“We can paint with our friends special colors? Wow!”

Our color study has come to a close, and children put the final touches on their work last week!  Children signed their name under their painting, came up with unique names for their colors and shared a story about their final painting.  Friends looked at the Pantone book (for kids) for support if they needed help naming their colors.

With the leftover cups of paint, friends worked together on collaborative paintings at the easel, and at the table during Service!  Children were excited to try out the special colors their friends made.

Avery: We can paint with our friends special colors? Wow!

Last Thursday, Capital City hosted it’s 1st Annual Pre-K to 12th grade Art Exhibition, titled In Forced Proximity.  16 Pre-K students had art work displayed at the opening and shared their work with family and friends.  It was wonderful to watch children share their art work with pride, as it took a lot of courage to explain art work to adults and older students.  Looking forward to the tradition of this at Capital City!

“I only made two colors because they were cool… the coolest colors I’ve ever made!”

Last week, friends returned to the Studio eager and excited to use their special colors of paint for a cohesive painting.  It was a tricky challenge, and children used their imagination or changed their idea once they had time to observe and reflect on the colors of paint they mixed the prior week, as those were the only colors available for their final painting!  As children worked, they shared stories about their paintings with their friends.

Briana: I’m making something brand new.  It’s hard work… hard hard work.

Joelle: I mixed a color that looks like mint ice cream.  I’m using it to put on the finishing touches.

King: I like that.  It cool.  I make a house for me!

Uhura: I made a microscope looking at a sunflower seed.  The microscope is on the boat and that’s me and my sister on our boat.  Those spots are yogurt drops falling on us!

Frances: I want to make grass, but I don’t have green.  I know… I can use gold!

Ahmari: This color looks like garbage from the trash truck.

Kaylee: I make orange.  This color looks like the orange art group!

Kendul: The dark red is my favorite color that I mixed.

Isaac: I’m making something… something very specific.  I don’t have yellow to make the sun, so the sun can be dark green.  The plant is burning up.  The plants are in trouble!

Africa Grace: I only made two colors because they were cool… the coolest colors I’ve ever made!

Santi: This is hard work to make the painting with all the colors.

Mina: I made beautiful colors!

Avery: I like this color… it’s a monster color!

Theo: I think I used pink and purple and black and mixed them together to make this dark color.

Anders: This color looks like it’s burning up!

Mason: I’ll make the grass… red… because I don’t have green.

Drew: Blue is a good color because it’s the color of Earth so it comes with all the powers!  My other colors are camouflage colors.  I like them very much!

Aaron: I got three greens like Gecko.

Kourtney: I made the sun purple… I wish it was really purple, not yellow.

Gerson: Challenge accepted! I can do it!

Mateo: This is a Minecraft color.  And this looks like a goo color!

Alden: I’m up for the challenge!

“Red can be a sad color because it’s the color of blood when you get hurt.”

As children continued to learn about mixing colors, friends began making connections between colors and feelings.  To further explore this, we read My Many Colored Days by Dr.Seuss.

Once it was time to start mixing colors, friends were excited to see that different facial expressions were on their paper and immediately made connections between colors and feelings! They also enjoyed trying to mimic some of the sillier expressions 🙂

Kaleb: I’ve seen these emojis before.  This face looks happy because maybe he’s having a balloon party!

Ali: Use peach and white to make a “love” color.  And that face looks like a robot so he can be grey.

Betsegaw: The silly face can be blue, yellow and red mixed together.

Abbie: When my baby pulls my hair, my cheeks get so red and I cry.  It makes me mad.

Luca: I used all the colors to make the heart eyes because I love all the colors.

Mariyah: The love color (purple) reminds me of Ms.Berger because I love her and she loves that color.

Avery: This one is mad.  He has a mad face like Mufasa.  Mufasa is always mad at Simba.

Mina: That face looks like he’s sweating!

Kate: I’m really busy here being a painter.  Blue for the crying face… like tears.

Alina: I’m gonna put purple on the happy face because I love purple.

Stephanie: He yellow because yellow is a happy color.  Pink is happy too!

Joelle: Dr.Seuss thinks purple is a sad color.

Amie: When I add a little bit of yellow, it mixed to green.  He’s sad because he doesn’t like green and want to be another color, like purple.

Cesar: Love is for red… I think so!

Gerson: I made silver.  That’s my favorite color!  When you mix all the colors, it makes grey, like silver.

Bella: When I cry, I get cries that are blue so the sad face is blue.  And that face looks confused… like he’s thinking about what made me sad.  He’s like “hey, what happened here?”

Daniela: That face feels confused.  What happened!

Asa:  The sad face can be blue because it’s the color of tears.

Adele: Do you like this camel color? It’s for the silly face.

Nazeer: This color looks soapy.  He’s surprised he’s covered in soap.

Alden: Sometimes my face turns red when I get mad.

Julian: Hey… grey, grey, grey! Three different greys.  I can still see his little emoji eyes and surprised face!

Elizabeth: The happy face is green, a kind of green that looks like cabbage because that’s my favorite color!

Drew: Dr.Seuss said pink was a happy color.  You could make the happy face pink, but you don’t have to.  And this face is silly, green is the color that fits the silly face.

Connor: I was thinking… maybe we could put some colors together.  They can make new colors!

Kourtney: Look at this color, it’s a little bit pink.  It’s for the smiley face because it’s my favorite color.

Kimi: That face feels like it’s alone, awwww.

Elijah: This emoji looks sleepy, and this one looks curious!

Declan: Red can be a sad color because it’s the color of blood when you get hurt.

Luca: Faces can turn red when you get angry.  But Dr.Seuss said black is an angry color.  I mixed black and red together to make my own angry color.

Africa Grace: I’m making this one so pink because there’s so much love.  She has so much love on her.

Isaac: This face feels… annoyed!

Santi: I like this color.  I’m putting it on the angry face because it’s my favorite!

“I’m a great artist because I make good things to cheer people up, like this nice color!”

For the second week of our color study, friends mixed colors using primary (red, yellow, blue) and secondary (orange, green, purple) colors.  We began by reading Color Dance by Ann Jonas, which gives really great visuals for how colors mix and change… especially highlighting that all colors mixed together make grey or brown.

Next, friends began mixing colors on their individual palettes and shared with friends what they noticed and wondered throughout the process.

Elizabeth: Naila made almost the same color as me!  It’s pink purple, but I used more red and she used more blue so that’s why they look only almost the same.

Christian: Oh, look what I did!  I used yellow and orange to make light orange.

Adele: I used all the colors.  I think it will turn brown.  No, it looks like a raspberry color!  How do I get it to stay rainbow?

Jax: I mixed rainbow colors.  I made this color… it’s brown!

Amie: I wanted to make red but it didn’t turn into red.  I don’t like the color.  I am not happy that it’s not mixing to red.

Avery: I’m a great artist because I make good things to cheer people up, like this nice color!

Anders: I mixed blue and green to make an ocean water color.  They danced around and mixed that on the paper.

Mason: I made a color that looks like a spaceship color.

Cesar: I made Julian’s favorite color.  Red like Lightening McQueen.

Julian: I put red and orange to make light red.  Mix, mix, mix!

Isaac: This color reminds me of a poop color.  Sorry, but it does!

Theo: I wonder what I’m making with yellow and orange.  It’s interesting!

Connor: I can mix 6 colors.  It made brown.

Drew: This color looks like yolk.

Ahmari: My arm is hurting from all the painting.

Elijah: That color looks like the inside of a watermelon!

Uhura: Maybe I can try to make gold.  I’m gonna try yellow and orange for gold.

Isaac: Do you know how to make my favorite color?  It’s green and blue mixed together.  Santi mixed them too but his is more darker.

Luca: I’m trying to make golden.  It worked with a lot of yellow and a little bit of purple.  Oh my goodness, I did golden!  When you put more purple in it it turns brown and looks gross.

Montre: I made Catboy blue!

Anival: Mix, mix, mix.  Everything turned… brown.

Asa: I made a special new kind of red.

Cesar: Mariyah, we made the same color, we really did it!  Did you put purple first and then red?

Mateo: All the colors together make hot chocolate brown.

Kaleb: I made a Rainbow Dash color.  Oh, that’s good.

Caleb:  Blue, yellow. Green!  It did it!

“I’m really an artist right now. I’ve seen artists hold a palette like this before!”

After returning from winter break, friends began learning about colors and color mixing as we kicked off our long-term color study!  We started by reading Monsters Love Colors, a very silly book that introduces colors and color mixing to young children really well.

Next, I introduced some new materials, such as a palette.  Children learned that palettes are a tool that artists use for mixing colors.  They were very excited to hold it in one hand and their paintbrush in the other.  For the first week, each palette was prepared with the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) for children to mix new colors with.  Friends loved mixing their own colors, and many tried to mix colors they they thought the monsters would love!

Elijah: Look, I’m mixing brand new colors.  This is super pumpkin orange!  We should send this to the monsters.  We could put it in the mailbox and we could send it to Monster University!

Isaac: My mom uses a palette when she paints because she’s an artist.

Santi: I made green again.  It’s different green because it’s lighter.

Mina: I mixed a color that looks like it has a little bit of yellow in it.  Oh, it’s orange!

Theo: Avery, did you say white is your favorite color?  Try mixing yellow and blue.  That might make white.  Oh, no, that’s just green.

Elizabeth: This color looks like cabbage green!  And this green is like Grinch green.  I’m stirring this so fast.  I call this… green garbage!

Uhura: I made two greens but this green is different because it’s darker.  It has more blue mixed in it.

Gerson: Red and yellow.  Oh, I made orange!

Mateo: Mileena and I made green.  But mine looks more yuckier.  Mine looks like spinach green.

Adele: I made a rainbow with red, yellow and blue.  But then I painted more and it looks like it turned brown to me.

Briana: I made a lighter orange with more yellow.  I’m really so good at painting because I can mix any color!

Daniela: I used rainbow colors to make brown.  How did I do that?

Luca: Whoa, I made a new color.  I made brown with all three colors.  It looked like a little rainbow but then I mixed it and it turned brown.

Jax: I’m having so much fun with paint!  I mixed brown with all the colors, did you see that?

Amie: I was right!  Blue and yellow made green.  I want to make it light… maybe it needs more yellow.

Kyrie: The monsters, they would love it!  Look what I made!  Look, look, look!  Green!

Katherine: The monsters really told me how to make purple.

Kate: I made another purple now.  That one is darker purple and this one is lighter purple.

Frances: Lava is red, too.  Just like this color.

Kaleb: I made brown with rainbow colors.

Marcus: I mixed blue and yellow and it made green!  Red, yellow and blue go to brown.  Blue and red go to purple.

Kourtney: I mixed all the colors together and it made brown, not rainbow.

Drew:  This is maybe darker green, like teal green.

Alden: I’m really an artist right now.  I’ve seen artists hold a palette like this before!

Julian: I like that Hope mixed a color like Spongebob.

Connor: Whoa, I’m pretty good at mixing colors.

Mariyah: I think you put paint in those little spots to mix new colors.

Aaron: I made a red that looks like Spiderman!

Hailey: I was right, yellow and red made orange.

“I’m making a color that nobody’s mixed before.”

After weeks and weeks of experimentation with color mixing, children started working on their final color study product!  Friends began by closing their eyes and imagined what it would be like if they only had a few colors in the world to paint with.  Children thought about places they had been that evoked vivid memories, animals and food that they loved, and objects they have seen at school or at home.

Next, friends began creating their unique colors in small plastic cups.  Friends added paint to their cups until they had a color that made them happy.  Once the color was just right, they painted a small rectangle with their paint that would be used for the final product.  Children were able to pick the number of colors they wanted to create, ultimately ranging from 2-4.  Colors were saved for the following week… stay tuned for a post about the final work!

Victor: I maked black. I mean I maked grey! I’m making it!  I like it!

Luca: This color looks kind of rotten.

Naomi: I’ve got an idea! Maybe if I put orange and yellow it will make gold. Elijah, is that how did you made gold?

Sebrina: I’m ready to make mines. Let’s see if mine is beautiful enough.

Amen: It made mint blue. Mint blue is very light.

Dafnee: I made brown. You just use all the colors to do that.

Eli: I used yellow, blue and white. Then I used a little bit of blue again. I picked them because I want to make green. I knew blue and yellow made green.

Waju: I think I need a little bit more red to be happy.

Julissa: Oooohhhh, this color is good!

Isaac: Let the color mixing wars begin! A color mixing war is something that when everyone mixes colors together!

Fatima: This green I made looks like turquoise. I like this. I want to use this color everyday.

Eden: I’m making a color that nobody’s mixed before.

Kwame: I made dark green. I’ve never made dark green before. I saw a juice that was dark green before.

David: White paper like colors of paint!

Jeylin: Mine looks like yogurt.  I love this so much.

Siah: I’m happy with my color. Wait, no, I’m not.  More purple and now I’m happy!

Katherine: I’m using all of the colors. It’s turning into rainbow colored. It’s changing to brown.

Avery: I’m not happy yet, I still feel a little mad.  I’m not happy yet.  Now mine looks like a smoothie.  I’m happy with this!

Kate: This is like chocolate milk.

Sammy: Close your eyes everybody, lets see what it is. Oh my god! Oh my gosh! A dark purple, I’m happy with it.

Anders: I like this one… it’s blood red! Zombie red. Zombie blood red.

Kourney: Look at it, I love this color. It’s purple and pink.

Aurora: This color looks like cake.

Elliott: I’m ready for my paper because it turned so light. Wow! It’s light orange.   It only took me all these colors to make light orange.

Kaleb: I’m sad about this color. I need to get some red a little bit.

Isabella: This is the color I wished for and wanted to make.

Amal: I like this color now. This color is amazing.

Leonel: I maked beautiful colors.

Frances: I’m mixing all of my colors into a beautiful paint that looks like a leaf color.  I love it, I love it.

“I’m going to make the crying face blue because tears are blue. When I see water coming from the sky it’s blue.”

Phew! We have been so busy with all this color mixing that I’m not really behind on blogging— sorry about that!

A couple of weeks ago, friends began making connections between colors and feelings.  To further explore this, we read My Many Colored Days by Dr.Seuss.

Once it was time to start mixing colors, friends were excited to see that different facial expressions were on their paper and immediately made connections between colors and feelings.

Victor: I made grey. White and black made grey. The sad face is grey.

Autumn: Peach is a silly color.

Luca: When someone makes you mad your face get’s red.

Elijah: When someone’s making a really silly joke, you might laugh really hard and cry at the same time.  I don’t know what color to make that face, though.

Naomi: There’s black in the story and it was a mad page. I’ll make the mad face black.

Amen: It’s making it grey. Daniel, you’re right, it’s making grey. Dark grey. You mix up all the colors to make it.

Dafnee: That face feels exhausted.

Eva: I make the happy face pink. It’s my favorite color.

Elliott: I’m using blue for the sad face. Because blue is the color of tears.

Amal: That face feels shy. And that’s a love face.  This is a curious face.

Nydelyn: The face with the hearts is purple because purple is my favorite color. I like purple.

Cora: A smiley face with tears? I loved something so much that I cried.

Frances: Heart eyes, he’s in love. Pink or red are good love colors.

Elizabeth: White is confusing because then you can’t see the face underneath.

Kai: I’m putting more mad. It’s getting so mad.

Alden: The laughing and crying is a rainbow face. Because I said so.

Eli: Look at this one. I made the sad face pink because I don’t like pink.

Mileena: The sad face is red.  I don’t like red.

Waju: I made my mad face super duper red. Some peoples face look red when they get mad. I made it super duper dark.

Jayde: Pink for heart for red for aaawwww. Love.

Isaac: I’m going to make the crying face blue because tears are blue. When I see water coming from the sky it’s blue.

Konone: He’s smiling and crying at the same time because he’s so happy. My mom smiled and cried at the same time because she was so happy.

Eden: Yellow is for happy, for the happy face. Yellow makes me happy. And it looks like a happy face sun.

Drew: This one looks silly. That’s why he’s a clown with a red nose.

Kwame: He’s making a happy face. Do you see he has a beard. He has a ginormous beard. He’s a little embarrassed that he has a beard.

Siah: Happy is pink like in the book.

Dylan: I’m making mad. Red and blue, it look like a rainbow. Look, Siah, I made a rainbow. Because it’s beautiful.

Julita: The heart in eyes is purple.

Anders: I’m putting yellow and white, haha. I feel surprised about that color.

Sammy: I made a wolf color for mad.

Kimi: It’s like your eyebrows are like up, up, up, angry.

Julian: This face is red because he’s angry.

“Magical colors coming up!”

Last week, children learned about mixing tints and shades by adding white and black to their paint palette.  We began by reading Mix It Up by Herve Tullet, a really sweet gift that Ms.Morris picked up for me at the National Book Fair this fall!

This was such a fun book to read because it’s hands on and everyone was able to participate in changing the colors throughout the book.  Friends thought it was magical and continuously checked their fingers to see if the paint really left the page and was on their hands.

Cameron: The book is magical because it made different colors. Some colors disappeared.

Frances: 1,2,3,4,5…. * gasp * it made my hand. Wait, it’s not on my hand. It’s magical!  It’s mysterious because it didn’t get on my hand but I could still change the colors.

Mateo: There’s a lot of colors on that page.

 

Trebor: 1,2,3,4,5… all the colors went on my hand. But there’s no paint on them.

Naomi: This book as magical. I like when we got to put our hands on it.

Felipe: The book was beautiful.

Anders: The book is magical when you smushed the book together and it made grey.

Next, friends began mixing their own colors and have started to really draw connections to the colors they make and objects that they know.

Brandon: A little bit of blue and a little bit of red, let me see what happens. Looks like pink like the ice cream.

Elizabeth: How you make the light blue? Wait, actually you tricked me, it’s blue grey.

Ethan: Yeah, pancake pancake.

Luca: Look, I made light grey! More white makes it light.

Siah: This one’s my favorite. It’s peach pink.

Elliott: Look what we both made. Red and black. Eva’s is lighter because of the red, and mine is darker because of more black. Mine is darker than Eva. Eva, look how dark mine is.

Kai: I think I’m gonna make pink. I made pink! How do I make pink darker?

Phoenix: That looks like ketchup and mustard.

Autumn: My hand is hurting because I keep painting.

Drew: Yellow and red, wait, wait, wait that’s not right. Yellow and blue makes green.

Dylan: Red, for Mater. I use red.

Isabella: Snowy blue. Just like Elsa made with her powers.

Katherine: I used red, white and yellow to make pink, light pink.

Ali: A magical colors mean it has green.

Kimi: Wow, I mixed it… I did it!  I didn’t feel scaredy.

Waju: White will make it light, black will make it black.

Elijah: That color looks like honeycomb.

Gionni: My palette is filthy.

Amal: If we put all the colors and put it here it makes grey. I hoped it was rainbow. Not fair, it’s grey.

Avery: Magical colors coming up!

Jax: *gasp* it turned play dough red!

Konone: Silver! All the colors made silver.

Nazeer: This looks like a toothbrush. And the paint is the toothpaste.

Amen: You can do light pink with I don’t remember, oh yeah, white and red like this.

“Purple and yellow together made a dark yellow that looks like a rotten banana.”

For the second week of our color study, friends mixed colors using primary (red, yellow, blue) and secondary (orange, green, purple) colors.  We began by reading Color Dance by Ann Jonas, which gives really great visuals for how colors mix and change… especially highlighting that all colors mixed together make grey or brown.

Next, friends began mixing colors on their individual palettes and shared with friends what they noticed and wondered throughout the process.

Autumn: What did I make? Red! But what kind of red? It’s yellow red!

Gerson: I made brown.  No, this is purple.

Phoenix: I made two purples… like twins.

Luca: Purple and yellow together made a dark yellow that looks like a rotten banana.

Naomi: Wow, this is a new color.  It’s so new that I don’t even know the name for it.  I guess I can call it yellow gold.

Elijah: I made a special color.  It’s called violet jam.

Nazeer: I’m holding the palette in my hand like I’m an artist because I am an artist.

Daniel: Red like the lobster.  Red lobster.

Brandon: Let me see what happens.  I used all the colors and see, it made brown.

Leonel: This color is called dark rose.

Frances: I think I made grassy green. And this kind looks like cactus green.

Elliott: On sunny days, I want to be cooled down. On cold days, I want to be warmed up. I’m going to make a color to make me really warm. A color like the sun makes me really warm, I used yellow and orange to make that.

Isabella: Does anyone know this color? It’s a dark stormy color.

Cora: I’m mixing Christmas-y colors. It made purple brown.

Trebor: I mixed a little bit of orange and a lot of green and it made monster green.

Elizabeth: Look look look what I made, it’s garbage green.

Mileena: This color is like the clouds. Like outside the window on those clouds.

Gionni: What happens if I put a little more green on the blue… it got lighter! I put more blue and now it’s darker.

Eden: That’s how real artists actually do when they paint on the walls they hold the palette.

David: What color this is? Blue. Yes.

Siah: Let’s see how it changes. Orange, I got orange! Uhhhh, I used red and orange.

Avery: I’m making black. But I’m not finished yet, I’m still making colors.

Anders: Let’s see what happens to this. It made green. I made light green and dark green. It looks like trees.

Jax: Some red and some yellow, mix the colors and now let’s see what happens now! It turns to an orange with…. Blood!

Julian: Mater is brown and McQueen is red.

Joelle: I’m gonna mix two colors. Not a lot of colors, just two colors. It looks like green beans, right?

“I need to take a little break… mixing colors is making me tired!”

Last week, friends began learning about colors and color mixing as we kicked off our long-term color study!  We started by reading Monsters Love Colors, a very silly book that introduces colors and color mixing to young children really well.

Daniel: Red monster!  Blue monster!  Yummy colors!

Elizabeth: I can’t wait to mix so many colors for the monsters.

Felipe: Will red, yellow and blue make a rainbow?  The monsters will be so happy!  We made new colors, too.

Next, I introduced some new materials, such as a palette.  Children learned that palettes are a tool that artists use for mixing colors.  They were very excited to hold it in one hand and their paintbrush in the other.  For the first week, each palette was prepared with the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) for children to mix new colors with.

Leonel: We’re going to paint with Colombia colors… red, yellow and blue.

Sebrina: A palette holds the paint.  It’s important.

Finally, it was time to paint.  Children began mixing colors that they thought the monsters from the story would love!

Autumn: Look at how I made it…  I mixed red and blue and it’s purple!

Phoenix: That color looks like the color of Ethiopian food.  My mom likes that food!

Luca: Red is the color for love.

Dafnee: Daniel was right!  Red and blue makes purple!

Brandon: I’ll mix red and blue and let’s see what happens!

Isabella: How did you make that kind of purple, Elliott?  Does it have more blue or more red?

Cameron: I mixed all the colors… let’s see what happens!  How come when I did all the colors it made brown, not rainbow?

Nydelyn: I made red, like a strawberry red, because I like them.

Trebor: I want to make rainbow.  Wow, I did it actually!  It’s because I’m an artist.

Cora: I can’t believe red, yellow and blue can make all of these colors!

Frances: I made turquoise with a lot of blue and a little yellow.  Now look, when I put a lot of yellow and a little blue it makes light green, like slimy green.

Bella: I made the color of ducks!

Elizabeth: When you mix colors, the paint is loud.  When you paint, the brush is quiet because it’s busy.

Waju: I made dark green!  Now I have two types of green.  This one is darker because it has more blue in it.

Eli: I made green because I thinked about it and remembered that blue and yellow would do that.

Kwame: I mixed all the colors and it made brown.

Siah: I made tropical blue, how did I do that?

Katherine: Blue and yellow I told you made green.

Anders: I was right… red and yellow did make orange.

Joelle: A little bit of yellow and a little bit of blue makes a little bit of green.

Sammy: I need to take a little break… mixing colors is making me tired!