Teaching About Warm and Cool Colors

Sadly, the art teacher from the school I work at passed away last year from cancer. She was an amazing woman and wonderful art teacher. While she was sick, the classroom teachers in our school agreed to take on teaching art so that she could continue to receive her pay through the end of the school year. 

During that time, I spent countless hours in the library researching art lessons for 3rd graders. Here's one I came up with to teach about warm and cool colors. I used Shamrocks because it was March and thought it was a good way to tie in a St. Patrick's Day craft. 

All you need is a shamrock tracer, white or manila card stock and markers.

I traced the shamrocks onto the card stock for my students, but they cut them out themselves. They began by tracing their hands and forearms across the side of the shamrock. Then they alternated colors in a pattern using warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) for their hands. Run one color all the way around the hand in a single line. After filling in the hand, they used cool colors (blue, purple, green) to fill in around the hand. I suggest having the students begin their lines around the hands first.

For younger students - do the two pieces separately and glue the hand onto the shamrock.