Color Mixing in Kindergarten

I love this project.  My love for this project really knows no bounds, as they are always stunning:

They are always different and beautiful. 

This student's black is a little gray, but it's still beautiful.

What's not to love here?



It's a little two day project I came up with years ago.  Students start with black tempera blocks and 12 x 18 paper. We paint a U shape together, close the U shape with a line. We then add a horizontal line underneath, add two little lines to connect them. Next we paint the first letter of each child in the class (I tell them which letter, they find space for it on their papers).  So this is what they look like on day one:

 

 

These dry, and when they come back next time, I give them yellow (only if I see their paint-brush-horns-like-a-unicorns) and they paint two spots yellow.  Then they get red and paint two spots red.  Then we learn the CORRECT way to rinse and dry our brushes so we can get blue and paint two spots blue.  Then we MIX a little yellow and blue to make green. . . you get the idea.  We make orange, but then I give them pink and turquoise to make a prettier violet.  I do limit (ie, take away the paint brushes of) those who just want to mix mud, so theirs have a lot more white, but they're all beautiful just the same.  I really like how it's helping them with drawing/painting/writing their letters AND it's a beautiful abstract-looking piece of artwork at the end.  A few more, just because they're so pretty:

This the finished one of the middle black and white group
from just above.

I hope if you try this in your classroom, you have just as much success as I always have.  Keep a few color-mixing books on hand just in case you have extra time at the end of Day 2.  I use Little Blue and Little Yellow or Mouse Paint.  Happy Kindergarten Color Mixing!