StoryTime Science™ - Mouse Paint

Integrate art, science, and literature in one lesson! Introduce students to color mixing by reading Mouse Paint. Follow up with some hands-on color mixing in a brand-new format. Students pinch and mix gel colors inside a clear, sealed bag to form secondary colors with no mess! This kit comes with everything you need, including the storybook, color-mixing materials, and step-by-step instructions.

How Does It Work?
On many levels, this is a very tactile experience and the color mixing is a bonus. You could get caught up in the precise definitions of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, but why? There’s time
for that when the artists are older and it matters. Right now, it’s a dazzling experience to see all those colors come from just three gobs of goo and to have them appear without making too big of a mess.

Pigments sort of work backwards from what you might think. A red pigment isn’t really red. Basically, humans see color in a pigment because its molecules absorb or remove or subtract or hold all wavelengths of light except one and send that one to your eyes. If the molecules in a fabric pigment hang on to all wavelengths of light except the red wavelength, the light reflected to your eyes is red and you perceive a red sweater. If all the wavelengths are absorbed, you see black and if all wavelengths are reflected, you see white. Keep

in mind this process involves reflected light. Mixing pigments like
the goo is different. Mix all the pigments together and you may get
a pinkish brown. If you add more red and yellow than blue, the bag colors will become a shade of tan or brown. If you use more blue than yellow and red, your bag will end up a shade of gray-black. As soon as a bag becomes all one color the artists will want to do it again! This time, have them predict what color will be in the bag when they’re finished mixing: pinkish brown? blackish? gray? It depends on the balance of colors added to the bag at the start. Not only does this activity help show that primary colors blend into secondary colors and more, it gives the children that needed time to wonder, discover and explore.