Color Monsters

The Essential Question
How can students represent emotions in art?

Objective
Students will use primary and secondary colors to demonstrate emotions in art.

Materials
air-dry modeling clay (white, red, blue, and yellow), black permanent markers, The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas

Procedures
1. Introduce the color wheel to students and discuss how primary and secondary colors are created.
2. Read The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2018). Ask students to analyze what emotions correspond to the colors in the book. Then discuss with students the connections they see between their own emotions and color.
3. Students will create their own color monsters using air-dry modeling clay. Students first choose what color they are feeling today to create their color monster. (If the color the student chooses is secondary, demonstrate how to mix the two corresponding primarycolor clays to create the secondary.)
4. After the body of the color monster has been shaped, students add facial expressions that reflect the emotion they want to portray.
5. After the clay dries, students add patterns or features to their monster using a black permanent marker (under supervision) to create expressive, emotional lines.

Assessment
Students share their color monsters in small groups and discuss their emotions.

Majella Granados is a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.