Warm / Cool Hands (2nd Grade)

For the 2nd project of 2nd grade, we did warm and cool colors. To teach the kids about warm and cool colors I did some web research to understand the science behind it. As it turns out, there isn't much science behind it. Science tells us that white is hotter than blue and blue is hotter than yellow and yellow is hotter than red. That can be seen with flames and star colors. In art, we teach the reverse, and as far as what I can find, it has much more to do with how we "feel" when we see certain colors. Here on Earth, when it is "warm" outside, we usually see the sun (yellow). When it is "cold" out, there are few leaves on the trees and we see sky (blue / gray). We can also think of examples of  "feeling" warm sitting by the fire (orange, red, yellow) which is warm, or "feeling" cool sitting outside with ice that appears blue/green or gray.

With this project, we discussed warm and cool colors. Afterward, the kids drew concentric circles on a paper, then traced around their hands on top of that. They were supposed to choose warm colors for either the hand or the background and cool colors for the other. We used markers on marker paper. Most of them understood the instructions...

Warm/ Cool Hands hanging in the hall at school