Complementary Color Turtles

Children will learn about complementary colors and color mixing as they create paintings with turtles as the theme.

By Alexa [Alexa is a teacher and artist from Bucharest, Romania.]

Objectives:

Little ones will learn about complementary colors (red-green) and color mixing. Complementary colours are colours that that are opposite one another on the colour wheel – for example: red and green, yellow and violet, blue and orange.

What You Need:

• white paper
• paint (primary colors)
• paint brushes
• colored construction paper (red and green, or blue and orange, or yellow and violet)
• scissors
• glue
• example of a color wheel (optional)

What You Do:

1. Review color mixing (red + yellow = orange; blue + red = purple; blue + yellow = green)
2. Cut turtles out of the green and red paper (do this ahead of time).
3. Talk about complementary colors and show children how complements are across from one another on the color wheel (ie: red and green; blue and orange; purple and yellow).
4. Give each child a piece of paper – ask them to paint the background using green (they will mix this using blue and yellow) and red.
5. When the paint has dried, help them glue the little turtle (red or green, their choice) onto their paper.
6. Ask them to decorate the turtle’s back by adding small points or spots.

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