Color My World- With Paint Chip Samples

One of the reasons why I loved being an Art Teacher in the past was because I had a range of freedom on lesson plans and how I wanted to introduce a topic and engage the students.  Sometimes I miss that interaction time of instruction and inspiration of others on a daily basis.  It is however, still  a  joy to get or give ideas based on a seemingly everyday or normal occurrence and turn it into a teachable or inventive moment.

Author, Keri Smith has a creative book out that I am experiencing called: How To Be An Explorer  Of  The World - Portable Art/Life Museum.  It is a hands-on book, ready for fill-in-the-blanks, self-discoveries, and assignments.  On page 41, there is a fantastic exercise that reminded me of a lesson plan that I made for my art students in the past.  My lesson included the normal box of crayons and an additional larger box of a larger count and variety.  The task was to investigate the names of the crayons and rename them or mix a new color and name that hue.  Based on the student's life experiences, the color name choices ranged from personal (Dawson's dirty baby diaper) to inventive (kitty's fur ball gray) for example.   The exploration in this book deals with paint chip samples.  And, if I were still teaching I would use this as an exercise in creativity.  It's really along the same line of thinking that I challenged my art students with several years ago. For example: in the book, a few paint chip samples are named: ladybug red,  you are my sunshine, golden vista and calypso blue.  The examples of what came to mind as an association were: ladybug red= my red shoes, you are my sunshine=Nana's House, golden vista=sunset on 01/09/08, and calypso blue=the mailbox.  It would be fun to see how creative a class could be with this.