Teko Mmolawa
Teacher’s Guide: Making Homemade Finger Paint and understanding the color wheel
Created for K-5h grade students
Teaching Objectives:
Students will be introduced the ideas of primary and secondary colors to show that some colors
are made when mixing other colors together. Using food coloring, the students are given the
three primary colors and mix them together to get secondary colors. If there is more time,
students can further mix these ones to get tertiary colors, and make a basic color wheel.
Students will also be introduced to the concept of a suspension, which is what they get when they
mix cornstarch and water.
Key Terms:
Primary colors: a group of colors from which all other colors can be obtained by mixing (for
example red, blue and yellow)
Primary colors: a color that results from mixing two primary colors
Solid: a state of matter in which the particles are arranged in such a way that the they have a
definite volume and shape
Liquid: a state of matter in which the particles are arranged in such a way that they have a
definite volume but no definite shape
Suspension – a state in which solid particles are mixed in a liquid but are not dissolved
(examples are mud and paint).
Materials (for a class of 20 students):
2.5 kg corn starch
Water
Red, blue and yellow food coloring
Dish washing detergent – (preferably colorless)
Glitter (of many different colors)
Glycerin (Optional)
20 full size cups
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120 smaller cups
120 craft sticks
Art paper or construction paper
Safety goggles
Music player (Optional)
Procedure:
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Pour 2 small cups of cornstarch into the full sized cup.
Add glitter, and a few drops of glycerin.
Add one small cup of water into the mixture.
Mix well and make sure there are no lumps of cornstarch. If the mixture is too tough
for the kids to stir they can use their fingers to crush the lumps of cornstarch.
Have the students feel the mixture and comment on whether they think it is a solid or
liquid and to give reasons why. It is a suspension.
After this you equally distribute the mixture into 3 small cups. Add Red, Blue and
Yellow food coloring to each different cup.
In a different small cup, mix two primary colors together to get a secondary color.
Repeat this with the other primary colors to get 3 secondary colors in total.
Using the craft stick or fingers, flick paint onto the paper Jackson Pollock style!
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Another option would be to play music that the children love. Something fun with high energy.
Approximate Time: 50 minutes.
Clean up:
The activity can get very messy as students splatter paint everywhere and get it on their hands. It
is best if they use newspapers underneath their work to prevent staining their desks or the floor.
They should also wear safety goggles to prevent paint from getting into their eyes. Cornstarch is
easy to wipe off with a paper towel. The food coloring washes off over time with soap.
Sources:
1.
How to make finger paint with cornstarch (accessed 10th January 2012)
http://www.ehow.com/how_4424944_make-finger-paint-cornstarch.html
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Teko Mmolawa
2.
Art Glossary: Secondary Color (accessed 23rd January 2012)
http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarys/g/defsecondarycol.htm
3.
Definition of Primary Colors (accessed 23rd January 2012)
http://budgetdecorating.about.com/od/homedecoratingtermsmp/g/Primary-Colors.htm
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Teko Mmolawa
Name__________________________
We are going to turn this color wheel into this:
Crazy color wheel Jackson Pollock Style!
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Teko Mmolawa
Part 1
Instructions:
1. Pour 2 small cups of corn starch into the big cup
2. Add glitter and mix with your craft stick.
3. Add 1 small cup of water and stir well with your craft stick or fingers.
Questions:
1.
Pour a little bit of the mixture onto your hand and feel it. Does it feel like a solid or a
liquid? Why?
2.
What is a solid or a liquid?
Part 2
Instructions:
1. Pour the mixture into 3 small cups.
2. Add different colors of food coloring to each of the 3 cups. Preferably the primary
colors (Red, blue and yellow)
3. Add the colored mixtures together to get the secondary colors in 3 other small cups.
4. You should have 6 colors in total.
5. Now arrange your six cups to look like a color wheel.
6. Notice the primary and secondary colors, and how the secondary colors are made
from the primaries.
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Questions:
What are the three primary colors?
What color do you get when you mix the Red and Blue? (Make a fingerprint of it!)
What color do you get when you mix the Blue and Yellow? (Make a fingerprint of it!)
What color do you get when you mix the Red and Yellow? (Make a fingerprint of it!)
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Make handprints below:
Congratulations you are now a fine artist!!
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