Lesson #11 Foam Prints
Grade Level: K-3

Description/Objective

Students are introduced to the color wheel and learn to recognize the differences between warm colors (colors with red and yellow dominant) and cool colors (colors with blue dominant). They paint with either warm or cool colors on foam and make a print from it that is transferred to their paper.

Time

45 minutes to 1 Hour

Materials

Color wheel (one per class)
Tempera paints (selection per group of students)
1/2" flat brushes (1 per student)
Foam material - 1/4" thick, cut into 5"x7" pieces and glued onto scrap cardboard cut into 7"x9" pieces (foam by the yard usually available at a fabric store)
Q-tips (5 per student)
9" x 11" white construction paper

Procedure

1. Display color wheel and discuss how the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) can be mixed to form the secondary colors. (Red + yellow = orange. Red + blue = violet . Yellow + blue = green.)

2. Discuss that there are many ways colors on the color wheel can be grouped. There are two color groups. One grouping is warm colors the other is cool colors. Warm colors are red, orange, yellow, violet and magenta. Ask the students to think of warm things that are these colors (fire is one example). Cool colors are blue, green, aqua and blue purple. Ask the students to think of things associated with these colors (cold water is an example).

3. Ask students to imagine things that are either mostly warm in color or mostly cool. It may be helpful to look at pictures and identify the categories together.

4. Students choose whether they want to work with mostly warm colors or mostly cool. Using those colors, they paint with tempera paint onto cardboard-backed foam with their paintbrush. Students may paint a design of their own or a directed design. Students will be painting what they associate with warm or cool colors.

5. Q-tips can be dipped into paint to create detail.

6. After foam is painted and before paint dries (it dries quickly), center a piece of white paper over it and gently press. Pressure should be applied everywhere there is foam.

7. The image will transfer onto the white paper.

Subject Matter Integration

MATH: Choose 2 warm colors and 2 cool colors. Have students look at their own and each others clothing and record how many examples of each color they find. Display the results on a bar graph.

Variations/Extensions

1. The same materials can be used, but the focus of the lesson can be changed to pastel colors (colors mixed with white). Introduce the lesson by having students mix small amounts of pastel colors. Q-tips can be used as paintbrushes and the paint can be mixed on plastic lids. Once they have tried mixing, they can do a foam painting using only pastel colors.

 

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