Mix it Up!

When I first saw the book "Mix it Up" by Herve Tullet I knew I just had to base a lesson on it.  It is so addictive and fun and perfect to teach colour theory.  I had planned a different colour theory lesson yet then I purchased this book and was running this lesson the very next week.

If you haven't heard of Herve Tullet, he is a French author, illustrator and artist who has written over 60 children's books.  His best known one here in Australia is "Press Here". His books are very interactive with the reader.



The kids really seemed to enjoy this lesson as it was lots of smudging colours together (no paintbrushes) and it was a little messy...

We just followed the book page by page...

What you need:

• Paint (we used Tempera) in Blue, Yellow, Red, White and Black 
• Additional paint colours for final page (they could make their own yet it was easy to just give them a lid with all the colours on it)
• Lots of Paper (I just used A4 office paper)
• Wash cloth for each child

How To:

• I didn't read the book to them first as I didn't want them to have the answers. 
• We just started on the first page and went from there.  
• The first page asks them to tap on a grey spot so I got them to tap on an imaginary grey dot on the desk in front of them.
• We kept tapping until we got to the magic hand page.
• They put their own hand on a piece of white paper, traced around it and cut it out.
• This "magic hand" sat next to them for the rest of the lesson
•  I then handed out the paint on lids with a blob of each of the primary colours
• Each child also got a wash cloth to clean their finger with after dipping it in each colour
• From here we just followed the book page by page, making a few small variations if required.
• The children put each page created on the drying rack with their name on it and then grabbed the next piece from a pile on the bench.
• Once it got to the adding white or black, I walked around and added a small squirt of colour to their lids.
• The final page was made by using the additional colours to add fingerprints all over a page and then they glued their "magic hand" on top.
• They also created a front cover for their books
• When all the pages were dry I assembled them in order and stapled down the side, creating a personalised "Mix it Up" book for each child to take home.

 Here is an example of one of the books:

Colour theory at its best.

Cheers
Fiona