How to Teach Children About the Color Wheel

Teaching children about the color wheel is a great hands-on art activity that shows young kids how to distinguish between basic colors, create new colors by mixing, and even improve their fine motor skills and motor planning. Using a few basic items and washable craft or finger paints, children can learn about the colors by creating their own simple color wheel.

Things You'll Need

• Sturdy white paper plates
• Washable finger or craft paints in red, blue and yellow
• Paintbrushes, optional if using finger paints
• Paper towels
• Cups of water
• Newspapers
• Children's smocks

Instructions

1. For this color wheel project, have the children start with the basic primary colors. Help kids to place a large dollop of red paint at the top edge of a sturdy paper plate. Instruct them to place a similar size drop of blue paint one-third of the way from the red paint on the left side edge of the plate, and a yellow drop on the right side edge. The three drops of paint should form a triangle on the plate if an imaginary line is drawn to connect them.

2. Mix the colors to form new ones on the homemade color wheel. Using a paintbrush or tiny finger, grab a small amount of red paint from the dollop on top of the paper plate and place it between the red and blue drops on the edge of the plate. Next, rinse the brush or have the child rinse her finger, and grab a bit of the blue paint. Mix the blue paint with the red to form purple. Children can swirl the two colors together with their finger or a paintbrush to make the new color.

3. Repeat Step 2 with red and yellow to form orange, and yellow and blue to form green. Once these secondary colors have been created on the color wheel, children can be asked to take notes or talk about what new colors they have created.

4. For more advanced color mixing activities, instruct the children to make different shades of color by taking more of one color and mixing it with less of another to form a lighter or darker shade of green, orange and purple. These varying shades can be placed along the edges of the wheel to show color grading. Finally, children can be asked to mix all three primary colors and place this color combination in the center of their color wheel.

5. Once the color wheel lesson is over, let the paint dry for a few hours or overnight. Afterward, let the children take their artwork home so they may hang them proudly on their refrigerators.