The colour paper chase

Colour paper scraps
Now we will be discovering some of colour’s properties and possibilities, its literally endless variations, its characteristics and its capacity for carrying meaning.
You will need:
Discarded coloured papers such as old magazines or advertising pages, used gift wrap and sweet wrappers
Scissors
Glue – one glue stick per group, or shared pots of glue
Large sheets of white paper or newsprint (even newspaper pages will do) – one sheet per group
Your class will be divided into eight or nine groups. You can have more groups if the class is very large, in which case the same colour can be given to more than one group.
Each group is given a colour: The Reds, the Blues, the Yellows, the Greens, the Purples, the Browns, the Blacks and Greys, the Whites and Creams. If you like, you can even add the Pinks or the Oranges.
To the Teacher
The coloured papers are going to be torn or cut up, so do not include books, maps or anything of value!
Each group should be given a few pairs of scissors. If you have no scissors, you can tear instead of cut.
Your group will need its own table or enough uninterrupted floor surface on which to spread your large sheet of white paper or newsprint.
All members of each group should then engage in a “colour hunt“ – searching quickly through the magazine pages and papers for examples of your group’s colour. The red group, for instance, should cut or tear pieces out of pictures that are any shade or variationof the colour red.
These pieces can be of any size. If you find wonderful examples of a specific colour that another group could use, feel free to offer it to them!
Find as many colour samples as possible (this may take about fifteen to twenty minutes). As you collect your colour samples, place these colour-side-up on your sheet.
Then, through discussion within your group, begin sorting and arranging them from dark to light. When satisfied with your group’s arrangement, glue them down.
Display your sheets so that everyone can see them.
Talk About This
What have you learnt from this exercise?
You will see that there are many, many variations of every colour. In fact, the number of colours is virtually infinite.
How do we create these variations? We will explore that later in this chapter. Colours range from dark to light. Some colours seem “warmer”, while others seem “cooler”. What do you think this means?
The colour paper chase
