Nursery World - Finding the colour

Professor Cathy Nutbrown says let children look for their rainbows

I watched three-and-a-half –year-old Rosie mixing paint recently. The large sheet of paper on her easel remained blank while she thoughtfully and deliberately chose one colour after another and slowly mixed them together. She stirred the colours with her brush, adding a new colour when she was satisfied with the previous mix.

First she put some red paint into a bowl, then she added yellow and seemed pleased with the new orange shade that emerged when she stirred. To this orange she added blue – making a darkish green. More yellow, and the green lightened – Rosie seemed pleased. In she tipped a large amount of blue; she frowned at the dark bluey-green that she was stirring.

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