Rainbow Words: Exploring Integrity Through Colour

 

Our school is focusing on the character trait integrity this year, so I thought it would be the perfect theme for one of my favourite beginning-of-the-year art projects: Rainbow Words.

Before starting, students in Grades 4–9 brainstormed words related to the idea of integrity. They then chose one word that was meaningful to them and used it as the focus of their artwork. I love this project for the beginning of the school year because it is fairly straightforward, but produces wonderfully colourful and eye-catching results. It also gives me a great opportunity to get a sense of each student's skill level, especially when I have new students in my classes.

Students began with a sheet of 8.5 x 11" copy paper, folded horizontally in half. They printed or wrote their chosen word large across the paper and then outlined the letters boldly using a black marker. This step is important—the thicker, darker outlines really help the word stand out.

Students chose a colour scheme and began tracing around each letter with their first colour. Then they moved on to the next colour, continuing to outline around the word again and again until there was no white space left on the page.

Although we used integrity as our theme this year, the possibilities for this lesson are endless. The words could relate to almost any topic, goal, value, or theme you are exploring in your classroom. It could also easily become a colour theory lesson by challenging students to use warm or cool colours, analogous colours, complementary colours, or another specific colour scheme.

I also think integrity is an especially important topic for students to think about right now. It sometimes feels as though integrity is in short supply in the world around us when we watch the news, particularly among *some* world leaders. Teaching students to think about values such as honesty, responsibility, respect, and doing the right thing—even when no one is watching—feels more important than ever.

And, of course, it doesn't hurt that the finished artwork makes for a pretty spectacular display!

Colourful Oil Pastel Paper Weavings

This is a great one day lesson that my Grade 4-6 students completed in an 80 minute period. 

The nice thing about oil pastels is you get vibrant colours and don't need to worry about drying time.

I found the lesson HERE. 

I let my students choose any colour combinations they wanted. Its a great lesson for reviewing colour theory and different types of harmonious colour combinations. We used cardstock and glued the strips onto 12 x 18" black construction paper and then I cropped them down after. 

 

Colour Wheel Snowflakes

This was a super fast lesson that only really took about 40 minutes to complete.

I wanted to review the colour wheel with my class and have them do an art lesson where they had to really concentrate using their fine motor skills- I'm finding my students the past five years have really gone downhill in terms of fine motor skills, and I'm not blaming covid!

I found the project inspiration HERE but tweaked it a bit. 

I have these awesome snowflake stencils from the brand Roylco.

Students chose one and traced it onto a square of cardstock in pencil.

Then they coloured each 'branch' using a different colour from the colour wheel (we skipped indigo).

You need to outline it three times so you have a nice thick band of colour/pigment.

Then, using a brush and water, paint over each marker line to dissolve it and create a soft shaded watercolour effect. If the line is too thin, it won't bleed much.

 

Warm Cool Watercolour Grid Paintings

One of my all time favourite watercolour projects! I teach this to Grade 7,8,9 and it gives them a good grasp of how colours work well together (analogous and warm vs. cool) and also brush control when using watercolours. 

I posted this project previously HERE and HERE.

Students measure a grid onto heavy white paper. The smaller the grid, the longer and more challenging it is to paint essentially.  So it's a good project for differentiation.

Then they draw an image onto the grid. I leave the subject matter up to them. They just need to make sure to fill the page effectively. Then they paint it using watercolours- I typically encourage warm versus cool colours but you could use any type of colour combinations really. 

Some finished works: