Finding Colors

Today ALL of the EC classes gathered in the Cardinal room for a special meeting. We talked about the many beautiful colors and patterns that we have on our clothing, and how easy it is for us to get clothes in the colors we like. Then, we told a story about how, long ago, people couldn't just go buy colorful clothes. In fact, they couldn't even buy the colors to dye their clothes. We asked friends what they would do if they had a plain white shirt, and they wanted to make it a color. We also asked if they had ever spilled something on their clothing and accidentally made a new color.

Friends had many ideas about that. We talked about the ways that people use to look around at nature, to find things that they could use to dye their clothing. We asked friends to look at some of the things that we had found - berries and grapes and red cabbage and spinach - and think about what colors they might make. We squished and rubbed them on paper, to see what would happen. 

We explained to friends that we would be making dye from our supplies, and using these to color our shirts for Harvest Fest. We would have to work hard to turn these foods into dyes. Everyone would get chance to help prepare all of the materials. We divided up into all three rooms for Choice Time, and set up the natural dye preparation in the Owl's room.

All of the EC friends came in to:

POUND SPINACH into deep green pulp...

...and SQUISH BERRIES AND GRAPES into pinkish-reddish goopy juice...

...and CUT AND TEAR RED CABBAGE into a purpley pile of slaw!

It was a BLAST! When we were done, we had big tubs of color. Tomorrow, we will add water and boil them on the stove downstairs. When our natural dyes cool, we will strain out the goop and take it to the compost pile. Then we will put our three colors in tubs and each friend will put their shirt in the color of their choice. We are going to leave them soak all weekend, then squeeze them out on Monday and hang them to dry.

We have no idea what might happen, because we have never tried this before!

Once we get our shirts dry, we will be ready for the next step...