Making and exploring with colour. When we plan crafts for children it can be helpful to think about three basic things; colour, shape, and texture. This post is all about colour. How can we include an experience of colour (or the lack of it) in our craft times with young children? Here’s some ideas..
Coloured paper as the base for creating.
It’s good to give coloured paper as the base for making sometimes. Take a look at whether or not you tend to always start with white or off white paper. When can you start with something else? Sometimes white/cream paper is exactly what you need to use but not always. Black paper can give a good contrast to colours.
Children can use black paper as the background for a colour filled collage.
Black paper makes a great base for a moon and stars picture. Other ideas include mark making with white wax crayon on black paper.
Sometimes you may like to start a picture craft with a background colour like this picture of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac in their tent.
Painting
Powder paints are great for young children. Use non spill pots, easy to hold brushes and provide aprons. Large pieces of sugar paper are great. Children may want to cover the paper with layers of paint or be happy with just a few marks here and there. Let them decide. (Just try to prevent so much coverage that the paper disintegrates!). Sometimes children want to use there fingers and make hand prints. This is great!
Crepe paper printing
Crepe paper printing is a fun way of discovering that colours change when mixed together. (It can leave fingers stained too so warn parents). For each picture you need two pieces of sugar paper and crepe paper of various colours in strips. You also need a water spray bottle. Children can choose the colours of crepe and lay them on the paper (they don’t need to cover it). Then spray with water. Place the other piece of sugar paper on top and pat down. Pull apart and remove crepe paper. The beauty of crepe paper is that the colour runs when wet. The children can see some lovely effects when the colours blend and mix. When we do this activity at toddler group some children love having the opportunity to make lots of pictures so if you can allow them to experiment and enjoy the process.
Wax resist washes
Use wax crayons to mark make on white sugar paper and then paint over a colour wash (very watery powder paint). You can use several different colours on the same picture or just one.
Colour collage
Make a colour collage (lots of shapes and textures to explore here too) This can help children to learn the names of colours and also help them to start to think about how the colour makes them feel. You can ask, ‘Is this colour warm or cold?’
Explore the way light and colour come together
Make simple sun catchers or a stained glass effect. These pictures are colorful but come to life when light shines through them.
Home made finger paints
Finger painting on a paper plate can provide a lovely opportunity for children to mix colours. Here’s a link to a recipe from Rainy Day Mum.
Use colourful materials
Sometimes you might want to limit the colour choices to make nightime pictures or a single colour collage but at other times have lots of options available. Here’s some ideas
- Paints
- Chalk
- Tissue paper
- Crepe paper
- Wax crayons
- Felt tips (washable) We sometimes use these but not all the time. They make mark making easy for young children.
- Colourful collage materials (see the post all about texture)
These are just a few ideas about making and exploring with colour. We haven’t begun to talk about primary and secondary colours or the colour wheel and I’ve only mentioned one idea about hot and cold colours or how different colours make us feel!
The ideas in this post are just some activities that we’ve used to include lots of making and exploring with colour in our toddler group. They would all be great to do at home too. Feel free to share your own ideas about crafts with colour in the comments.
But if you’d like to think more about colour take a look at this really interesting video Color theory for Noobs