Children's House & Rachel Keeling Nursery School Federation

6. Create shades of colour using powder paints and palette 
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First milestone: Children explore printing using primary colours with ready mixed paint in trays.​

​Children explore printing with their hands and a range of tools; sponges, printing blocks, rollers and natural materials using a combination of primary colours in trays. Children begin to describe the colours they have used and created. ​

Second milestone: Children begin to mix powder paint for printing. They select one primary colour. They add water to powder paint in a pot and explore creating the consistency to enable them to print or paint.
Children begin to mix single powder paint colours with water into a palette using a paint brush to mix their paint. 

​Children begin to explore creating various consistencies. They explore watery paint by adding more water, thick paint by adding more paint. They identify the appropriate consistency to enable them to print and paint. 

Third milestone: Children follow instructions using a step-by-step visual card to mix powder paint. Children select two primary colours and use a paint brush to mix their powder paint and water in a paint palette. They learn to dab their paint brush into the powder paint, then to dab their paint brush into the water pot and mix into the paint palette. Children are introduced to colour wheels to explore the colour spectrum.
They explore adding white powder paint to create different shades of colour. Children are provided with paint sample strips, postcards, artist images and books to explore colour and to inspire creating a range of shades.

Children talk about the colours they select to mix. They follow the visual steps to explore mixing single primary colours. They become more confident to mix two primary colours in a paint palette to create secondary colours. They add white powder paint to create lighter shades of colours and explore creating darker shades of the same colour. Children begin to describe the shades of colour they have created ‘purple; ‘light blue’, ‘lilac’.

Final milestone: Children organise their own resources to paint, selecting the thickness of their paint brush, paint palette, filling their water pot, choosing their paper size for their painting. Children confidently use powder paint using primary colours and white to create secondary colours and different shades of colour. Children are able to describe the colours they have created.