Studying Green

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, below are 3 different ideas for discovering the color Green with your child.

{Toddler} My 2 year old is still learning his colors. So, I presented yellow, blue and green with a variation on Montessori’s 3 period lesson. It is ridiculously easy & effective. I used the blue and yellow from Guidecraft’s Shimmering Water Rainbow Blocks and combined them to make green.

{Preschool} I introduced our 3.5 year old to the symbolism behind the color Green. A little abstract but he seemed interested in the topic. Generally, green is such a lovely color that signifies life, energy, nature, growth, renewal, harmony and is the most “calm” color. Color Wheel Pro tells us that:

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

For further enjoyment, here is a little cheat sheet for you:

Food > Health (eating green vegetables is a good thing for your body)

Money > Life Force

Healing > Egyptians wore green eye liner for this reason (point out Egypt on a map)

Geography > Ireland & St. Patrick’s Day

Every Day > Traffic Light = Go

Culture > In Celtics Myths, Green Man was the God of Fertility whereas early Christians actually banned the color green because of its ruse in Paganism. Here is some additional fun historical facts (or fiction) on the color green. I also love this description of Chinese culture and the meaning of green:

Five ElementsWood;
Direction: East; Season: spring; Condition: windy, rain;
Energy: generative; Phase: new Yang; Development: generative;
Planet: Jupiter;
Animal: scaled, especially dragon;
Fruit: plum;
Grain: wheat;
Action: countenance;
Sense: sight;
Sound: calling; Smell: rancid;
Taste: sour;
Trigram bagua: Xun/Sun, Zhen

As you can see, you can get quite creative with the symbolism behind the color green. So, have fun!

{Toddler & Preschool} Quite simply I placed a basket of every color green crayons we had in our home and a blank pad of paper on the table as an invitation for them to play. It was waiting for them in the morning. We colored and created “Green” rainbows of varying tones. The results were quite beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed these ideas and are inspired to explore green within the context of St. Patrick’s Day (or not!).

Marnie

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Marnie Craycroft

Founder, Publisher, Writer & Editor at Carrots Are Orange, Inc.

Marnie began Carrots Are Orange in 2010 after the birth of her first son. Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori inspired homeschooling blog for parents and educators. She hails from Maine, a wonderfully down to earth place to grow up. Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999, currently living in Seattle with her husband and two young boys. She is pursuing Montessori certification.