Painting with Primary Colours — Year 1 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: Art & Design KS1 — use a range of materials; use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share ideas; develop a wide range of art and design techniques including colour, pattern and texture
Overview
Pupils explore the three primary colours — red, yellow, and blue — and discover how mixing them creates secondary colours. They experiment with paint, develop brush skills, and begin to develop their own colour vocabulary.
Learning Objectives
- Name and identify the three primary colours.
- Mix primary colours to make orange, green, and purple.
- Develop brush control by applying paint in different ways (thick, thin, dabbed, swept).
- Talk about their own artwork and the work of others using simple colour vocabulary.
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Show pupils three large colour swatches — red, yellow, blue. Ask: what would happen if we mixed red and yellow? Can you predict the others? Accept all ideas — establish that we are going to experiment and find out. Show a short, age-appropriate video clip or physical demonstration of colour mixing.
Demonstrate mixing red and yellow to make orange, yellow and blue to make green, and red and blue to make purple. Model brush technique: rinsing between colours, blotting on a cloth, applying paint with different pressures. Introduce the idea that adding more of one colour changes the shade — more red in orange makes it redder.
Pupils mix their own secondary colours on a colour wheel template, recording which primaries they combined. Encourage them to experiment with ratios — what happens if you use more yellow than blue?
Pupils create a simple landscape or abstract painting using only the three primary colours plus the secondary colours they have mixed. Focus is on colour exploration and brush control rather than representational accuracy.
Gallery walk: pupils leave their work on the table and walk round looking at others'. Each child places a sticker next to the colour mixing they find most interesting. Share: what colour combinations did people try? What did they notice?
Common Misconceptions
- Any shade of red/yellow/blue can be mixed to get a clean secondary colour — the specific hue of primary used affects the result; cooler reds make cleaner purples.
- More paint = better result — thick, clumped paint is hard to mix; demonstrate using small amounts.
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- EYFS: exploration of colour through play and mark-making.
- Ability to name basic colours.
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