How do you answer the question: "is white a colour?" for a 4 yr old?

[ejt1764]

title says it all really - don't want to lie, but can't think how to tell him without completely confusing him!

what about getting a prism?

mb..i like your style..& simple explanation...
and agree great question to ask!

To a 4 year old, I'd say yes it's a colour

suzy - where can I get a prism from?

Ooooh dear, I feel my credit card wincing, just looking at this site ... fantastic for all the questions ds asks.

Sometimes wish he would ask dh though - dh is far more 'sciencey' than me!

My spinner idea is free!

missed that first time round - can you explain please?

the spinner works beautifully, and as you say is free! it shows the oppsite of splitting the light in a prism.

NB I am really a biologist, and not an A level physics teacher.

But the best moment of my teaching career was when I was showing a group of kids white light entering a prism. One lad (a real PITA and very disruptive) saw what happened and just yelled 'Bloody hell, where did the colours come from!!!!!!'

A fine moment! He was in the palm of my hand for the rest of the lesson. Shame I couldn't maintatin the WOW factor for him!

A top, with all the rainbow colours coloured on it, in equal segments. When the top is still you can see each individual colour. When yo spin the top, it moves so fast, your eye and brain cannot keep up, and 'sums' all the light being reflected back into your eye. All the colours of the rainbow added together= white light.....the top will look white!

Isn't science fab???

you say YES

Message withdrawn

someone said 'shade' to me once and I have used that with dds from time to time. Art rather than science, that

Message withdrawn

fabbo website on this very questio!

Codders, you ds3 is going to fit right in to that oh so posh campsite!

sorry went out! Like MB said, cut out a seven sided cardboard shape (septagon?)Divide into 7 equal segments. Colour in each of the segments in a rainbow colour, then put a sharpened match or something similar through the middle. Spin. Watch your children being amazed! I'm goingt o make one now!

yes white is a colour! you can prove this by adding it to other colours ie black or red

thank you for that - had a party to go to (groan!) - however, the question came up again (as I knew it would) in the car on the way home ... ds has a wonderful knack of flogging any question he's not really satisfied with the answer to ... anyway, mb, your answer was incredibly well received - and now I am going to make the spinner ...

MB - I teach French - the possibility for Eureka moments is rather less!

Zut Alors! I would think you are quite right!

Teaching science is perfect for bringing out the ham in a teacher! It is fab. I was doing an open day for some year 5s last week.

We did flame tests, dead easy but so dramatic. THe organiser of the day wandered past my laban heard a chorus of 'Wow!' as the flame went green. magic moment!

OTOH, knowing about scinec doesn't make it easy for you to order a glass of wine in another country!

flame tests, explosions, things fizzing, popping ... the possibilities for "WOW!" moments are endless ...

Somehow, the attraction of the perfect tense isn't the same ...however, being able to get by in another country is always a good one - but it's the parents who get the benefit of that, rahter than me ... unless I take school trips, and let them loose in a traditional French market - the "WOW" moments are really exciting then!

and all those French boys somehow look so good to your year 8s don't they!?

We had a group of exchange students come into the lab once, and my girls tongues were almost on the floor! The swarthy good looks were almost too much for them. Our boys were quite miffed!

TBH we really do have a gift of a subject for 'wow'. Lots of the good stuff gets banned nowerdays which has taken the edge off things.