Color Theory and Mixing

Today we did some exciting wok with color theory and color mixing. But first, self portraits from last week are now hanging in the main hall at MMS. Check them out!

Today the children had a chance to get messy and learn about the relationships between colors. We began our class by guessing what would happen when we mixed one primary color (red, blue or yellow) with another. Of course, they are all so bright and educated their "guesses" were pretty well informed.

Our ultimate project here is for the kids to make their own color wheel relating primary and secondary colors. With that in mind we began by six 3" x 5" pieces of white paper. The kids picked their favorite shape from a collection of stencils. After stenciling their chosen shape onto each paper we got out the paints.

We painted the primary colors onto three of the sheets. Some kids only painted the actual shape. Others painted the entire page. To each their own!

Then we moved on to color mixing. Red with blue, blue with yellow, yellow with red. And even though the kids knew in their minds what colors to expect it was an absolute delight to see how excited they were when it actually happened. Secondary colors mixed, they painted the final 3 sheets with green, purple and orange.

Next week we will cut out the shapes and arrange them in a circle (bisected by 2 triangles) to make a color wheel.

And for our last 10 minutes, the most fun of all, free color mixing. The kids got a selection of ALL the paints and were free to mix and explore as they liked. See below for just a few of these exciting pieces, and one of the pallets (they were so pretty, I couldn't resist).

 

Another wonderful morning with a great group of kids!