As I was going through our photos today, this one of a materials buffet from a conference we hosted a few years back jumped out at me. I’d like to call myself a color minimalist. But, since having a baby last year, I’ve become especially interested in colors, particularly… all of them. At once.
I was one of those kids who like to keep my crayons in spectrum order. Were you too? There is just something about the spectrum that makes materials so enticing to me.
Do you use the spectrum to order materials in your classroom or home? Do your children or students want to organize their things this way? Please share!
Tags: being an artist, color, materials buffet, organization, rainbow, spectrum
In my last classroom (children ages 18-36 months old), we rearranged our block area for two weeks so that blocks were sorted in baskets by spectrum rather than by type (foam, duplo, wood, etc.). The change in arrangement drew a lot of children who were not normally engaged in block play to the area, and the children were also much more interested in sorting the blocks when it was time to clean up! Their block structures showed a noticeable jump in creativity as they started combining them in different ways.
Kat,
It makes sense that the toddlers would be more engaged in cleanup if they had to sort by color. In my experience young children notice color attributes and relationships before shape or scale. Thanks for sharing!
I’m definitely one of those people that needs to have colors organized in the spectrum. Like you said, there is just something about it visually that is so appealing.