Kindergarten Color Mixing

For my student teacher's first lesson, she wanted to review and explore color mixing with Kindergarten students. She started by reading them the story Mouse Paint, which is always fun.

My student teacher demonstrating proper picture book reading technique. :)

Next, the students got to mix colors by shaking hands! Each student got a dollop of primary colored tempera paint squirted on the palm of their hand and found a friend with a different color. The students made a handprint on paper with their new secondary color and wrote their name on the front with crayon in a later class period.

 After making their handprint, the students finger painted on the tables which we'd covered with big pieces of paper for the rest of class. We squirted other primary colors and let them have fun mixing and experimenting.

 You can imagine how excited the students were- this was a big hit! This lesson is best carried out with at least two adults in the room. I "subbed" for my student teacher when she was sick one day and it was a challenge to be the only one squirting paint and supervising all of the activity.

 Some of the students discovered they could add texture to the paint with their finger tips.

 When the table papers dried, we cut out the blobs of color which were used in a collage lesson with Kindergarten and 1st grade the following week.