A really interesting reaction occurs when you add water colors to salt. This week at southwark, we experimented with this and how to mix colors using this method.
For this project you need construction paper, liquid glue, salt, paintbrush or straws, watercolors or water mixed with food dye. Each student should sketch out a drawing in pencil and then trace it with the glue. After this, pour salt over the glue until it’s all covered and shake off the excess. Now, students can take a paintbrush (or straw), dip it in the watercolor, and put it on the salt. This is where it gets fun, because the watercolor will spread through the salt. Students can practice mixing colors since it spread and combine on its own.
We had our students draw topics out of bag to give them ideas of what to draw but still use creativity. These included prompts like; “something that starts with a C,” “Something blue,” Your favorite animal.” I liked using the prompts because it’s often hard to come up with ideas to draw, but these gave them a direction that they could take however they wanted. It was really fun watching the colors spread and seeing them work out how to mix different colors without combining them themselves. I love experiments like these because it’s something they can easily do at home, but is also a cool experiment. It teaches them how to mix colors in a new way, as well as practicing tracing and drawing.
