First Graders practiced mixing paint to make different colors. First we looked at these paintings by Paul Cezanne:
Students pondered this question: Is there only one color of orange, or green, or purple? If not, how can we make many greens or oranges or purples?
First graders then experimented with primary colors, seeing how many different colors they can make on one big sheet of paper. I have 3 different first grade classes, so each class focused on one color. When our colors dried, we cut them out and gave each color a name. These are some of their awesome names:
Orange: peach smoothie, strawberry soap, egg yolk, yummmm peach, pot of gold
Green: seasick, mermaid tail, potion, ocean hawk, venom, flower stem, ocean seaweed
Purple: wizard hat, metal ghost, light saber, surf board, bruise, cotton cape, disco
I then had kids map out their colors on a big piece of foam board. For green, I put post-it's with 'yellower', 'bluer', 'lighter' and 'darker' on each side. Kids came and decided where on the spectrum of greens their colors fell.
Here is our exhibit, proudly hanging near the front office!
