Monday, June 6, 2011

Color-Mixing Extravaganza

The following lesson has been in perpetual use ever since it was introduced to the children at the beginning of last week.  These materials provide a meaningful way for the child to explore colors, specifically, mixing primary colors to make secondary colors. The idea came from here, as well as the printable 'Color Mixing Wheel,' which has been instrumental in inviting the children to do the lesson - doesn't it just beg to be used?!

Color mixing wheel attached to our 'art board.'

Materials on small tray:  pencil (for writing name on paper towel), small jars of colored water in primary colors with droppers, sponge (to wipe the workspace when done), toothpick for mixing colors on color wheel.


The materials on the shelf.  The basket to the right holds the paper towels.
 

The child sets up the materials at his workspace and uses the colored water to drop onto the corresponding colored dots on the wheel.
 
The child uses the toothpick to mix the colors on each circle.

The paper towel is placed on top and voila
It is wonderful to watch the children's eyes glimmer with excitement each time they complete this activity.  Amazingly, that shine in their eyes in not diminished even after the fourth or fifth time of completion - it only shines more!

10 comments:

  1. Love it!
    patty
    www.olivesandpickles.blogspot.com

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  2. And the kids do too! I so enjoy watching them gain so much from one activity...! Sasha

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  3. Sasha,

    Found you off of the MPS post today. I have a color mixing download, for doing the "Shades of....". It is listed on the sidebar of my blog. :-) Leann

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  4. Thank you, Leann! I will check it out. Sasha

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  5. This looks fantastic!! I will be trying it outvwith my kids. What a great website you've created.

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  6. It is always a very popular activity - I 'm sure your kids will love it! Thanks for reading! :)

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  7. This is wonderful. My child tends to pour all colors into a giant puddle and not get the concept no matter how many times I demonstrated the order. This should be able to make her perform mixing systematically and force her to observe the subtleties. Thanks a bunch!

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  8. If we are going to talk about murals, it is a harsh reality that there are people who do not appreciate artworks like this. I fell bad, but there is less that I can do; I want them to realize that murals are beautiful and worth appreciating. But I simply don't know where to start. Sometimes, I think of writing as my way to influence people to appraiser things that should be appreciated. I don't know if that is going to be effective, write my assignment for me but I want to give it a try.

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  9. There is the science of color mixing based on a solid understanding of hue, chroma, value, and temperature.

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  10. A color mixing chart serves as a reference and learning tool to help artists gauge variations of pigments.

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