Elmhurst Academy Infant Students Journey into Color in Yearlong Classroom Investigation

Elmhurst Academy’s infant students opened their eyes to the world of vivid color in their selfinitiated

yearlong “Journey through Color” classroom exploration. With this rewarding
opportunity, the students stimulated their senses to experience the colors of the rainbow and
culminated age-appropriate developmental stages, including fine motor, large motor, and
cognitive learning.

The project began in early fall with a study into black and white, encouraging a focus on the two
contrasting colors to engage their eyesight. The students jumped into the colors of the rainbow,
where they studied each for a month and explored many elements that immersed them in the
color. Now wrapping up their purple study, the infant class will investigate color mixing with an
activity that involves playing with handmade rainbow spaghetti with the purpose to learn about
color combinations, engage in their vivid contrasts, and get a little messy. “It is important to
make impressions in their brain from the early exposure of colors so they can later be able to
make those connections,” said Mentor Early Childhood Teacher, Mrs. Cristin Brown.

Throughout the project, the early childhood teachers created a variety of interactive activities that
played to the infants’ abilities and interests, which included squishing colored water beads,
reflecting colors on a mirror board, and creating colored doughs, collages, and paintings. The
early childhood teachers also incorporated important themes to bring their color journey to life,
such as nature, light and shadow, and building, integrations and project-based learning that
serves as a key component in the school’s Reggio Emilia philosophy.

The infant classroom’s “A Journey Through Color” also aligns with the Resources for Infant
Educations (RIE) Approach, coined by Magda Gerber in Hungary, that states the core concept in
infant development is to treat each infant respectfully and as their own person. With this
approach in mind and utilized in daily interaction with their students, teachers designed the
project, but had the students inspire it with their own creativity and ideas.

To ensure that the students took lead in their color investigation, the teachers set up provocations
at the start of each color, where they placed same colored items on a mirror table and observed
the students’ reactions to each item. From there, they would generate activities using the highinterest
items. Focusing on observation, the teachers allowed the infants to create their own way,
engage without guidance, as well as hit their own developmental milestones. As the project
journeyed into second semester, the students could start identifying the colors aloud.

“The fact that we follow the RIE Approach, and allow our students to go to activities naturally
and give them the freedom to take a different route, it really makes a difference,” said Mrs.
Brown.