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“I made brown, Grace” a three year old girl exclaims excitedly to her teacher. Grace asks, “What colors did you mix to make brown?” The girl answers, “Red, and blue, and black” pointing to remnants of these colors on her easel paper. Most likely the girl was not thinking about what colors she used as she was mixing so her answer comes from what she sees rather than what she remembers. What might the teacher have said as a follow up here? Should the teacher move in and experiment with the child to reproduce brown from red and green? Is it enough that the child understands that a new color can result from mixing other colors? Was asking the question “what did you mix” itself sufficient enhancement of this free play activity?

Keywords: Threes, Paint
Length of stand-alone master video clip: 2 minutes 41 seconds