Slide outline for Lesson 4.8. Day 1 has thirteen slides; Day 2 has eleven. Slide 2 is the three-rooms reveal and needs three images of the same room in three palettes. [Sal: photograph the six finished wall panels at the end of Day 2. They become the color review slides before the Design Vocabulary Check in Lesson 4.10.]
Day 1
Color in the Home
- Lesson 4.8, Day 1
- Today: the color wheel, tints and shades, and what color does to a mood
- Tomorrow: you mix your room's colors in frosting
Teacher notes
Image: a color wheel next to a tub of white frosting and three squeeze bottles of gel.
Do now
- On your index card: two colors for a CALM room at home
- Two colors for an ENERGETIC room
- One sentence each on why
- Three minutes
Teacher notes
Yesterday's index card ("what color is your favorite room") comes back today. Read two of those out loud while students write.
Same room, three times
- Which one feels calmest? Hand vote.
- Which one feels most exciting? Hand vote.
- All three are the same room. The only thing that changed was the paint.
Teacher notes
Image: three copies of one living room photo, one in blues, one in reds, one in yellows.
Take the vote before the reveal. Then hold up the gel bottles and the white frosting: "In FACS we use the same color wheel a pastry chef uses, a fashion designer uses, and an interior designer uses. Tomorrow you paint your room with frosting."
The wheel: primary colors
- Red, yellow, blue
- You cannot mix them from anything else
- Every other color on the wheel starts here
Teacher notes
Image: a color wheel with only the three primary wedges filled in and labeled.
Pass out the handout. Students label the primaries on the blank wheel, Part 1.
The wheel: secondary colors
- Red plus yellow is orange
- Yellow plus blue is green
- Red plus blue is purple
- Two primaries, one new color, every time
Teacher notes
Image: the same wheel with arrows from each pair of primaries into the secondary between them.
Tertiary colors
- A primary plus the secondary beside it
- Red plus orange is red-orange
- Blue plus green is blue-green
- The pattern keeps going around the wheel
Teacher notes
Image: the full twelve-part wheel with the six tertiary wedges labeled.
Grade 6 students only need to name the pattern. Grade 8 should be able to mix one tomorrow.
Warm side, cool side
- Warm: reds, oranges, yellows. Energy, appetite, welcome.
- Cool: blues, greens, purples. Calm, focus, rest.
- Draw the line across your wheel and label both sides
Teacher notes
Image: the wheel with a line through it, a sun icon on the warm half and a water drop on the cool half.
Walk the room and check every wheel before the next slide. A wheel missing a primary or a secondary gets fixed in place.
Tint and shade
- Tint: a color plus white. It softens and lightens.
- Shade: a color plus a touch of a dark color. It adds weight.
- Pink is a tint of red. Brick is a shade of orange.
- Write both on the handout, Part 2
Teacher notes
Image: one orange square with a row of paler squares going left and a row of deeper squares going right.
Color and mood
- Warm colors push energy and appetite: kitchens, dining rooms, game rooms
- Cool colors calm and focus: bathrooms, bedrooms, offices
- A tint on a big wall keeps the visual weight low
- A shade on one wall makes a focal point
- The place you live in changes how you feel. Color is part of that place.
Teacher notes
This links back to the principles from Lesson 4.7: visual weight and focal point. The state's wellness line says environment affects social and emotional health. Say it in plain words, do not read the standard out loud.
Predict with your partner
- White frosting plus blue plus red makes what?
- Check the wheel before you answer
- Then: how would you lighten it? How would you deepen it?
- Two minutes
Teacher notes
Purple, then add white for lavender, then the smallest touch of blue or brown for a deep plum. Cold call three pairs.
Watch the demo
- Spoon of white frosting on a plate
- One drop of red, one drop of yellow: orange
- More white: a peach tint
- The smallest touch of blue: a brick shade
- Too much blue: gray. Watch this part.
Teacher notes
Image: four paper plates in a row showing white, orange, peach, and brick.
Say every step out loud before you do it and make them predict. The gray mistake is on purpose. Use a toothpick of gel, not a squeeze. Students write each result on the handout.
Tomorrow's rules
- Design, not food. Nobody eats. Nobody licks a spoon.
- Allergy check: I check the roster and the frosting label before I buy. Tell me today if frosting is a problem for you.
- Parchment covers every table and stays on it. One wet wipe per person at every station.
- Only the colors on your table: white frosting plus red, yellow, and blue gel, plus brown if we have it
- Everything goes in the station trash bag, not the sink
- Tempera paint version at the same station for anyone who cannot touch frosting, for any reason, no explanation needed
Teacher notes
Say all six lines out loud today, not just tomorrow. The tempera option is stated to the whole class so nobody has to ask for it in front of anyone.
Your Room Card
- Each sub-team gets one card
- Room Cards: Bathroom, calm. Kitchen, warm and welcoming. Game Room, energetic. Home Office, focused.
- Challenge Cards: a bedroom for a grandparent with low vision. A shared bedroom for two kids who fight.
- Plan: at least one secondary, one tint, and one shade
- Draft the sentence: "We chose ___ for the ___ so the family can ___."
Teacher notes
Five minutes. Hand the Challenge Cards to grade 8 sub-teams where you can.
Exit card
- The first color your team will mix tomorrow
- Exactly how you will make it
- One word for your room's mood
Day 2
Teacher notes
Three students read theirs. Any team that writes "purple, with red and yellow" gets a wheel on their desk tomorrow.
Lab day
- Lesson 4.8, Day 2
- Mix, paint the panel, pitch it in 30 seconds
- Roles are assigned at your station
Teacher notes
Image: a paper plate painted to show a wall, a floor, and a couch in three mixed colors.
Do now
- In your own words: what is a tint? What is a shade?
- Then write the first color your team will mix and exactly how you will make it
- Four minutes
Teacher notes
One student per station reads their answer. One minute total. Leave the definitions on the board for the whole period.
The rules, again
- Design, not food. No tasting, no licking.
- Wash hands before and after
- Parchment stays on the table. Everything on the parchment.
- Only your station's colors. Do not visit another station's cart.
- Trash bag, not the sink
Teacher notes
Read it once, fast. Then check that every student on the tempera version has paint and a plate before you start the timer.
Your station roles
- Station Manager: materials and the timer
- Mixer: holds the mixing plate
- Painter: the wall panel
- Recorder: the pitch sheet
- At seven students: Second Mixer, Second Painter, Cleaner
Teacher notes
Three minutes for hand washing and roles. Roles are per sub-team, so two sub-teams share a station and each has its own panel.
The lab, 17 minutes
- Every student makes a practice swatch on a small plate first
- Mix on the mixing plate: at least one secondary, one tint, one shade
- Paint the wall panel: show the wall, the floor, and one piece of furniture
- Recorder finishes the justification sentence
- At 12 minutes I call "last color." At 17 minutes, spoons down.
Teacher notes
Image: a station laid out on parchment: frosting tub, three gels, mixing plate, wall panel, small plates, spoons, wipes.
Circulate to every station at least twice with the rubric clipboard. Push the words: primary, secondary, tint, shade, warm, cool, mood, function. A toothpick of gel, not a drop.
While you mix, I will ask
- What are the three primary colors?
- How did you make orange? Green? Purple?
- What is the difference between a tint and a shade?
- Which side of the wheel is your room on?
- Which color did you make first, and how did you get there?
Teacher notes
These are the monitor questions. Every student should be able to answer all five by the end of the period.
The harder questions
- Your room needs to feel calm. Why does adding white help with that?
- How would your colors change if there were a newborn in this room?
- The grandparent with low vision needs to see the edge of the bed and the door. Does a calm tint help her or hurt her? What is the fix?
- If you were a pastry chef plating dessert for this mood, would your colors change?
- Why is it useful to know the whole wheel comes from three primaries?
Teacher notes
Ask the low-vision question at the Challenge Card table and then ask it again to the whole room during the pitches. The answer is contrast at the edges.
The 30-second pitch
- Hold up your panel
- Say: the room, the mood, the family, the colors you used, and why
- Use the words primary, secondary, tint or shade, warm or cool
- Six pitches, 30 seconds each
Teacher notes
One deepen question after each pitch. Score Objective 3 on the clipboard as each pitch runs. Grade 6 sub-teams may read the frame off the sheet in 20 seconds.
The vote
- Thumbs up: the colors fit the room and the family
- Thumbs sideways: not sure
- Vote on the other five panels, not your own
Teacher notes
If a panel gets mostly sideways, ask the class what would fix it in one sentence. Do not let it become a judgment of the team.
Clean up, 4 minutes
- Scrape frosting into the trash bag
- Fold the parchment in on itself and bag it
- Wipe the table, wash hands
- Station check before anyone sits down
- Panels and pitch sheets come to me
Teacher notes
Never cut this. A station left with frosting on it is the story the custodian tells the principal. Photograph the six panels before they go in the trash.
3-2-1 exit card
- 3 colors you mixed and what you mixed to get them
- 2 ways color affects how a family lives and feels in a room
- 1 question you still have about the color wheel
Teacher notes
Collected at the door. Sort into "got it" and "needs more." The leftover questions open Lesson 4.9, and every term here is on the Design Vocabulary Check in Lesson 4.10.