COLOUR - where an appreciation of the use of colour, and the colour spectrum is essential to all 5 -7 year olds. (RELATES THROUGHOUT THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM)
In PAINTING AND COLOUR - a child can develop further skills in this area by:
1. ENCOURAGING FREE PAINTING - Children can express themselves with total freedom if they are given the correct forum in which to paint without too many restrictions. Ways of promoting this in your child are to set up finger painting sessions, straw blowing painting, blot, or butterfly painting and even feet painting. It may get a bit messy, but it is through this otherwise forbidden messiness that the child feels free, and so goes on to create some wonderful mixes of colour, shape and form.
2. SPATTER STENCILS - Get an old toothbrush and coat it with some paint. Lay some easily identifiable objects on a piece of paper, such as a leaf or a comb, and then spatter the object with the paint. Remove the object once the paint is dry, and a clear outline of it will remain on the paper.
3. PRESSING FLOWERS - This is a good way of getting children to look closely at the variety of colours found in their immediate environment. Collect a number of grasses, small flowers and leaves and press them in some newspaper between two heavy books. After about two weeks the moisture will have been drawn from the flowers, and in most cases the colours will remain. These flowers can then be stuck onto a sheet of paper, or mounted inside a curtain ring to make a small pressed flower picture and frame.
4. 'STAINED GLASS' WINDOW - Using small pieces of different coloured torn tissue paper, some black card cut out for the window frame, and some tracing paper to act as the window pane, your child can make a very colourful 'stained glass' window, to hang in the light and see the effect of the sun on the colours.
5. COLLAGE - There are many things in and around the home that can be used to make up the substance of a good collage. Some examples are pasta shapes, seeds, dried beans, sea shells, twigs, bark, sand and even dried peas. First draw the outline of what it is that is to be collaged, and then go around the house and garden with your child collecting and discussing which things would make good colours for each section of the painting. Use some form of PVA glue to stick the materials to the card, and leave it to dry for several hours before picking the collage up.
