I live for moments like these

Right now I am teaching my first grade classes how you can mix together primary colors and make secondary colors. They've talked about it and they know which colors make which, but they haven't actually done it themselves before. I am having them experience it through painting. On our papers we painted a yellow circle and a blue circle. I did it in a math-like formula (i.e. O + O = O) where we colored in the circles. I told them I didn't have green paint. One little boy's eyes lit up and he said, "We can mix together the yellow and the blue!" (He fed right into my lesson plan (wink, wink).) He was so excited. He acted as if he'd just figured out some complex equation or something. So I had them gather around me as I sat at a table. Using a paper towel as my palette, I had one dollop of yellow tempera paint and one dollop of blue tempera paint. I showed them how I could use my brush to mix the two together to form green. They were all leaning over watching with bated breath and when the color green finally became visible, they exclaimed, "Wow!" I hadn't seen them so excited before! It was like they didn't really believe it would really be green until they saw it with their own eyes. They couldn't wait to get the chance to do it themselves and they had trouble waiting for me to come around the room and give them the necessary paint.

We were working magic in that room, I tell you. And I will never forget it. I hope they don't either.