BEYE Discovery

Hi Families,

We decided to have a little fun with candy and color. We know that certain pigments in paint and food dye are required to make all other colors: these are red, yellow and blue. When 2 of these primary colors are mixed, we achieve secondary colors: green (blue + yellow), orange (red + yellow), and violet (red + blue).

For this lesson, we experimented with the science of chromatography, where parts of a mixture are separated by allowing it to travel through a material that will absorb each part at a different rate. "Skittles" were placed at the bottom of a strip of filter paper that had a bit of water at the center. The dyes slowly released from the candy and moved their way up the paper. We waited an hour to observe the results (which are very, very subtle). Dexter, a 2nd grader, was the first to identify the separation of colors in the green, orange and purple candies. Do take a close look at the photos below to see if you can identify what other colors were present in the dye. Note: the red and yellow candies remain red and yellow without color separation, because these are primary colors : )

Our collection of samples

Look where the orange color borders the white of the filter paper: what color do you see?

Look closely along the edges at center... what color, other than green do you see?

No color separation here: red is a primary color


This is hard to see: there is a touch of blue that separated from the purple

The photos you see below are from "Nerds" candy. Again the results are very subtle, however you can detect a touch of color separation.

Look for hints of blue

What colors do you see "bleeding" from the green?

No color separation here. Do you remember why?

No color separation here either. Yellow is a primary color.

Below, we conducted a similar experiment with different brands of black markers. Not all black dyes are formulated the same way and their pigments may vary. We drew a circle and filled it in with a black permanent marker, a black "pip squeak" marker" and a "crayola" marker. The permanent marker does not dissolve in water, so there was no change. Can you identify what colors separated from the dye of the other 2 markers?

3 different brands of black marker

Here we tried the same experiment with different marker colors. Can you identify specific another color or colors that make up the main color?

main color: teal

main color: orange (hint: look closely at the edges)

main color: purple

magenta does not separate. why?

The following day, we made paintings on the coffee filters. There is something really special about leaving the common shape of the rectangle and working within a circular shape. Students experimented in a number of ways, folding the paper, spraying it with water and working with watercolor and diluted tempera paint. You can see the different approaches below. They are fabulous!!!

With one day prior to Valentine's Day, the students were busy making pop-up Valentine's for the special people in their lives. To create the pop-up mechanism, we demonstrated how to attach two thin paper strips at right angles along the bottom side and to alternately fold and overlap these strips. One side of the paper strip is then attached to the card and the other side is attached to the pop up image. Easy peasy!!! I can't imagine making another card without a pop-up feature... too fun!

There were a number of beautiful hearts made that day: one heart became the head of a person and other hearts were collaged with different patterned papers to create really eye-catching color combinations. Lilly "wowed" us all with how her pop-up mechanisms became a design feature: see the photo below, where her heart's eye and mouth pop off the face! We also used alien templates that were donated to Beye Discovery and these became a fun building block to trace onto patterned paper or to color with personalized features. Matthew drew his alien's face at 3/4 view which is very impressive for most adults, not to mention a 1st grader!!! Way to go Matthew!

Joel

Leila

Matthew's alien with eyes in 3/4 view! Well done!

Joel giving his card to Leila as a "get well"

Lily's heart with pop-up eyes!

Daysha's beautifully patterned heart

Daysha at work

Lily with even more pop-up features. Super fun Lily!

Vaughan with striped alien. We love the color combo!

Lily

Dexter with cat pop up

Jessica with heart-faced pop up person. Too cute!

Leila working on a very stylish alien

Matthew's pop-up alien

Dexter's pop-up cat face

Sam's alien pop up

On Valentine's Day we began by reading 2 books: "Cupcake" by Charise Mericle Harper and "Henry in Love" by Peter McCarty. Our readers were Daysha (left) and Sydney (right). They did a great job and held a very attentive audience! Bravo ladies!

"Cupcake" is funny because the vanilla cupcake is looking to make itself more festive and the candle tries to help. Just when you think they've figured it out (candle sitting on top of cupcake), they miss it and hope to find something suitable tomorrow... oh well!

"Henry in Love" is very endearing. Henry is a cat who has a crush on his schoolmate Chloe, a rabbit. In the morning, Henry leaves with a yummy blueberry muffin his mom has made and patiently waits to eat it for afternoon snack. He is thrilled when the teacher reassigns seats and Chloe is asked to sit near him. She asks Henry what he has brought for snack. In the next illustration, Henry is sitting with Chloe's carrot on his desk (without even a nibble) and a day-dreamy expression on his face, while Chloe is quite delighted, hands to her mouth, with the empty cupcake wrapper and crumbs on her desk. Ah, the sacrifices we make to please those we love!

For our 1st activity on Valentine's Day, we decorated paper hearts with glitter glue and sequins, as well as buttons, ribbon, Valentine stamps, and markers. Each heart is unique and made with love for that special someone... we are impressed by the students' thoughtfulness!

For our second Valentine's activity, we made garlands with felt hearts and colorful, patterned cotton fabric. Sydney and Daysha made a terrific sample garland to share with the students. Be sure to scroll down to see all of the students' designs and Sydney's completed garland with beads!