.

With their eyes closed I asked them to share what they see and feel...if they see any colour. Some said it's too dark, they see black and it feels scary because it reminds them of Halloween. We then opened our eyes and  started by noticing our classroom, where they can find colour and how it feels to be surrounded by an array of colours.

Lysander commenting on a photo
"I made a rainbow"


Using photos we began discussing how people use colour. At first they weren't sure how to respond to my question so I asked each one to pick a photo to talk about and describe how colour is used.
Their comments:

 Lysander: "They put rainbow flowers to make the room look nice. You know flowers have colour so bumble bees can come and get honey."
Pauline: "They have shiny white sparkles to decorate the dresses to look pretty.

 We went on to talking about colour in general, what they might know about it and anything they wonder about. Here's how our conversation went.

Orin: There are happy colours like orange
Alexis: I know about blue.
Tai: I like red.d light blue.

Pauline: black makes me sad and shiny pink makes me happy
I use colours to make squiggly maps.
Kathryn: what are squiggly maps?
Pauline: the one we sing.
Kathryn: Oh, a song map....interesting
Pauline: There are lighter colours and darker colours.

 Lysander: colours can change
Orin: But how do you change the colours?
Kathryn: Well we can find out. That can be our question for next week.

 We also went out for a walk in our neighbourhood to see how we might use colours in our community.
They noticed how our school building is painted green and the signs along the streets.
Using all these comments and observations we will explore mixing and changing colours for the next couple of weeks.


"stop sign is red so people will stop"
-Orin
           
Alan mixing colours


"the white lines tell us to cross the street"
-Pauline







Comments

  1. Kate13 November 2012 at 06:44

    Kathryn, I loved the flow of the work you did with the children. There is such a sense of community the permeates the description of the children's conversation. I noticed also that some of the children started talking about topics directly related to the lines of inquiry. Isn't that amazing...it's so much like they are planning the weeks ahead. This suggests that everyone took a careful look and listen to the children before the unit got planned. The one word I use to describe this is "synergy"! Thank you.

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