Michelle Helen Phaneuf
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Color Theory: Colored Water

2/4/2018

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Ages 3-5
Identifying and mixing all the colors of the rainbow with food coloring and water.


​
Objective:
  • Students will identify the primary colors (red, yellow, blue).
  • Students will identify the secondary colors (orange, purple, green)
  • Students will be able to mix all the secondary colors using the primaries.
  • Students will be able to mix brown using complementary colors (blue+orange, green+red, yellow+orange)
Key Terms
  • Primary: colors that are used to make all other colors (red, yellow, blue)
  • Secondary: colors made from mixing 2 primaries (orange, green, purple)
  • Neutral: somewhere between two extremes; in art: muddy earthy colors ​

Materials:
  • 9 water bottles + 1 more per child
  • Funnels
  • Food coloring (red, yellow, blue)
  • age-appropriate text on color theory (Ex: Mouse Paint, How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow)
Story:
  • Read chosen color theory book
  • Have children identify all the colors on the pages while reading
Activity: Mixing all the colors of the rainbow with colored water
  • Discuss how some colors can’t be mixed - the primary colors. They have to be found in nature, and they can be used to make all of the other colors
  • Start with 6 empty water bottles (preferably wide, stable ones with wide caps, like gatorade).
  • Have children help pour water into 3 of the bottle, until they are almost full.
  • Drop primary colored food coloring into the 3 full bottles, screw on cap and have students shake to mix.
  • Ask students what all the colors of the rainbow are, and which ones we’re missing (green, purple and orange, the secondary colors).
  • Use a funnel pour the primary colors into 3 new bottles to create the secondary colors
  • Ask students if they know how to make brown. Say there a lot of different ways, you just need complimentary colors. Split water bottles into complementary pairs (green+red, yellow+purple, blue+orange).
  • Pour some of each pair into new bottles to create 3 different bottles of brown water. (**food coloring is not always truly primary, so you may need to adjust. Have students help with this process)
  • Review the ways that colors are categorized
    • Primary: colors that have to be found in nature, that can’t be mixed. Primary means first, they’re the first colors you need to mix all the others.  Red, yellow, blue
    • Secondary: Colors that come from mixing 2 primary colors. Secondary means it comes second. It’s the second set of colors you get from mixing the primaries. Orange, green, purple
    • Complimentary: Colors that are opposites. Together, they make brown.
  • Free color exploration time: Provide students with their own water bottle and allow them to mix any of the colors they like, or try to mix a color we haven’t made yet.
  • Clean up
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  • About
  • Teaching Projects
    • PreK-12 Classrooms
    • Community Arts
    • Special Education
  • Gallery