Chatboards
Classifieds
Lessons
Jobs
Art Activity: Interactive Color Wheel
By Teachers.Net Community
Teachers of Art collaborated on the Teachers.Net Art Teachers Chatboard to develop a collection of ideas for teaching about the color wheel.
*
Katie asked on the Art Teachers Chatboard:
I wanted to do a simple introduction to the color wheel with 6th grade, and was seriously considering making nilla wafer color wheels by mixing food coloring and vanilla frosting. However, after thinking of the mess and behavior issues I already have with this group I decided that might not be the best idea! I mix colors with Model Magic with 2nd grade, but don’t have enough to do this with 6th. I don’t want to just have them create a color wheel and color it. They really need hands on activities. I was thinking of doing watercolor experiments and having them try out different color theories that way. Any other suggestions? I’m stuck.
Posted by: Ms. G
With the 6th grade I have right now I would consider layering color pencils to mix colors enough of a hands on experience some weeks. They’re crazy with spring coming on! I would probably do watercolor layering myself. But you could try food coloring and water, they could do that in groups. Never done it myself but have thought about it.
Posted by: Denise
Posted by: aquarose hs
I have had kids use primary and secondary colored crayola markers to mix tertiary colors on exams. They make parallel, touching but not overlapping lines, alternating two colors (red and orange for example) to make a visually mixing tertiary.
Another thing you could do is cut circles of white paper (3-4″ in diameter), color half yellow and the other half blue, then poke a hole in the middle, put in a pencil, then twirl it really fast in your two hands and the colors mix green visually. this is very interactive and fun. And non-messy!
What about a collage color wheel? If you have plenty of magazines, have them draw out their charts on paper, and perhaps label the different sections. Then sort through magazines to find colors to collage the values in the chart.
Kids this age love collage. Just make sure you have lots of “appropriate” magazines. I’ve found food and decorating magazines work really well.
Posted by: Samothrace
Similar to this, if you use tagboard or have cardboard (we always order 6 in cardboard circles in a group supply order) poke a brad through the middle so the rounded end is on the bottom. These act as great top devices!
I usually do this type of thing the last art class of the year. Markers and I’m done. No mess, they love them. They like to experiment with the lines to see what kind of pattern it swirls into. Checkerboards are really good for mixing into the new colors.
This is silly, but fun – even my older students like to do this: I collected together 6 plastic salad spinners (one per table) from thrift shops, yard sales, etc., cut paper to fit in the spinner, thin down some tempera paint, then let the students drizzle paint on the paper, put on the lid and let them spin. Not only do they get to experiment with color mixing, but the results are beautiful papers that can be used for collage in another project. Just one
little draw back – big time messy!
Click here for dozens of additional art lessons and craft activities submitted by teachers
