Colors & Shapes Art Activities
- Shaving cream provides a sensory experience for the kids and also produces unique shapes and designs on paper. Spread a thin layer of shaving cream onto a baking dish or other shallow pan. Place a few drops of food coloring on top of the shaving cream. Add other colors of food coloring if desired. Use a toothpick or craft stick to swirl the color into the cream. Place a piece of card stock or other thick paper on top of the colored shaving cream. Press it lightly so it picks up the color. Lift it off of the shaving cream and use a craft stick or ruler to scrape off the remaining cream to reveal swirls of color. Allow the paper to dry fully. Cut the paper into geometric shapes. Use the resulting shapes to create a collage of color by gluing them onto a plain sheet of card stock.
- Color wheels provide the opportunity to explore how colors mix together. Provide each participant with a cup of red, a cup of yellow and a cup of blue paint. These primary colors are used to make the secondary and tertiary colors in this art project. Cut out 12 paper circles for each participant. Instruct the kids to paint one circle red, one circle blue and one circle yellow. Guide the kids in combining the primary colors to make orange, green and purple. Have them use the new paint colors to paint three more circles. These colors and the original primary paints combine to create the tertiary colors: blue-green, blue-purple, red-purple, red-orange, yellow-orange and yellow-green. Use these six colors to paint the final six circles.
These painted circles then become a homemade color wheel when dried and glued to another sheet of paper. Demonstrate how to glue the three primary circles into a triangle pattern, with each circle creating a point on the triangle. Leave plenty of room between the points so the other circles fit onto the color wheel. Draw lines to connect the three circles. Create another triangle that overlaps the original one by placing the three secondary colors between the two primary colors that create it. Draw the lines between those colors. Add the six tertiary colors between the primary and secondary colors that create them. For example, the blue-green circle would be placed between the blue and green circles. Hang the homemade color wheels around the room for reference.
