I want to share an art activity, mixing paint into cool winter colors – kids mixing lessons. These mixing paint exercises teach basic primary to secondary mixing. Kids love these mixing paint lessons. These skills help with creating cool moods in artworks. Your students can create these cool colors with any student grade paint. Whether you choose watercolor, acrylic, craft paint, watercolors or basic tempera paints. If you need a list of basic painting supplies you can download this PDF. If you need to know which paints work best for children check out my book Painting Work for elementary grades, and Early childhood guide for young students.
Mixing with science
By integrating science and visual arts through teaching cool winter colors, you’ll captivate your students’ attention. And foster a deeper appreciation for the beauty for natures color. As children start to learn basic color mixing skill sets, you can challenge them to further create cool winter colors. Winter colors often appear cooler because of the lack of sunlight and colder temperatures.
To begin, introduce children to the concept of cool and warm colors on the color wheel. I suggests starting with basics primary colors. Show children the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) and explain these colors are the building blocks for all other colors. If you need resources to teach these types of lesson you can get my Kids Color Theory Book, or Kids Color theory curriculum. These books cover how to mix colors, and helps children learn how to create secondary, values, tints and shades. Having this knowledge makes them better at creating moods in their artworks.
Next share how cool tones are created in art. You can also integrate science topics by discussing how the Earth tilts to create winter and why leaves change colors seasonally. Observing artworks with cool winter colors can help make connections for children. These images here are from some of my favorite books. These are great examples of cool winter colors within artworks.
How to start color mixing
Start off basic, show children how to mix the primary colors to create secondary colors fist. For example, mixing blue and yellow to make green. Encourage children to experiment with these combinations and explore the results.
Once children are familiar with the primary and secondary colors, it’s time to explore move to learning how to make tints and shades. Tints are created by adding white to a color. And shades are created by adding black paint to colors.
You can check out this youtube video demo where I share how to do both. I suggests practicing painting with just two colors first. This allows children to focus on mixing tints and shades without overwhelming them with too many colors. watch video for visual demo
Winter painting ideas
Now it’s time to mix cool winter color artworks! Start with rainbow colors and show students how to create shades by adding black pigments to their paint. Explain that the reduced sunlight and colder days of winter affect the coloration of living plants and trees. Therefore, causing the vibrant colors to change to cooler winter colors. Notably, they will be able to see their bright rainbow of colors change to a cool winter rainbow.
Encourage cool winter color experimentation and exploration. So, let them play with different combinations of colors to create their own cool winter colors. They can mix blues, purples, and grey to capture the chilly essence of winter landscapes.
Blue & White
Trying mixing blue and white to create different shades of light blue. Then mimic cool winter colors by adding shades of black. This can create a darker colder appearance. Additionally, you can discuss how winter landscapes often contain black elements like storms, mountain ranges, and forests.
Lastly, if you’re looking for color theory curriculum, checking out my book and sequential curriculum Especially designed for primary and elementary grades. Additionally you will find a wealth of engaging activities.
Spramani Elaun
Cool Winter storybooks:
Arctic Tundra
Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World
Let’s Go to the Arctic: A Story and Activities About Arctic People and Animals
Snowflake Bentley
Myths and Legends of the World (Lonely Planet Kids)
