Miss Ashlyn and I started with a short exercise to engage the older group (7 to 12 yrs old)! We asked them to open up the palm of their hands, and tell us what colors they saw. Their responses were “Tan, beige, and brown.” Then, we explained that if one looked hard enough, they should find many more colors, such as “blue, red, yellow, and pink.” They looked up at us like we had three heads at first! However, after looking again, they were tracing their veins, and immediately saw much more than tan, beige, and brown tones. This is always a fun activity to lead into a color theory project. It’s also a nice reminder that we all have much more in common, than not.
They used cut pieces of construction paper, glue, and paper plates – cut into giraffes and elephants to make paper-mâché, and collaged animal faces. We had a quick demonstration of layering the colors and they got busy right away! They really got the hang of it, using pink in the elephant ears, and colors as undertones of the grays and browns. They had a blast ripping up construction paper, gluing and creating face mask animals! One of my favorite lesson plans is discussing color theory in art because it opens up a whole new way of thinking about, and seeing the world. Art class is much more fun when kids discover that they can use pink in a brown animal, and green in a yellow one!
