Young children begin to observe light and color at an early age.
They notice sunbeams shining through window panes, rainbows from prisms and beveled mirrors in their homes, and are curious about reflections from shiny objects as they play outside.
Kids discover how to make shadows with their hands on a sunny day and how to make new colors by playing with paints. They peek through colored plastic paper to see a brand new red or yellow world.
Their understanding of light concepts increases as they investigate flashlights and listen to science books about rainbows, light sources, reflections and more.
First Science Library: Light & Dark: What Is A Lens? Why Do Shadows Change Shape? by Wendy Madgwick.
The activities below build on the students’ earlier investigations of light and color. They include science experiments, math, light in literature, and light and color art.
Explore light and color with math:
- Make color patterns – yellow, yellow, orange, yellow, repeat
- Classify items – things that are transparent, things that are not
- Make a real graph – things that reflect light, things that don’t, count how many in each row
- Trace, draw, and/or cut out red, orange & yellow stars, using a variety of yellow and orange shades – sequence from largest to smallest, lightest to darkest
Light and color science:
- Discover light sources, free tracers here
- Experiment with opaque, translucent, and transparent papers
- Experiment with reflective and nonreflective materials
- Teach light vocabulary, here…
- If you have an aide or parent helper, candle experiments are fun on a dark winter day.
- Teach light and color concepts, see here…
Light and color literacy ideas:
- Read “Good Night Moon” a few times to the children.
- Emphasize the rhyming words in the story.
- Bring the children’s attention to the letter “G” on the book cover.
- Teach how to print the capital and lower case “g”.
- Brainstorm and list (with pictures) other things that could be in the room and rhyme e.g. ‘Goodnight rat and goodnight cat…”
- Create a group “Goodnight Moon” book, using large sheets of paper.
- Invite the kids create their own “Goodnight Moon” books using frame sentences “Goodnight _________ and goodnight __________ “
- Download file for “Goodnight Moon” rhyming activity.
Light and color with social studies:
- Bring in everyday light tools for the children to touch and examine (telescope, magnifying glass, eye glasses, binoculars, cameras)
- Show fire safety DVD
- Invite a fireman to visit or have a trip to the fire hall
Light and color art:
- Fingerpaint on black construction paper with gold, sparkly, poster paint (see image below)
- Learn primary colors – red, yellow and blue
- Mix primary colors with white
- Make a color spinner
- Make Christmas cards with lots of glitter
TIP!! have a glitter station manned by a parent helper - Make a light picture with a variety of yellows and oranges.
- Mix white to lighten colors, black to darken (put out tiny bits of black)
- Make a reflection collage
- Make see through glasses
- Make Christmas decorations – Stars and moon covered in glitter
- Make sun print papers
