Primary Popsicles

 Kindergarten 

2 class periods 

50 minutes per class

Primary Popsicles, Kindergarten Art Lesson

What are the three most important colors in the art room?  Ask any kindergarten student in my school and they should be able to tell you RED, YELLOW and BLUE.  Students learned that these three very important colors are called primary colors and that when mixed, create all the other colors that we know and love so much on the color wheel.

Day 1:

I began this lesson by sharing this catchy song about the primary colors: 

Students were given 3 pieces of white paper 4 x 6 inches in size, a pencil, a paint brush, a water bucket, a piece of newspaper to work on and red, blue and yellow liquid tempera paint.  First step, have students write their name on the back of all 3 pieces of paper!

Step by step as a class we painted the popsicles.  Students were shown how to paint each popsicle one color (flavor) at a time.  

Before we mixed the two colors together we painted our rectangle using a primary color on top and then a primary color on the bottom.  Students were instructed to leave a white belly on their paper.  

Using the lighter primary color we painted over the top half of the darker primary color and glided our brush up and over the white area.  The mixing of the two primary colors happened right on the paper.  We used this method to create each secondary color.

Students were also instructed on “Mrs. Cornell’s Rules for Painting in the Art Room.” This discussion showed students the proper way to clean their brush between colors and how to use the drying rack.

After all 3 popsicles were painted and we cleaned up our work area, we started on part 2 of our project.  Using a piece of white paper 9 x 12 inches and markers (primary colors only) we decorated the paper using different lines and patterns.

Collect and save for day 2.

Day 2:

To review the idea of color mixing students listened to the story White Rabbit’s Color Book by Alan Baker.  

We then took our white paper with the patterns and designs drawn on it and glued it to a piece of construction paper (11 x 14 inch).  The construction paper choices were red, blue or yellow.

Each student was given 3 popsicle sticks.  These were then glued onto the white patterned paper.

Demonstrate to students how to cut the corners off their painted rectangle pieces to create each popsicle.

 These are then glued to the sticks.  For a finishing touch, we take a white oil pastel and add a little glisten line to the corner of each popsicle.  Students loved this project.  It is cute, successful and very easy to execute.

Student Examples: