Today was our 100th Day of School, so to help our 2nd graders celebrate, I decided to challenge them to mix 100 different colors! I used the Apple program "Pages" to make a grid for them to paint over, consisting of 10 rows of 10 very light gray squares with a little white space in between. I didn't want to see harsh outlines around the colors and this worked well to give them a structure to paint over while allowing the colors themselves to "steal the show"! Then I made copies on card stock and gave my students their challenge....
Materials:
- Newspaper to cover desk
- 8.5" x 11" card stock, printed with a grid of 100 light gray squares
- Paper plate
- Tempera paint: red, yellow, turquoise, black, and white
- Paint brush
The "Rules":
1. Colors must be mixed... no using them straight out of the bottle!
2. Leave a little white space around each color.
and most importantly.....
3. No washing your brush! To clean your brush, simply wipe it on the newspaper.
I'm on a kick of painting without water these days, and the colors that kids are mixing are just incredible, thanks to that small amount of color that gets left in their brush! (This technique only applies to liquid tempera paint, and not watercolor, of course!)
Out of 25 students, only 6 completely finished by the end of our 50 minute period, but others were close. This was definitely challenging for 2nd grade, but they LOVED it and I think it will change the way they approach color mixing forever! A very FUN project.... trying it again tomorrow with 4th grade.... using hearts!
wow- i love this!!!
ReplyDeletehow fun! i'm sure the kids loved this! they look awesome!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!!
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFUL! These would look beautiful framed. Simple yet effective.
ReplyDeleteGénial !
ReplyDeletebeautiful idea...
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I love this! Our 100th day will be on Leap Day, so I am thinking this should be on the agenda....so pinning and I am your newest follower.
ReplyDeleteLaurie
Chickadee Jubilee
these are BEE YOU TEE FUL!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great idea! Can you share with us how you would assess a project like this? I love all your projects you share. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea and produced a cute piece of art! Kids always love when they get to create their own colors!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your great comments! Regarding assessing a project like this, I would do that with a rubric and pick about 4 things to evaluate, tying it into the standards for that grade level. Fortunately, I don't have to grade artwork for K-5, so I can assess more informally, based on how well students followed directions... for this project: did they mix lots of new colors? (or mostly browns!), did they leave white space around each one?, did they fill the page?, and was their project carefully done? (craftsmanship!). I hope that helps! :)
ReplyDeleteThese are so gorgeous- so fresh and contemporary. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHello !!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Thank you so much for all those great projects you share with us :)
Yesterday we did that challenge,,,my boy had lots of fun doing it. I posted the project on my blog and linked back to your, hope its ok with you...
You are more than welcome to take a look.
http://aufildesjours-claudia.blogspot.com/2012/02/defi-des-100-couleurs.html
Have a very nice day !!
Claudia :)
I love this project!! Color mixing with a purpose;
ReplyDeleteopen ended, process oriented and beautiful.
congratulations.
I'm going to have my kids try this, and then I will use it as a warm up for a future painting class.
thanks!
This is so awesome. I'm going to attempt this with my four year old! I'll let you know how it turns out.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a ton of fun! I missed doing it for our 100th day this year (I found this post afterwards) but I will add to my to-do list next year for sure!
ReplyDeleteI saw you mentioned a grid you made on Apple's program "Pages", but I don't have access to that. Is there any chance you can/would be willing to save your grid as a PDF and post this to your blog as well? Or do you have suggestions for another program to use?
Thanks a bunch!
This is so much fun. I couldn't do it with my kids this year but I hope to one year! I just had a feeling they wouldn't be able to sustain their focus after number 10.
ReplyDeleteI really should make it a station though for the END of the school year when we do stations. . . maybe a collaborative how many colors can we make from the primaries white and black?
Erica, I wasn't sure my 2nd graders could focus long enough for this, either, but they totally ate it up! We ran out of time before they lost interest! You should give it a try... they might surprise you!! :)
ReplyDeleteI did this with my third graders and they LOVED it. It actually took two whole classes, some two and a half, and each day they looked forward to doing it! Thanks again : )
ReplyDeleteLove this! Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeletehow did you dispense the color to them - I see you used paper plates - what did they start out with ROY G BIV?
ReplyDeletelove this idea - thanks!
SO gorgeous - I'm going to have some fun playing with this on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI may even do it with children - kidding!
Happy day!
Tishalou, I just gave them a small amount (quarter size) of the primaries (red, yellow and turquoise) plus black and white. I like to have kids mix their own colors whenever possible!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this awesome idea! I tried this with my 4th and 5th graders before they each began painting projects. I had written 1+1+1+1+1=100 on the board and as they walked into the room the students immediately became interested. It was so much fun. My only criticism, not of you, or the project, but I guess of me :) is that afterwards, when my students were working on their paintings, they still came up to me often and asked how to mix certain colors! It was almost like mixing the 100 was done absentmindedly. Oh well!
ReplyDeleteIt was still awesome!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks for this wonderful idea..im goin to do this with my kids. I found the 100 sq gray for free download at the link below if anyone is interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://laks365.blogspot.com/2012/08/fun-with-art-series-100-color-mixing.html#
What about trying it in teams of 2-4?
ReplyDelete