Color

The children learn about warm and cool colors in kindergarten. Ask if anyone remembers which are the warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) and which are cool (blues, greens, purples).

Ask questions about where in nature the children see these colors (green trees, blue lake, red burning charcoal in a barbecue). To reinforce the ideas of warm and cool colors ask the children what they can think of that feels warm (the sun, fire, the glowing embers that you see after the barbecue burns down). Then ask what colors are contained in sun, fire, glowing embers (reds, oranges, yellows).

Next, ask if they can think of things that feel cool (a lake or swimming pool, a pasture for animals, the sky at twilight). Then ask what colors predominate in the water of a lake or swimming pool, a pasture, and the sky as evening falls (blues, greens, purples).

Ask the children which set of colors, warm or cool, they think would go with feelings of anger (warm, especially red). Which set goes with feelings of calm, peacefulness? (cool, especially blue and green) Ask them which colors they have in their house, on the walls of their bedrooms, which colors they prefer and why. Tell the children that painters and other visual artists think about these things when they create their work, that in a painting warm colors seem to come closer and cool colors seem to recede more into the background. (If the students need help with the word recede, have them picture to themselves a man with a receding hairline.)

Show the children the slide of Interior, Flowers, Parakeets. Tell them it was painted at the beginning of our century by a Frenchman named Henri Matisse. Ask what country they think he came from (France) and locate it on the classroom map or globe for them. Ask which continent France belongs to (Europe) and point that out as well.

Ask whether they would like to live in the room they see in the painting. Why or why not? Try to get responses from all the children. Then ask: What color do you think stands out more than any other in this painting? (red) How many shades of red can you see? (at least 4 or 5 ) (Make sure that everyone understands the term shade, and illustrate by showing various skin or clothing shades of the same color.) Ask them whether the reds in the Matisse painting make the room seem cool, calm, and restful or warm, busy, and energetic.

Now ask the children whether Matisse used warm or cool colors for this painting or whether he used both (almost entirely warm: red, gold, golden brown; a bits of pale blue on walls that seem to recede). Briefly repeat some of the characteristics of warm and cool colors and how they make the children feel about the room in this painting.

Next show the children the slide of Cassatt's portrait of the little girl. Have them guess what the term portrait means and point out that nowadays we all take photographs of people, but that for hundreds and hundreds of years only artists made portraits of people so that others could see what the person looked like. Tell them this portrait was made by an American woman nearly one hundred years ago and that in this case she didn't use paint but a special kind of chalklike crayons made of ground color pigments (mixed with water and a binding medium) that we call pastels. Ask how they could tell that it was done long ago if you hadn't told them (the hat and dress of the little girl). Tell them that although Mary Cassatt was an American, she lived for many years in the same country as Matisse. Ask who remembers the name of that country. Ask them which colors they see in this portrait (blue, green, white) and how the colors make them feel. Ask the children what they would guess about whether the child is quiet and especially well behaved or energetic and active. Did the painter choose warm or cool colors to portray this little girl?

Review once more the names of the warm and cool colors.

Activity

Make color bouquets.

Procedure

Distribute pieces of colored tissue to the children, allowing each one to choose from the colors available. Hold the sheet by the center and twist to make a stem, fanning out the rest to look like a tissue flower. Have the students do the same. Then ask all with warm colors to come forward, then all with cool colors to come forward in order to make two bouquets. Finally, let them mix the colors and observe the different effects of the various mixtures.