Color wheel

A few weeks ago among the chaos of my world, my 7th and 8th graders created color wheels. I always like to have my middle school kids create color wheels just because it is such a good review! On this project, students used their hands to create their giant color wheels. They simply traced their hand and cut it out. They then used their hand print as a pattern in which they traced 12 times (once for each color on the color wheel.) They just loved this step =) After 12 hands were traced, students began painting primary colors first on 3 hands. Then they painted 3 hands secondary colors. These 6 colors were already provided for them. Once primary and secondary colors were painted we discussed tertiary colors ( red violet, red orange, yellow orange, etc.)  They had to use their primary and secondary colors to color mix the tertiary colors. This is always a challenge for some because they always feel the colors don't look any different. I always stress to add more primary color then secondary color and it normally works perfectly! Once all paint is complete and dry, the kids used scissors to cut out their hands, and arranged them onto big paper. One thing I stressed is to make sure their complementary colors were across from one another to make sure they had correct placement.
They turned out awesome!

 

After this project, I always do an edible colorwheel just to ensure the concepts of color mixing, and placement are understood. It is a fun post test! Plus, if they do the edible colorwheel correctly they get to eat their project which they love! Middle school kids are always hungry!=)