Art and Design · Year 3

Active learning ideas

Expressing Emotions with Colour

Students in Year 3 learn best when they physically interact with materials and see immediate results. Mixing colours to express emotions lets them feel the impact of colour theory through their own hands, while group discussion builds shared understanding of abstract concepts like emotion and form.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS2: Art and Design - Painting and Colour Theory
• KS2: Art and Design - Expressive Art

• 25–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Role Play
• 45 min · Pairs

Colour Mixing Stations: Emotion Pairs

Set up stations with primary paints for mixing warm, cool, and neutral tones. Pairs mix colours, paint small swatches, and note evoked emotions in journals. Rotate stations after 10 minutes to try all types.

Justify the use of specific colours to represent feelings like joy, sadness, or anger.

Facilitation Tip

During Colour Mixing Stations, circulate with a tray of neutral grey paper squares so students can immediately test how their mixes look against a plain background, avoiding confusion between colour intensity and context.

What to look for

Provide students with a palette of primary and secondary colours. Ask them to select three colours they believe represent 'excitement' and write one sentence explaining why for each colour.

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

Activity 02

• Role Play
• 50 min · Small Groups

Abstract Emotion Gallery: Small Group Critiques

Groups paint large abstract canvases expressing one emotion using tested colours. Display works for gallery walk; each group critiques two pieces, noting colour effectiveness and suggesting improvements.

Design an abstract painting that communicates a particular emotion without using recognizable objects.

Facilitation Tip

For Abstract Emotion Gallery critiques, provide sentence stems on cards so students start with 'I see...' and 'I feel...' to keep comments focused on colour and emotion rather than subject matter.

What to look for

Students display their abstract emotion paintings. In pairs, students identify one colour used and state the emotion they think it represents. They then ask their partner, 'What makes you think that colour shows [emotion]?'

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

Activity 03

• Role Play
• 30 min · Whole Class

Emotion Colour Hunt: Whole Class Share

Project artists' emotional works; class hunts for colour choices and justifies emotions conveyed. Then, vote on most effective pieces and recreate one collaboratively on shared paper.

Critique how effectively an artist has conveyed emotion through their colour choices.

Facilitation Tip

In Emotion Colour Hunt, give each group a small set of artist-quality oil pastels, not just coloured pencils, to slow down their process and encourage deliberate mark-making.

What to look for

On an exit ticket, students draw a small square and fill it with a colour combination that represents 'calm'. Below the square, they write one sentence explaining their colour choice.

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

Activity 04

• Role Play
• 25 min · Individual

Personal Mood Board: Individual Reflection

Students select colours for their current mood, paint abstract boards, and write justifications. Share one key choice with a partner for quick feedback.

Justify the use of specific colours to represent feelings like joy, sadness, or anger.

What to look for

Provide students with a palette of primary and secondary colours. Ask them to select three colours they believe represent 'excitement' and write one sentence explaining why for each colour.

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

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teach this topic by first modelling how to use a colour wheel to predict mood, then giving students time to test predictions with real materials. Avoid rushing to labels like ‘happy’ or ‘sad’—instead, ask open questions like ‘What does this red remind you of?’ to let students build their own meanings. Research shows that abstract colour work is more meaningful when students connect it to lived experience, so include opportunities to share personal associations.

By the end of these activities, students will confidently select and justify colour choices based on emotion, create abstract works without objects, and critique each other’s work using clear, colour-focused language. You’ll see this in their ability to explain their choices and respond thoughtfully to peers.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Colour Mixing Stations, watch for students who say 'red always means anger'.

  Redirect them to test soft red-pink mixes next to bright reds on their grey paper squares and discuss what feelings each evokes before they finalise their emotion pairs.

• During Abstract Emotion Gallery, watch for students who assume abstract paintings need shapes to show emotion.

  Ask them to focus their critiques on colour placement and intensity without mentioning objects, using the sentence stems to guide observations about pure abstraction.

• During Emotion Colour Hunt, watch for students who say bright colours only express happy feelings.

  Have them arrange their chosen colours under different lighting and note how the same bright yellow can feel different in shadow versus direct light.

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Methods used in this brief

• Role Play