“The House of Four Seasons” by Roger Duvoisin
This book was originally published in the 1950’s and this recent, new edition from The New York Review is absolutely beautiful. It contains all the charm of the 50’s and Duvoisin’s illustrations are simply delightful.
It is the story of a family who moves into a house that they decide to fix up. However, each member of the family has a different idea on what the color of the house should be. Worse still, the store only carries three colors: red, blue and yellow. Dad does not let this deter them. He purchases all three and takes them home to teach the kids a lesson about colors and what happens when they all get together. Hint: it is a result that allows them to have all the colors they wanted in the paint of their house, through one resulting color.
I love the hard working relationships between the family members in this story and their strong sense of teamwork. It also doesn’t hurt that a little education science is thrown in the mix. This is a wonderful book to add a touch of uniqueness and fun to any home library.
Click here to purchase “The House of Four Seasons” *affiliate link
Color Exploration Activity and DIY Color Spinners
In the story, when the dad is explaining the relationship colors have to each other, he teaches his kids how to make a classic spinner toy with cardboard and string. An illustration and short description are provided in the book so that it is easy for readers to make one as well. Then children can see for themselves how the combination of the primary colors results in the color white.
I thought that it would be a lot of fun to take this discovery activity with colors one step further. The activity in the book leaves one side of your “spinning disk” empty which is perfect for little scientists to perform an experiment of their own. I suggest letting your children color their own pattern on the opposite side of the disk and spinning it to see if they get a similar result or a different one from the design on the first page.
And, of course, like true scientists, they need somewhere to record their hypothesis and conclusion so I created a printable (free for personal and educational use) that you can use to do just that. I feel this printable works best with the book if you read the story up until the spinner explanation and then do this worksheet/activity before reading the result in the book and the ending of the story. That way they get to form/see the conclusions on their own and have a more interactive experience with the book.
Click here to download and print the Spinning Color Exploration Printable
If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.
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