An Art a Day Takes the Blues Away: Have a Colorful Homeschooling Day!

Previously posted on August 19, 2015 @ homescool.ph

So, we’ve done LINES and SHAPES, and a little bit of FORMS. Check the other posts under the Art Attack category on this site if you are new to this blog. It’s getting more exciting and what could be more exciting than COLOR? Can you imagine Art apart from COLOR? I am sure at this point; you can’t help but jump into it. Who wants a boring study session on COLOR and art concepts/terms pertaining to COLOR? I guess the best way to start the series on COLOR is to just get messy and splash around, especially with young, energetic kids.

As you take your students into the wonderful world of Color in your Art Lessons, try to just expose them to seeing lots of COLOR through beautifully colored story or picture books, photography books with lots of colorful images. I chanced upon this blog post on color. I also looked for nice images or quotes about COLOR and it would be good to show these images to your students. This may be a good time to introduce the two accepted ways to spell, “COLOR/COLOUR”.

Ask your children about what he/she thinks about these “quotes”. You may then ask, ” What is color? What would life be like without colors? Why is COLOR important? If you were a color, what color would you be and why? Oh, you can ask a lot of questions and just enjoy listening to your students answers as you open up as well. It can become a writing activity so you can take down notes on what your children say. At another time, they can write about “Color” and their experience in these activities I am about to share with you. (Remember, when you ask your children to write (output), you have to create opportunities for relevant and substantial exposure to stimuli or experience (input) about what they may write about. When they lack words, for instance, in trying to write about what color would they be if they could choose, you can refer back to your notes when you were in a discussion and give your students some guidance on how to create a few sentences with his/ her oral answers which you took down)You will definitely get to know each other as you open up yourself as you answer as well, Let your children direct you in your follow up questions.

You can even be a bit more “philosophical or emotional” by asking, what do you think it means when someone says, “You add color into my life”, or “You color my world with bright colors.” You can even use this time to just allow your students to express even more through some “exercises on expression, descriptions and communication in general.” You can ask, “If you were to describe the color blue to a person born blind, how would you do it? How about for red?”  “Do feelings have colors? What feeling does “black” communicate?

You can delay the “theoretical aspects” as you just try to engage your children’s imagination and interest. For now, here are two activities that can just make your homeschool day COLORful and FUN.

Marble Art Activity

Task: To use marbles dipped in poster paint to create wonderful lines crisscrossing and to see effects of different colors mixing together (creating secondary colors)

Materials:

• A Basin/Tray or Bin large enough so a white board paper can be secured via tape on it
• A few small marbles
• A palette with 6 wells or ice trays or muffin trays
• Paint: Poster/ Tempera/Acrylic mixed with water
• Paint Brush
• Board paper
• Scotch Tape

Steps:

1. Secure a white/ cream board paper or watercolor paper in a large basin or rectangular bin using scotch tape

2. Coat each marble using your hands or paint brush with one color at a time.

3. Drop the coated marble on the basin/bin. One marble at a time. Then start moving the bin/ tray to make the marble roll and leave “streaks” of color as it rolls.

4. Add another marble dipped in another color and repeat step#3.

Use a different combination of colors.

For this exercise, when “red” and “green” streaks overlapped, ask your students, “What color do you see?”

SPLASHY, De-STRESSING Art Activity

Task: To create splashes of color

Materials:

Old rags/Cloths cut into small strips and rolled into small clumps secured by safety pin (size of golf balls or ponkan fruits)

Pails of assorted colors of watered-down poster or acrylic paint

Steps:

1. Soak the clumps of cloth in different colors (Assign one “cloth ball” per color).

2. Outdoors, find a wall with a ground (garden) that can get soaked with washable paint/ water.

3. Cover the part of the wall which you plan to use with 2 -3 newspapers.

4. Use paper suitable for painting (watercolor paper, tough cartolina or board paper). Stick the paper on the newspaper covered part of the wall using gentle tape.

5. Get the soaked cloth balls and try to wring it. Throw them into the direction of your paper as if you were pitching a ball in baseball. As the “ball” hits the wall, it will create a splattered effect such as these below:

Aren’t they pretty? This was really fun. At one point, my daughter decided to “make some adjustments” and modify the activity. She decided to just press the soaked cloth balls on the top of a cartolina and let the paint ooze out in a line going downwards. It has such a beautiful effect.

Don’t forget to include your children in every “clean up” after Art. As you can imagine, this was quite messy with lots of stuff to wash, wipe and mop. Make sure your students do their clean up duties well.

Now, we hope we got you and you homeschool excited for these 2 activities. Have a COLORful Homeschooling Art Activity soon:)

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:13