A child has painted the sky blue, then pauses when you ask how it differs from the blue beside it. “They’re both blue,” they say. This small paint study helps children look more closely, compare lighter blues and use one of their mixtures deliberately in a picture.
The question “How many blues can you make with a little white?” opens an investigation rather than setting a target. The useful discovery is how each mixture looks beside another, not reaching a correct total or finding a perfect recipe.
Keep one blue to compare with
Provide classroom-safe washable blue and white paint, plain paper, brushes, separate palette spaces and letter labels. Cut or tear the paper into small pieces so each painted sample can be moved later. Keep enough of each mixture for the finished picture.
Model a comparison with two patches first: “This one looks lighter beside that one.” Children can begin by pointing or moving samples; they don’t need technical colour vocabulary before they start.
Place blue paint in palette space A and leave it unchanged. Paint a small piece of paper with that blue and label the paper A as well. This is the base colour children will use as their reference.
Try a little white in separate samples
Put small portions of the same blue into palette spaces B, C and any further spaces you need. Add a different small amount of white to each one, without measuring fixed ratios. Paint each mixture on its own piece of paper and give the paper the same letter as its palette space. Matching labels will help children find the mixture again when they begin their pictures.
A colour mixed with white is called a tint, and adding further white can produce a lighter tint. The National Gallery of Victoria’s written tints and shades activity demonstrates this relationship with blue and white paint.
In paint-mixing language, a shade is made by adding black instead. A brief explanation is enough; there’s no need to introduce black paint in this activity.
Put the dry samples beside each other
When the patches are dry, place them together in the same light. Ask children to move samples with visible differences into a sequence from darker-looking to lighter-looking.
- Which one looks lighter beside A?
- Which two look most different?
- Are any difficult to tell apart?
The letters identify the mixtures, not their position in the sequence. Children can show a comparison by pointing, rearranging the papers, speaking or adding simple written labels.
Model the comparison
Suppose A is the unchanged blue, while B and C contain different additions of white. If a child judges C lighter than B and B lighter than A, model: “B looks lighter than A but darker than C.” This shows how one tint can look darker than another tint while still looking lighter than the starting blue.
If B and C look alike, place them together and invite the child to make another small trial. Their first result still provides something useful to notice.
Choose where your blue belongs
Children can now use their mixtures in a small sky, water or abstract picture. Ask them to choose a blue for a particular place rather than using every mixture simply because it’s there.
For example, a child might paint a narrow strip with C beside a larger area of A and explain, “I put C here because it looks lighter beside A. I want people to notice the strip.” Then look at the picture together: does the strip stand out as the child hoped?
Children may describe a feeling they associate with a blue, but they can also talk about contrast, placement or which area attracts attention. Choosing materials and visual conventions to communicate an idea is part of creating and making in the Australian Curriculum’s Visual Arts learning area.
Listen for a comparison and a reason
Return to the loose samples beside each finished picture. Ask, “Show me two that look different” and “Why did you choose that blue there?” Invite each child to complete, say or demonstrate: “I chose this blue for ___ because ___.”
If comparing several patches is difficult, return to two. If the child can compare them, ask how that difference helped them choose a place in the picture.
Experimenting with materials, then observing, documenting and reflecting on the results, supports Visual Arts practice. Year 3 sits within the national Years 3–4 band, and ACARA’s Visual Arts teaching support explains that teachers select examples and questions to suit their students and context.
Finish with the child’s comparison and choice: one blue looks different beside another, and that difference gave them a reason to place it where they did.