Sunday, February 23, 2014

1st Grade Color Projects

I'm the type of person who likes to make and use lists. It makes me strangely happy to check things off as I complete the tasks that need to be done. One of my lists includes all of the various projects that need to be posted on here. You know how it is, though. Between daily prep, lesson planning, state assessments, having time for my daughter and staying sane, some items from the list get neglected. 

This is a catch-up post. Both projects are from 1st grade and both relate to basic color theory. This first one is a lesson I've used for several years, but changed a little this year. Nearer to the beginning of the year, I teach 1st graders about primary colors and Piet Mondrian. This year, I went away from the basic rectangular format and used basic fish shapes. Students drew a Mondrian style composition inside and painted with primary colors. The finished work was then cut out, glued to black construction paper (to emulate Mondrian's linework), and cut again.


 The second project in this post is my 1st grade introduction to secondary colors. I found this awesome YouTube video from Sesame Street to show my students. 

The video is another classic from the band OK GO. If you're a follower of this blog, you may recognize the band from an amazing video that I use with my machine brain project in 3rd grade. 

For this project, students set up their paper with six squares. Each square has three circles inside. This gives the kids plenty of room to try out their colors. I think the best part of this project is seeing how my students react to how paint colors change as I mix them. They are absolutely mesmerized by the transformation. I give students 2 classes to paint. They get to use the mixing trays on the first day, then they "graduate" to the full paint trays that the older kids use. 

Download my lesson plan! 

No comments:

Post a Comment