Art and Design · Year 1

Active learning ideas

Exploring Warm and Cool Colours

Active learning works for this topic because colour psychology is subjective and best discovered through discussion, movement, and firsthand experimentation. When students physically engage with colour choices and share their reactions, they build a personal connection to how artists use colour as an emotional tool rather than just decoration.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS1: Art and Design - Painting

• 15–25 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Gallery Walk
• 20 min · Whole Class

Gallery Walk: The Emotion Ocean

Display several paintings with strong colour themes around the room. Students walk around in silence and place a 'smiley' or 'sad' face sticky note next to the painting that matches that mood, later explaining their choices to the group.

Differentiate between warm and cool colours in a given artwork.

Facilitation Tip

During the Gallery Walk, position yourself to overhear discussions and gently prompt groups with ‘What feeling does this colour make you think of?’ to keep conversations focused on emotion.

What to look for

Show students a print of a painting with distinct warm and cool areas. Ask them to point to and name one warm colour and one cool colour they see. Then, ask: 'What feeling does this part with the warm colours give you?' and 'What feeling does this part with the cool colours give you?'

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 02

• Role Play
• 25 min · Whole Class

Role Play: Painting a Feeling

The teacher calls out an emotion (e.g., 'excited' or 'lonely'). Students must strike a pose and then choose one colour crayon that represents that feeling to make a series of marks on a shared 'mood board'.

Design a painting using only warm colours to evoke a feeling of happiness.

Facilitation Tip

For the Role Play activity, model how to exaggerate facial expressions and body language to match the colours they’re ‘painting’ so students see the direct link between colour and feeling.

What to look for

Provide each student with a small piece of paper. Ask them to draw a simple shape and fill it with only warm colours, writing 'Happy' or 'Excited' underneath. Then, have them draw a different shape and fill it with only cool colours, writing 'Calm' or 'Peaceful' underneath.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 03

• Think-Pair-Share
• 15 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: The Colour Switch

Show a famous painting (like Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'). Ask students: 'What if this was painted in dark blue and purple?' Pairs discuss how the story of the painting would change before sharing with the class.

Explain how cool colours might make a viewer feel calm or peaceful.

Facilitation Tip

In the Think-Pair-Share, provide sentence starters like ‘I think this colour feels ___ because ___’ to scaffold explanations and reduce vague responses.

What to look for

Hold up two simple paintings, one primarily warm and one primarily cool. Ask: 'How do these paintings make you feel differently? Which colours are used in each one, and why do you think the artist chose those colours to make you feel that way?'

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should model curiosity about colour choices rather than focusing on correct answers. Avoid labeling colours as universally ‘happy’ or ‘sad’; instead, ask open questions that encourage students to justify their interpretations. Research suggests that young children benefit from concrete comparisons, so pairing colour swatches with real-world objects (like a lemon for yellow or a snowflake for white) helps ground abstract emotional concepts.

Successful learning looks like students confidently linking warm colours to feelings like energy or happiness and cool colours to calmness or sadness. They should articulate that artists choose colours with purpose, not just preference, and support their ideas with examples from the artworks they explore.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Blue Hunt, watch for students assuming all blue objects are sad. Redirect by asking, ‘Is this blue ice cube making you feel sad, or something else?’

  Use the Blue Hunt materials to physically sort examples into emotion categories (calm, cold, royal) and have students present their findings to the class to highlight context.

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Methods used in this brief

• Gallery Walk
• Role Play
• Think-Pair-Share