Exploring Fall Colours

Posted by Nicole Carney on Oct 7, 2016 in Fall Crafts and Activities, paint printing, Painting, Picture Book Activities, Science Activities | 0 comments

Fall is such a beautiful time of year: the crisp, cool air; pumpkins swelling on serpentine vines; the moon, luminous and full; and, of course, the patchwork of colourful leaves blanketing the ground. Yes, fall is definitely my favourite time of year! I’m pretty sure my bugs love it too, judging by how many times we had to stop on our way home from the bus stop in order to inspect and collect leaves. When we got home, my bugs didn’t want to part with their leaf collections, so we brought them inside and put them in a bowl on the table.

The next day I read the books Leaf Man, and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert aloud to them. I displayed the books on the table, along with the leaves they had collected, and set out some other fall inspired materials as well. I didn’t give my bugs any instructions, I just invited them to explore and create. The result? Lots of lovely and unique artwork, some discoveries in colour mixing and matching, and an hour filled with inquiring minds and busy hands.

Materials:

a variety of leaves (different sizes, shapes and colours)
other nature items such as twigs, berries, pinecones, acorns, etc. (optional)
tempera paint (yellow, red, purple, brown, green, black and white)
paper
paint brushes
glue
paint chips in a variety of fall colours

Exploring Fall Colours

I thought B would start off by wanting to create a Leaf Man of his own, but he and A instantly gravitated toward the paints.

Some discoveries they made were:

If you mix red with yellow, you get orange
If you mix a colour with a bit of black, you will get a darker colour
The more black you add, the darker the colour gets
If you mix a colour with white, you will get a lighter colour
The more white you add, the lighter the colour gets
If you mix red and white together, you get pink
If you mix black and white together, you get grey

They also tried matching the leaves to the paint chip colours. B even tried to create new colours to match the paint chips.

They painted leaves,

and sticks…

They discovered they could make their own leaves by painting their fingertips and pressing them onto the paper.

They glued some of the leaves and twigs onto their paintings.

B painted a branch, and then glued some leaves onto it

I find it fascinating to observe how my kids think. The process of learning and discovery is more important than the end product. That being said, I thought their artwork turned out quite lovely as well!