The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

  • Home
  • Start here!
  • Welcome
    • About Me
    • Popular Posts
    • Play Challenge
    • Subscribe
  • Age
    • Baby
    • Toddler
    • Preschooler
    • School Age
  • Activities
    • Literacy
    • Numeracy
    • Creativity
    • Physical
    • PHSE
    • Science
  • Resources
    • Spaces
    • Toys
    • Books
  • Contact
  • Kindness Elves

Colour Concoctions with Coloured Water!

May 9, 2012 by Anna Ranson

 We explored colour mixing with coloured water concoctions on kitchen towels! They learnt about colours and made beautiful tie-dye patterns on the papers as a by-product, which are little art works in their own right.

We put about 1-2 cm of red, yellow and blue liquid food colouring into 3 separate jars, then filled to the top with water to dilute them. This turned them into our own version of liquid watercolours! [In the UK I have yet to find liquid watercolours that I see written about on US blogs. This seems to work well as an alternative!]

I set the paints up outside on our outdoor chalkboard table, on top of some sheets of kitchen towel. I added 2 turkey basters (found in a local hardware shop) and left them to it!

It took Pop a few attempts to work out how to squeeze the end to suck up the paint and when she mastered it she was really pleased with herself! First of all they spent a long time just sucking up the colours and splashing them out on the towels, enjoying the joy of that process.
 Slowly, Cakie started to notice that the colours changed when placed together, and then the fun and learning extended!

Oh wow! The yellow and the blue mix to make green!

The yellow and the red make orange!

I found some extra jars and she tried combining the paints within them and loved guessing what might happen before she did it.

Beautiful colours mid-transformation!

Pop made copious amounts of purple, in a variety of shades! I had to keep replacing the kitchen towel every 5 minutes as it became so water logged, but they wanted to keep on going. I hung them out to dry and amazingly they didn’t break (these are supermarket economy ones!)

I absolutely love the effects of the mixed colours on the paper! This blue one above, with dandelions added by Cakie looks like a work of art to me.

As they dried they resemble tie-dye and looked gorgeous with their range of cool and warm hues. It provided a nice opportunity to go back and talk about what we did and what colours they were able to create, by examining the finished “art work.”

Now if only we could think of something to do with them!

Learning Links:

  • creativity: exploring colour mixing, talking about warm and cool colours, discussing shade and tone, creating art on a large scale
  • physical: using small hand muscles to squeeze and release, hand-eye coordination
  • knowledge & understanding of the world: making predictions about what colours would be made, combining liquids, dilution
Cakie: 3 years 7 months
Pop: 2 years 1 month
Bean: 11 weeks

Related Posts

  • Natural Fruit Play Dough RecipesNatural Fruit Play Dough Recipes
  • How to Dye Pasta for Sensory PlayHow to Dye Pasta for Sensory Play
  • Easy Gluten Free Play Dough RecipeEasy Gluten Free Play Dough Recipe
  • Natural Dyes for Play DoughNatural Dyes for Play Dough
  • Best Ever Chocolate Play Dough RecipeBest Ever Chocolate Play Dough Recipe
  • Gingerbread Play Dough RecipeGingerbread Play Dough Recipe

Filed Under: Art and Craft, Colour Mixing, Colours, Messy Play, Painting, Sensory, Water Play Tagged With: Sensory Play

« Textured Aromatherapy Play Dough
It’s Playtime! Playful Literacy Ideas »

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    May 9, 2012 at 3:52 pm

    It’s also fun to fold the
    napkins and dip the corners in and then open them carefully. They have a lovely pattern.xx
    Faith Murray

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      May 9, 2012 at 10:47 pm

      Oh that’s a LOVELY idea Faith, thank you!!

  2. Anonymous says

    May 9, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    They look beautiful. Have u tried brusho in water for liquid watercolours? They look like they are crying out to be made into a string of flowers to me …

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      May 9, 2012 at 10:46 pm

      Not sure what brusho is? Will look it up! String of flowers sounds gorgeous! thanks

    • Anonymous says

      May 10, 2012 at 6:14 pm

      I use brusho in school and assumed your teaching days would have exposed you to it!!!! It is like course powder that you can either mix with water (and appears to me a non expert like liquid watercolour) or you can wet the paper and sprinkle it on and it makes FAB pictures. I’ll let you know if I have a pot laying around and send you some!! x

  3. Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says

    May 9, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    This is great – I haven’t found the liquid water colours either (I bet someone will find them on Amazon if we ask like the water beads :D). So turkey basters how do I go about using them. I’m seeing them in loads of activities and understand about the hand muscles using the pre-writing grip but what sort of activities would you recommend

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      May 9, 2012 at 10:45 pm

      I’ve checked Amazon and ebay but still no luck! I think Indian Ink is the closest thing, and it’s glorious. Need to stock up on some! The turkey basters I think are really just for water play. My girls LOVE them in the bath for sucking up water and squirting it at each other!

    • Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says

      May 9, 2012 at 11:08 pm

      Brusho which people are mentioning above are great – we have some powder ones and a tiny bit of powder turns it into a brilliant vibrant water colour but you can use them in the powder form as well. I use them in my own canvases as well. I will have to find some turkey basters (should have stocked up at Christmas!) they sound loads of fun.

  4. Julia Deering says

    May 9, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    Ah lovely. We made some tie-dyed paper towel fabric last summer. Once dry, they were made into dresses for dolls, as I recall. Thank goodness for the super-strength variety!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      May 9, 2012 at 10:44 pm

      Dresses! How lovely!

  5. Growing a Jeweled Rose says

    May 9, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    I just love how messy and colorful this play time was. So fun!

  6. Debra@Familylicious says

    May 9, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    Easy ways to make liquid watercolors are to take dry block water colors crush them and put them in water let it soak overnight. Or take washable markers like crayola markers and soak them in water overnight.

    Another alternative not sure if you have it in the uk but koolaid or powdered drink mix tthe kind without sugar added add 1tbs water per packet it makes scratch and sniff paintings.

    Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. I love your blog you have so many fantastic ideas

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      May 9, 2012 at 10:43 pm

      Great tips, thank you Debra! WE don’t get Kooaid or powdered drinks over here at all, but I can see that those would smell gorgeous when painted with!

  7. Debra@Familylicious says

    May 9, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  8. Debra@Familylicious says

    May 9, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  9. SisterJulia says

    May 9, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    Came to you via face book:D

    I use Dr Ph Martin’s’ liquid water colors and the kids love them, super vibrant even with just a drop of each colour futher diluted in a palette.
    One word of caution, they stain! Brightly coloured fingers for a couple of days at least:)

    http://www.artstore.co.uk/dr-ph-martinand-039-s-1-2oz-radiant-watercolour-lemon-yellow-c-208-p-4157

  10. School Sparks Renee says

    May 10, 2012 at 12:04 am

    Love your pictures. Food coloring in water and eye droppers work well also, Renee

  11. pinkoddy says

    May 10, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    That all looks lots of fun

  12. Rebekah says

    May 10, 2012 at 9:50 pm

    I just love the look on Pop’s face as she is trying to figure out how to work the turkey baster. We have used them for playing, and it took my daughter awhile to figure out how to use it too.

  13. Jill @ A Mom With A Lesson Plan says

    May 11, 2012 at 4:27 am

    I love it! The colors are so pretty. One of Little M’s favorite things to do is mix colors… she will love this!

  14. Tiffany C. says

    June 1, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    I ADORE THIS! Will try! I try not to use paper towels, so maybe I will try it on some recycled/re-used papers – going green one step at a time!

  15. Praises from a Wife and Mommy! says

    August 16, 2012 at 4:20 am

    I think I would take a clothes pin and turn them into butterflies! 🙂 Or save and use as wrapping paper. My kids thought it was so cool to unwrap their birthday presents in paper they designed…they even were bragging telling their friends.

  16. Anonymous says

    December 11, 2012 at 3:52 am

    Try blowning bubbles with a straw, then .touching bubbles with paper. Let dry then use to makes cards from the kids. Also can use watered down tempura paints.

The Imagination Tree on FacebookThe Imagination Tree on TwitterThe Imagination Tree on PinterestThe Imagination Tree on G+RSS feed from The Imagination TreeThe Imagination Tree straight to your inbox

Search The Imagination Tree

About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

The Kindness Elves Store
Play Ideas on The Imagination Tree

Create with The Imagination Tree

Makes on The Imagination Tree

Sign up for our FREE emails:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT