Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Complementary Color Monsters

Following our foray into the world of spectrums, Joey is still enamored with color. So, we've been savoring some basic concepts of color theory in our little part of the world.

Joey showing the color wheel - Ezra, all smiles.  senk 2013
As you know from reading a previous post ("Try, try again..."), we explored the primary and secondary colors during our look at how a rainbow is formed, which also involved Newton's study of spectrums and the color wheel. Joey created three different magnets - on each, he smeared paints on notecards to discover which primary colors produced which secondary colors. His delightful oohs and aahs were well worth the experiment. Seeing firsthand that red and blue combine to make violet in pigments was a joy not only for him, but for me too as an observer of Joey's experiment.

Mr. Blue and Mrs. Orange Monster.  senk 2013
We made good use of recycled materials and donated craft supplies (thank you, Grandma and JoEtta!) to create quite a parade of monsters, most recently. But, these are monsters with a meaning. The challenge? Joey and Ezra had to help me create monsters that display complementary color pairs. We studied four main ones - three based on Newton's color wheel (red - green, orange - blue, and yellow - violet) and white - black. The end result was an array of Complementary Color Monsters, constructed from toilet paper rolls and paints and myriad add-ons (glitter, goggly eyes, etc), that remind my little tykes of a basic color theory concept.

Although I did not get into the more complex ideas of subtractive vs. additive complementary colors, for an older audience, you can easily adapt and add to a unit on basic color theory. I found Ian Sidaway's "Color Mixing Bible" to be particularly helpful in providing illustrations for my Kindergartener and toddler. This book incorporates different mediums in art, too, which is great for showing how color looks with different textures resulting from various artist's tools.

Joey & Ezra, good playmates.  senk 2013
But another fabulous component to the Complementary Color Monsters exploration was the concept of complementary, itself. According to Merriam-Webster, "complementary" means: "completing something else or making it better; going together well; working well together." The very idea of complementary colors includes enhancing the color opposite on the color wheel. Thus, this lesson also includes concepts of ethics and relational matters. The boys saw the monsters as being complementary to one another in terms of being good "playmates" or being kind to one another. And, we were able to talk about how the boys could be complementary playmates, too - using kind words and actions toward one another.

There are so many ways to apply color theory in our day to day adventures. Hopefully you'll find some, too, and add a comment on how complementary colors enhanced your day.

Complementary Color Monsters.  senk 2013