Students as young as kindergarten can start to learn about the color wheel.
Learning about the color wheel is one of the best ways to introduce color, mixing, shades and tertiary colors to your students. Instead of having them stare at a color wheel online or in the classroom, use a few different fun ideas for the students to create their own version in school.
Edible Color Wheel Activity
For your younger students, turn snack time into a time to a learn about the color wheel. Purchase white frosting, and dye each can to make red, blue and yellow frosting. Scoop out a little of each primary colored frosting and give it to your students along with 12 vanilla wafer cookies. Using ice cream sticks, have students frost three cookies in red, blue and yellow frosting. Then, have them mix a little of the primary colors to create the secondary colors. Have them frost three more cookies in the secondary colors purple, green and orange. Have them then mix the frosting further to create the six tertiary colors. Once they've arranged the colors in the proper order, they can enjoy them as a little snack.
Milk Color Wheel
The milk color wheel is a fun project for your younger and older students. This easy and quick project uses a few ingredients to create a color wheel out of milk and food coloring. Give each student a shallow, plastic bowl filled with 1 cup of milk. Have each student add three drops of red, blue and yellow food coloring to the milk, with each color spaced evenly apart. Then, they will squeeze a drop of dish soap into the middle of the bowl. As the soap spreads along the top of the milk (soap and milk don't mix), the colors blend together forming a perfect color wheel in the bowl.
Cellophane Color Wheel
The cellophane color wheel is a good activity for students to make and carry around with them. By creating "windowed" swatches, the students can see what colors form when the primary colors are mixed together. Using card stock, have each student trace a circle and divide it into six swatches. Cut the middle out of each swatch to create a window. Each student will then cut three pieces of red, blue and yellow cellophane slightly smaller than the swatch window. Glue one of the cellophane pieces to one swatch, then glue another piece of card stock over the back of the cellophane. This will sandwich the cellophane in between two pieces of card stock. Repeat this with the other colors to create three colored window swatches. When the glue is dry, have each student punch a hole at the bottom of each swatch, and slide a paper fastener through the hole. Moving the swatches will reveal a new color in the windows.
Magazine Color Wheel
Another fun activity to do with your students is the magazine color wheel. Handout blank color wheels to all of your students along with several different magazines, scissors and glue. The students will then flip through the old magazines and cut up pictures of different colors. Then, they'll have to glue the different colors and shades to their color wheels in the proper order. When finished, they'll have a fun, colorful and recycled color wheel.
