Painting Ratios And Fractions
This residency demonstrates ratios/fractions in the form of quantity by mixing paint (an incredibly appealing activity for children), the resulting palette of colors will be used for individual paintings or a mural painted by the class.
This residency also combines the discipline of following instructions (as in a recipe) and the visual understanding of primary and secondary colors. The science of the human eye’s perception of color is also included.
In groups, students will start with containers of the three primary colors (red, yellow, blue), white and black. From recipe cards they will extract measured amounts from the containers with large plastic syringes. The measurements will be metric and the ratios will create a variety of tones/hues (color mixed with color), shades (color mixed with black) and tints (color mixed with white). These recipes are for a palette of colors all mixed from red, yellow and blue (the 3 primary colors), black and white. Each team will have one primary color they mix shades and tints of, as well as secondary and tertiary mixed colors with the neighboring primary colors.
Data Collection: Each student will create a page of samples of the colors they mixed, recording the source colors and the ratio of the mixture and the sequence of the gradient.
The teams will share their mixtures and the combined palette of colors may be used to paint a larger mural by all of the students or smaller individual poster styles paintings.
Session one: Groups will be assigned a series of recipes for one primary color and will mix them, documenting the ratio of each color and recording a sample on their sampler page.
Session two: The palette of mixed colors will be shared among the students to create a classroom mural or their own painting.