Umbrella Color Wheels

Sunday night, with a predicted fourth day of rain to follow on Monday, I felt inspired to plan some rainy day art.  After some Pinterest searching, I settled on these Color Wheel Umbrellas and surprised the kids Monday morning.  We do have oil pastels - a cheap (worthwhile!) investment we made last year - but I do think crayons would work okay if you made sure your child pressed down hard. 

I liked this lesson because it was fun and we got to use more than one medium (pencil, Sharpie marker, oil pastel, liquid watercolor), but also it introduced primary and secondary colors (we didn't talk about tertiary other than to put them in the color wheel).  I even remembered my primary color song from grade school.

Red, yellow, blue

Red, yellow, blue

I see you.

I see you.

You are the primary colors.

You make all the other colors.

Oh I wish I were a color,

Like red, yellow, blue.

{Thanks Mr. Bowers!}

We chatted about how those primary colors can be mixed to make all the other colors and I quizzed the kids on how to make the secondary colors.  

The delight in having mom plan an art project encouraged me to do this more often.  My goal for now is weekly!  Thanks to google, Pinterest, and my Usborne art resources, planning a weekly art lesson isn't really that hard, it just takes being intentional. 

I was not surprised when Ameliya saddled up to the table expectantly, however I was surprised at her ability to follow the directions.  I helped her trace the circle lid we used, but then she followed my example and directions to divide her "pie" all on her own, and she erased each line to make the curved straight connectors by herself.  I then helped her with her person (hand over hand) but she colored and water color painted over hers all on her own - and she was so proud (me too!).  I especially love her free-handed white "rain" coming down around her umbrella and person.

Overall this was super fun and educational, and the end results are really sweet little pieces of art. 

 We used liquid water colors - blue and red/blue mixed to make purple.  My sister gifted Natalee with liquid watercolors and we really do love them.  The colors are so beautiful and vibrant.  Some people make them from dried out markers!

I truly think the kids' pieces are so sweet - mine looks too "grown-upish" and straight-laced.  

Theirs are softer around the edges, so innocent.

Mia deviated from the color wheel and didn't care about my instructions.  She took one look at all the oil pastels in the box and chose the ones she liked.  Being 3 is great.  

This was a perfect 60 minute art lesson for a rainy Monday morning!