Colour Theory

Red Yellow Green and Everything in Between

Colour theory is an exciting concept and It’s good to introduce it in terms of things that children experience in their everyday lives. The colours of the foods they eat, the sky, the grass, the colour of their clothes, and favourite toys.

Rainbows

The Rainbow is a perfect way to introduce ideas about colour.

There are so many songs and story books that talk about rainbows, that there is an endless supply material to work with and let’s face it — we all love a rainbow.

Rainbows are created when light is refracted through water, producing an arch of the colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

You can create rainbows by spraying water with a spray bottle by a sunny window or using a hose on a sunny day during children’s water play or gardening time.

Rainbow paintings are also a great way to introduce the concept of colour mixing.

Starting with the Primary colours talk with the children about how they can make the colours of the rainbow by mixing the primary colours together.

The Primary & Secondary Colours

Introduce the concept of Primary and Secondary colours to young children by naming the colours around them and talking about how the Primary Colours of Red, Blue and Yellow can be mixed together to create the secondary colours of Green, Orange and Purple.

Begin a painting exercise with just the primary colours made available to the children in your class group. Ask them to mix different colours together to see what colours they can create. Later down the track ask children to make different tones of colour with black and white and lighter or darker colours mixed together, to create different hues.

Artists to look at for colour in art: Henri Matisse, Margaret

Preston, Vincent Van Gogh, Yayoi Kusama, Mirka Moira. (See resources page for links to these artists) colour activity with the theme of food. one red and one blue. primary colours. using Green, Purple and Orange fruits.

Colours & Colour Mixing

Primary Colours

Yellow Orange Black

Secondary Colours

Red Green White

Ask the children make a Primary Colour Picture

Ask them to name 3 fruits — one that is yellow,

Ask the children to paint these fruits using their

Extend this activity to a Secondary Colour Picture

Tones

Blue

Purple

The Colour Wheel

Colour wheels can show you how colours mix together. They are a great tool to have in the class room for you and children to look at. They can also help children understand how colours can work together in artworks, complementing each other to make harmonious work or working against each other to create interesting tension.

Complementary Colours lay exactly opposite each other on the colour wheel. Such as blue and red, yellow and purple.

Harmonious Colours are closely related hues that sit next to each other on the colour wheel.

For example orange and green are harmonious colours as they both sit either side of yellow on the colour wheel.

Colourful Meanings

Colours can represent many different states of emotion. We talk about feeling blue, being red with anger and green with envy.

Talk with children about what different colours mean to them.

What is their favourite colour?

Which colour makes them feel happy?

Colour is used in particular ways in society. We have red danger signs and green lights mean go and road workers wear bright yellow vests.

Open up discussions with children about how and why different colours are used in these ways.

Encourage children to mix colours together, naming the colours as they are mixed.

Talk with them about their favourite colours, about the colours of things in the classroom or playground. Colour experiments such as dropping food colouring into jars of water are a lovely way to see how different colours mix together.

This exercise can also assist numeracy skills, with the measuring and counting of drops.

Another exercise is to use colour cellophane on the windows of your classroom or home to layer and make new colour mixes.

a colour activity

Flags

Different countries and cultures use colours in many varied ways. An art project based on the flags of other countries is an interesting way to look at colour while including a wider theme of cultural difference.

Ask children to choose a country and its flag to make.

Using books, maps and atlases to look at the flags of other countries, they can recreate the flag they have chosen on fabric or paper, choosing from art materials such as paint, crayons or pencils. Later they can fly their flags somewhere in the classroom or playground.

This activity can also work within a wider theme of cultural difference and help children to learn about other countries of the world. It could extend into looking at national dress, different foods and cultural practices as well as the different geography of the countries.

Extension Activity

Children create their own personal flags of the country where they are the Queen or King.

This activity can expand into story-telling and other art based activities, such as collage, painting and drawing.