Level: Daisy

• 2 bags of crayons

• 3 boxes of food coloring

• Colors of a Rainbow Worksheet

• Color wheel worksheets (red/blue, yellow/red, blue/yellow)

• Copies of color wheel worksheets

• 1 paper fastener for each girl

• 1 cardboard square for each girl

• Colored whip cream-blue, red and yellow

• Freezer paper

• Plastic spoons

• Small disposable bowls

• Medium jar of water, half full

• Stirring spoon

Girl Scouts, your mission today, if you choose to accept it, is to be color investigators for the Color Police Department! Who would like to be an investigator for the Color Police Department today? Well, in order to be an investigator, we must examine colors. Who here has a favorite color? What is yours? As color investigators, we are in charge of looking at all of the primary and secondary colors.

How many of you know what the three primary colors are? That’s right, they are red, blue, and yellow! Does anyone know why these three colors are called primary? In order to make other colors like (name favorites mentioned) green, orange, and purple you must mix primary colors together. These "mixed" primary colors, such as green, are called secondary colors. Are you ready to investigate primary and secondary colors? Let’s begin with our first mission!

Experiment #1: Spinning Color Wheels

What we need:

• Crayons

• 1 Color Wheel for each girl

• 1 Paper Fastener for each girl

• 1 cardboard square for each girl

1. Pass out a color wheel for each girl.

2. Color the sections with crayons. Color as follows:

• A. Blue

• B. Yellow

• C. Red

*note, each wheel will only have 2 colors

3. Poke a small hole in the center with scissors or a pencil.

4. Push paper fastener through the hole and cardboard square. Fasten in back.

5. Spin the color wheel & watch the colors mix. What colors do you see?

Alternating two primary colors will result creating in a secondary color. Who had a color wheel that was blue and yellow? What color did you see? (green) Who had a color wheel that was red and yellow? What color did you see? (orange) Who had a color wheel that was red and blue? What color did you see? (purple)

Why can we see other colors, like green, when we did not use the color green on our color wheels? The wheel spins so fast that instead of seeing each color separately, the eyes and brain see the visual illusion of a mixture. Would you like to investigate what happens when we mix primary colors together in a new way? Then let’s move on to our second mission!

Experiment #2: Cool Whip Painting

 

What we need:

• Colored Whip Cream in blue, red, and yellow

• Freezer paper

• Plastic Spoons

• Small disposable bowls

1. Give each girl a piece of freezer paper, one bowl, and a plastic spoon.

2. Give each girl’s bowl a spoonful of each color of whip cream.

3. On a clean spot on the paper, have them mix the following combinations:

• Blue & yellow

• Red & yellow

• Blue & Red

4. Let them experiment with mixing more than one primary color together. See how many different colors they can make.

5. When everyone is done, have them throw away their supplies & wash their hands.

So, during your investigation, what colors did you discover? When you mixed blue and yellow? When you mixed red and yellow? When you mixed blue and red? What other combinations did you mix together? What colors did they make?

Of all of the beautiful colors we made with the whip cream, no one made red, blue, or yellow. Does anyone know why? That’s right, because red, blue, and yellow are primary colors! Primary colors cannot be made by mixing other colors together. What do you think would happen if we mixed all three primary colors together? Let’s investigate!

Experiment #3: Rainbow Stew

What we need:

• Medium Jar of water, half full

• Liquid food coloring

• Stirring spoon

1. Let each of the girls add one of the food colorings (red, blue, yellow) to the water.

2. Let a girl mix the water.

3. Notice how the water looks (brown/black). If not, repeat steps 1 & 2.

What happened when we mixed all three of the colors together? You are right, it turned brown/black. Does anyone know why? When we mix all three of the primary colors together, we are also mixing all of the secondary colors that could be made. By mixing all of the colors, it appears very "dark" and it is hard to see individual primary and secondary colors.

Review:

1. What are the primary colors?

2. Why are red, blue, and yellow called "primary"?

3. What are examples secondary colors?

4. How are secondary colors made?

5. What happens when you mix all three primary colors?

This page last edited on Monday October 30, 2006.

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