Color Mixing Monster

I spent two weeks dressed up like a made scientist and not one adult questioned me. I mean, I had a lab coat and goggles! You would think that someone would have thought it was strange but I guess it's expected form me. 

So why was I dressed like a mad scientist? (Thanks for asking.) Well coloring mixing is very scientific. I start my lesson with some explicit teaching of the primary colors. To help students remember these primary colors I want to connect them with something they know. I chose superheros because superheros generally wear primary colors. I let them name some of those superheros and we connect them to those primary colors. Superman is a great example because he wears all three primary colors, and the primary colors are pretty super! 

Photo Courtesy of https://steemit.com/gaming/@scholarlynanobot/what-if-superman-was-a-pokemon

Next I share that primary colors are super because they make other color when we mix them. This is when I break out my test tubes and food coloring. I put on my goggles since we are doing science and we start to mix out primaries. Like good scientist we also make predictions about what colors they will make. This is also great for an informal pre-test. 

After making the secondary colors student of course asked what happen when you mix all the primaries. Like good scientist and artists we followed our inquiry!

After our class experiment student go to their tables to do their own experiment. At the table they have black paper, all three primary colors in cups, and fat paint brushes in each color. Students choose only two colors to mix. One color gets put on one side of the line and the second on the opposite side. To make sure they mix and don't just cover each other I have students sing their ABC's while they rub the paper. Then the Big Reveal! 

This is the day that I teach drying rack procedures so we practice putting our work away and sit in a large circle on the carpet. Depending on the class some of them have some time left at the end so we either read Mix It Up by Herve Tullet or listen  to OK Go's "Three Primary Colors". This all takes place in a 40 minute session. 

The following class we start by reviewing the primary and secondary colors. Then we talk about how we can turn our mushes into monsters. To make the concept relatable we look at an image of a cloud. Most of us have looked at clouds and imagined that they look like other familiar objects. Students and I add details to our cloud on the SMART Board to help others see what we see. Once that idea is cemented for them we read Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems to give us some idea's for our monster. ​In the past I have used construction paper crayons and they do work nicely but I did order metallic markers for next year. I'll have to update to tell you how it goes! 

I generally do this lesson around Halloween so my Kinders are still new to school. A lot of them are still in the scribbling stage of drawing. This is expected and welcomed in this lesson. Most of the students are not able to draw forms yet but since they have a form to add on to there is a much higher success rate in this lesson compared to other drawing focused lessons. There are still a few students who scribble over the whole paper. Keep in mind I see 600-700 kinders a week and I maybe get four scribbled papers. 

Have you guys tried metallic markers? Do you like them, love them, hate them?