Color Explorers in the Classroom is an educational initiative to empower creativity by providing affordable, fun and easy ways for kids (and adults!) to explore the art and science of color in the 21st Century.

How can you transform your classroom into a Color Explorer Classroom?

It's as easy as 1 - 2 - 3!

Step One is to expand the six traditional rainbow colors - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet - usually available in the classroom - to a minimum of nine colors that include Primary Cyan, Primary Magenta, Primary Yellow, Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Purple and Lime (Yellow Green). 
We call this expanded set of colors the "New Nine". 

Why add more three more colors to the basic set of rainbow colors in the classroom?

The rainbow colors of ROYGBIV do not include the purples and magentas we see when the red end of the spectrum overlaps the blue end of the spectrum.

We teach that mixing red and blue paint makes purple when in reality red and blue in paint makes MUD.
Give kids purple plus magenta paint instead!
Lime fills the big gap between green and yellow.

Kids learn best by open ended explorations. Before teaching color mixing, step back and just let them play with this set of new colors in the classroom. 

More colors = more fun!   

 Step Two introduces kids to the concept of color as light. Encourage kids to play with color using prisms and computers as well as traditional art media. Color mixing experiments are done in both light and paint.

Why introduce the science of color at such an early age?

Children are starting to use computers at a very early age and have more and more opportunities to use digital color creatively in the classroom. 

Color explorations bridge between science and art.

Color explorations fit naturally into both STEM and STEAM programs. 

It's time to bring color education into the 21st Century!

Step Three encourages kids to explore color mixing using Cyan-Magenta-Yellow (CMY) instead of the traditional Red-Yellow-Blue (RYB) colors.

Why mix colors with CMY instead of RYB?

Although CMY primaries are most often associated with the CMYK system of printing in ink, they also work in paints, dyes, pencils, and crayons.

Cyan + Magenta = Blues, Violets and Purples.
Magenta + Yellow = Reds and Oranges
Yellow + Cyan = Turquoises, Greens and Limes

Mixing two colors together with CMY produces bright colors, so kids feel a sense of accomplishment instead of feeling frustrated when they try to mix two colors using RYB and often make muddy colors.

Confidence in mixing colors can help empower kids to be more creative and expressive in the classroom.