Complementary Color Collages-- 1st Grade

Complementary Color Collages

by the 1st Grade

This project introduces the first graders to complementary colors.  I show them the color wheel and I explain how the complementary colors are across from each other on the color wheel.  They are the "opposites".  If you mix the two of them together you would get a brownish or grayish color.  We talk about the primary/secondary colors and focus on the pairs of red + green, blue + orange, and violet + yellow.  At this point, a kid usually will point out the intermediate colors and I show them how those also have complementary colors.  For this project, we focus on the complementary pairs I have listed above.  I also read them this cute book called "The Orange Book" by Richard McGuire.  It is out of print, but I picked one up on amazon.com last summer.  The story is about oranges, but the pictures are all printed in orange and blue (which is one of the complementary pairs we will be using.)  I often like to read a story book that is inspiring to the subject matter we are studying.

A bag with orange and blue materials.

Preparation:  Gather colorful materials and place them in ziploc bags according to complementary pairs.  I include:  paper scraps, colorful tape, foam letters and pieces, stickers, colored cellophane, pompons, crepe paper, paint chip samples and stamps.  I have these fun marker stampers:  Crayola 10 Count Expressions Washable Mini-Stampers which I put out for the children to use.  This is a great time to use up those bits and bobs and random scraps.

After the introduction, I place the bags of complementary color "stuff" at different tables.  Then I say, "All the students who want to use orange and blue in their collage, sit at this table." and so forth.  Usually the class is pretty evenly distributed.  Then, they use the materials however they would like to make a complementary color collage.  

I like this project because it allows the kids to explore the materials in their own self-directed way.  Each of them comes up with such unique ways to put the materials together.

At the end of the class, whatever is left over gets put back in the bags and I save them for next year (and replenish them as needed.)

in progress collage.

Kids open up the bags, share what's inside and talk about the materials with their neighbors.

This imaginative boy turned his collage into a sculpture!

This boy enjoyed drawing lots of fun pictures with his markers.

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How do you teach about complementary colors to the youngest students?

1st Grade Complementary Color Collage

Here is an easy project for first graders to introduce complementary colors.  We started off by coloring a mini-color wheel (did not include the tertiary colors).  Then, we identified the complementary colors on the color wheel.  Next, the children were called up to pick out two sheets of paper that were complementary colors.  I monitored to make sure that these were indeed complementary colors.  Next, the children cut out different types of shapes from the papers and glued them to their paper.  The following class period, I had a little "kit" made up for each of them with things that had "their" colors.  I took a large ziploc bag and placed in the kit things such as colored cellophane, tape, stickers, pom pom balls, foam shapes, crepe paper streamers and so forth. 

Book Review 1

I love using children's books in my lessons about art.  Even the older kids like being read to.  It's a way to spark their interest in art, encourage a love of reading and make their learning connections much richer.  And, it doesn't really take that much time to incorporate a short story in the period.   I know class time for art is limited, so you want to make the most of every minute.  Consider just reading a portion of a book (if it is long), just discussing the pictures, or just summarizing long passages of text. 

This summer I went crazy and purchased a whole bunch (like 20) books from amazon.com which were used.  You can often find books for like 1 cent, plus of course, $3 shipping.  I found these books while reading the book Young at Art, which is also a great book for learning about the developmental stages of children's art.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about developing quality early childhood art experiences.  Young at Art focuses mostly on ages 0-5, which was very interesting to me since I have a toddler. Kindergartners could probably do many of these ideas from the book, but it is more geared towards preschool level.  This book is worth looking at for it's "books related to art" list alone in the back. 
Here's the book Young at Art:












 I decided I would share with you some of the books I purchased after seeing the lists in Young at Art.  This summer I will do a series of book reviews that you can use in your classroom.  They will be different, and hopefully new-to-you books than the usual art books I have seen used in lesson plans on the internet.  The first one is called The Orange Book, by Richard McGuire and I really love the vintage illustrations in this one.  Here are some pictures from the book:

The story is about 14 oranges and what happens to each of them.  The reason I really like this book, besides the cute illustrations, is that the whole book is colored in BLUE and ORANGE.  Which of course are COMPLEMENTARY colors!  So, I am planning to show this book to my students when I teach about complementary colors. 

Complementary Color Quilt Paintings.

Complementary Color Quilt Paintings
1st Grade

Key Concepts:  What are quilts?
                          What are complementary colors?
                          What are patterns?

We previously had done a fabric quilt square and I wanted to tie this project into their study of quilts already.  We learned about the color wheel and complementary colors. The 1st graders chose a pair to paint their square.  I had pre-drawn the rectangular rings around the center with pencil.  They painted them in with alternating complementary colors.  The next class period, they used any color oil pastel to draw patterns on top of the paint.