Grade: 4-5
Length: 1 class period
Activity: Students construct cut-paper pieces to explore the properties of color.
Arts Toolkit Resource: "Warm and Cool Colors," an excerpt from Program 3 of the KET series Art On-Air. It is excerpt 1A on the Arts Toolkit Visual Arts video. Length of segment: 6:00. (Or use KET Encyclomedia video: Art Education: Color in Art segment: Warm and Cool Colors)
Concepts/Objectives
Students will construct cut-paper pieces to explore the powers, temperatures, and movements of colors.
Academic Content
Core Content for Assessment Version 3.0:
AH-E-4.1.31: Describe works of art using appropriate art terminology (subject matter, ideas, elements of art, principles of design). AH-E-4.1.32: Art elements—line, shape, form, texture, and color (primary and secondary hues) and color groups (warm, cool, neutral). AH-E-4.1.33: Principles of design—organization of visual compositions: emphasis (focal point), pattern, balance (symmetry), contrast (light/dark).
Essential Question
How do I use elements of visual art and the principles of design to create and perform?
Materials
5" X 7" construction paper of primary and secondary colors (two primary colors and one secondary color per student)
9" X 12" white paper (one piece per student)1/2" X 8" strips of white paper (one per student)
scissors
glue
cellophane tape
Vocabulary
cool colors
primary colors
secondary colors
warm colors
Work Tip
Make sure you have enough pieces of each color so that students with orange can have yellow and red paper, those with purple can have blue and red, and those with green can have yellow and blue.
Instructional Strategies and Activities
Show the video excerpt "Warm and Cool Colors." (Or use KET Encyclomedia video: Art Education: Color in Art segment: Warm and Cool Colors) Tell students to look for the answers to these questions as they watch:
· Why are certain colors called warm while others are called cool?
· What are the warm colors?
· What are the cool colors?
· Which colors generally move forward? Which generally recede?
Show Unitedstreaming videos: Art Education: Color in Art segments: Primary Colors and Secondary Colors
Discuss the properties of color while looking at different pieces of colored paper. Consider these questions:
o What are the primary colors?
o What are the secondary colors?
Then give each student four pieces of colored paper:
o a secondary color
o one of each of the two primary colors that are mixed to make the secondary color
o one strip of 1/2" X 8" white paper
Instruct students to glue down the two primary colors, side by side, in the middle of a piece of 9" X 12" white paper. Have students cut two or three long, thin shapes from the secondary color. Direct them to lay each of these shapes on top of the primary colors, making sure that each shape overlaps the two primary colors. Have the students glue the shapes down. Tell students to take the 1/2" X 8" white strip and lay it down over the center of the piece, where the two primary colors meet, and tape it down at the top. Tell the students to stand back and squint at the piece. Ask them how the secondary color looks different on each of the primary colors. The difference may be subtle, but students should be able to see that the primary colors are pulling themselves out of the secondary color, making it look as if it had more of the remaining primary color. Ask students to explain why they chose the colors they chose and to use art vocabulary from the lesson to explain color properties.
Performance Assessment
Performance Event:
Colors have power. Certain colors make us feel certain emotions. Colors have temperatures, too. We say that some colors are "warm" and others "cool." Colors help move our eyes through an art work. Colors also have effects on other colors when placed together.