Primary and Secondary Colors: Color Rainbow. Encourage your students to explore the color wheel with this hands-on activity that has the primary colors transform in front of their eyes.

Primary and Secondary Colors: Color Rainbow

Primary and Secondary Colors: Color Rainbow

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to see how colors transform when different combinations are mixed together. They will also learn about making colors lighter by adding white.

Materials and Preparation

A book about the color wheel
White construction paper
Paint brushes
Small paint containers
Tempera paints in red, blue, yellow, and white
Small plastic resealable bags
Color wheel

Preparation
Set up work stations for students. Have containers of each paint color, paint brushes, paper, paper towels, and a color wheel at every station.

Key Terms
primary colors
secondary colors

Introduction (5 minutes)

Call your students into a group and tell them that they are going to learn about making different colors.
Inform your students that when two or more colors are mixed, they make a different color.
Tell them that they will see how red, yellow, and blue mix to make a new color.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (10 minutes)

Read your chosen book about the color wheel.
Bring out the materials you will be using to show the class how colors change when they are mixed together.
Take some red paint and brush it onto a piece of paper, then add some yellow paint and show your students how together the paint turned orange.
Show students how to clean the brushes either using water or by wiping them on a paper towel.
Do the same for other color combinations. Add white to show them how colors become lighter with the addition.
You could also add any two of the basic colors into a resealable plastic bag, seal it tight, and mix the colors inside the bag.
Let your students know that red, blue, and yellow are known as primary colors, or colors that can’t be created by mixing any two colors together. Also tell them that secondary colors are colors that are created by mixing primary colors together.

Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (10 minutes)

Call your students one at a time up to the front of the class and have them try color mixing at the easel or on art paper.
Provide 2 paint brushes or one plastic bag per student.
Ask students what colors they are mixing and what color it will create.
Check to see if your students can guess the new color.
Quickly review the activity before you send the students to work independently.

Independent Working Time (10 minutes)

Split students into small groups and send them to work stations.
Encourage students to try different color combinations to see what colors they can make.
Provide assistance to the students who are having difficulty doing the activity. If you are using the plastic bags help them in sealing the bags.
You can remind students to refer to the color wheel while doing the activity.

Differentiation

Primary and Secondary Colors: Color Rainbow