4th grade learns how to paint a composition using warm and cool colors. I thought hot air balloons would be a great lesson as there are many ways to decorate them, and they are just a fun subject that anyone could be excited about. I first had the students draw their hot air balloon with black oil pastel, and fill it with a design, but not to complex, as they will have to paint in between the spaces of their design. The next step was to have them choose a complimentary color pair form the color wheel (red - green, blue - orange, etc.) and paint their background with the cooler hue in the pair.
The second day of painting consisted of painting the balloon with the warm color in their complimentary pair, and the analogous color adjacent to it on the color wheel. I was happy to see students painting mostly warm colors for their balloons, and if they mixed a color that wasn't warm, I couldn't say no...I wanted the concept of warm and cool colors to "stick" so I asked the students what emotions come up when they paint with yellow/green, or blue, or red-violet (often a color that feels cool and warm to many people). We made associations with these colors in nature and I made it fun for them by saying things like "okay mix the yellow and green until you have guacamole on your plate". This helps the concept stick. Below are some of my favorites.
