Learning the Color Purple through Science

Welcome to the Learning Colors, Shapes & ABC’s through Science preschool series!

My goal is to introduce my preschooler to his colors, shapes and letters through scientific activities. My hope is that this will increase his observations skills and make learning these basic facts more interesting. We will also be adding in art activities, books, notebook pages and other motor activities, which I’ll share with you along the way.

What I share in these posts is my plan, some weeks we will actually do all of these activities, most we won’t. The idea is that each week, I’ll have a buffet of activities to pull from to introduce my son to these fundamental concepts.  You can read more about my plans for this series in the Learning Colors, Shapes & ABC’s through Science introduction post.

This week our focus was the color purple.

Purple Swirls

You will need:

• Milk
• Liquid Dish Soap
• Red Food Coloring
• Blue Food Coloring
• Shallow Dish

Pour cold milk into a shallow dish. Add 1 drop of red food coloring to one side of the bowl and 2 drops of red food coloring to the other side. Then, add a drop or two of liquid dish soap to the center of the bowl and watch what happens. (You should see the colors begin to swirl and move.)

If the colors stop moving, you can add another drop of soap. Eventually, the colors will mix together to form purple. It does take a bit of time to occur, so you may want to give the mixture some help by stirring it until you get a good purple color.

Take if Further: Repeat the demonstration, except this time add a drop of yellow to the edge of the bowl. This time you should see purple, orange, and green form in the bowl.

Book List

Here are several books on the color purple.

• Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch and Helene Desputeaux Schuette
• Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition (Purple Crayon Books) by Crockett Johnson
• Purple Little Bird by Greg Foley
• Purple Princess Wins the Prize (Perfectly Princess, Book 2) by Alyssa Crowne and Charlotte Alder
• Purple: Seeing Purple All Around Us (A+ Books: Colors) by Sarah L. Schuette

Additional Activities

• Art: You will need purple paint, green paint, and a sheet of paper. Have the students dip their fingertips into the purple paint and use them to make a bunch or cluster of grapes. Once they have enough grapes, have them use the green paint to make leaves.
• Math: Use purple grapes to practice counting to ten.
• Fine Motor: Let your students play with some purple silly putty. You can make this by mixing 4 TBSP of white Elmer’s glue, 2 TBSP of liquid starch, 2 drops of red food coloring, and 1 drop of blue food coloring. If the mixture stays stringy, add a drop of glue. If it is too brittle, add more starch. Chill for at least 3 hours before giving it to the students to play with.
• Notebook: Create a page in the students’ notebook for the color purple. On the page place stickers or pictures that match the color. Also spend some time reviewing the shapes pages that you have already made.
• Movement: Play a game of tag, only have the person who is it wear a purple shirt.
• Snack: Have purple juice (either grape juice or Kool-Aid) and grapes for snack.

Here’s a link to purple themed songs, poems and fingerplays.