Kindergarten and first graders are exploring the color wheel through fingerprints. Given only one color at a time, students are constructing finger-painted color wheels. For each wedge of the wheel, they solidly fill one in and make polka dots on either side. As they add more colors, the polka dots overlap creating new colors. Throughout the entire period you could hear shouts of "wow, green!!" or "I made orange!"
Second and Third graders made watercolor Venn Diagrams in order to explore the relationships between the primary colors. As they overlapped the primary colors, they gasped with excitement as the new color was revealed. Students witnessed first hand how secondary colors are made with 2 colors while tertiary colors are made with 3.
Fourth graders collaged abstract color wheels. Since they are already aware of how to mix colors, I wanted them to explore the relationship between colors as they constructed this abstract collage. Students had to evaluate the values of each color and where it belongs on their prism.
Fifth graders collaborated to make a class sized color wheel, with each row with in charge of a primary color and it's analogous color. Students explore color as they debated which segment the color belongs on. We will use this color wheel as the class set and reference it throughout the year.
Students will use these personal color wheels as a tool for the duration of the year.
