Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Colorwheel Bouquet Art Lesson

Here's a fun way to teach the color-wheel and use up your end-of-the-year paper scraps.

What you'll need:
Pre-cut rectangles of the Primary and Secondary colors
12" x 18" white paper
Glue stick, pencil and scissors
Scraps of warm and cool colors (I have these separated into 2 boxes)
Small square of gray paper
small plastic dish or lid for tracing

Step One:
Using a poster or other visual aid, discuss the color wheel and how/why colors are arranged. Having worked with colors the whole year, most kids are very familiar with the formulas for making secondary colors.

Place the primary colored rectangles on the student's desks and show how to cut into a petal. Glue the three petals onto a piece of white paper with the yellow petal pointing to the top.

Step Two:
Repeat steps for creating petals for the secondary colors.

Step Three:
This is the fun part. I tell my students they are going on a treasure hunt for colors to place in between their petals. I fill two boxes with cool color scraps (greens, blues, painted paper scraps, etc.) and one warm color box. The children are responsible for searching through the box to find the perfect red-orange or blue-green. If they are having trouble understanding this concept (which some of my Kinders were) then we brought over their flower to the scrap box and tried out different scraps.


Step Four:
Using a small round container, trace a circle from the gray paper and place in the center. Then, if you have time, ask the children to make stems and leaves.


Kinder Results!


10 comments:

Megan said...

This is a great way to evaluate if the kids have "got" this concept. Nice summative assessment :)

Heidi said...

Hello Patty,
I'm very happy to have fallen upon your blog! I am an art teacher- and I'm happily not working at the moment so I can raise my little ones. However, I am going to try and volunteer in my daughter's first grade class next year and offer my art teacher expertise- because they don't get to go to art class! I will for sure be to your blog to look for ideas! What a wonderful place you have here- it is so well organized. I will for sure be adding some of these projects to my gigantic binder that my kids long to look at for art projects!

Paintedpaper said...

Love this! I will have to do this in the fall! :)

KJ@letsgoflyakite said...

Hi Patty, my sister and I are so glad we stumbled upon your blog. She's an art teacher and I am not (but sometimes wish I were). I posted about your butterfly project today. Keep up this blog, it is so inspiring.

http://letsgoflyakiteuptothehighestheight.blogspot.com/2010/05/eric-carle-butterflies.html

pink and green mama MaryLea said...

So colorful and fun!! Love it!!

The Peets said...

Hi Patty, I have just started teaching art from Kindy to Yr 10 at a small Christian school in Australia. Your blog has given me so many ideas! I look forward to your new posts, and am so thankful for the time you take to share your ideas with people like me. I have already used several of your lessons, including Giraffes Can't Dance, Wild and Wacky Hair, and Hot Air Balloons. Enjoy your well deserved summer holiday break (as we head into winter!) Amanda

Heather - Dollarstorecrafts.com said...

This is so pretty and fun! Thanks for the great idea.

ArtfulArtsyAmy said...

love this idea. great way to recycle the mad quantities of paper at the end of the year an assess student learning. LOVE IT!

sara said...

I LOVE, love, love this color wheel flower!!! Can't wait to try it with my kids!

Denise Pannell (mrspicasso) said...

Ooooh! So pretty! I am a paper fanatic, so this really caught my eye. Thanks for the spark!

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