Why Color Theory Can be a Useful Tool in Teaching Kids About Their Emotions
By Amy Scheidegger Ducos
Color theory –
Monotone environments may induce more feelings of fear,
When I began writing my children’s book about bullying in 2017, I was determined to incorporate color theory at its core in the illustrations. My childhood experiences inspired the story, and I believed that using color to display emotions would bring it to life in an impactful way.
The book chronicles the journey of Olivia, a transplant from Ecuador who moves to a small town in North Carolina. Olivia, a student with exceptional creativity, is subjected to targeted bullying. Her peers only befriend her when they need her to paint banners for school events like the bake sale or the science fair. Afterwards, Olivia is overlooked and ignored by her classmates.
The story’s colors shift from blue to yellow to green to orange to red and back again, as Olivia navigates a range of emotions such as sadness, hope, happiness, caution, anger, creativity, introspection, and acceptance – each with a specific color association.
Overall, color theory can be a powerful tool for helping children understand and express their emotions. By learning about color associations, children can develop a deeper awareness of their emotions and how to convey those emotions to others in the medium of their choosing.
Here are some ways to use color theory in teaching kids about their emotions:
- Color charts: Create color charts that represent different emotions, such as red for anger, blue for sadness, and yellow for happiness. Encourage children to use these colors to express their feelings through art.
- Color-coded emotions: Assign a color to each emotion and have children associate that color with the feeling. For example, orange can represent alertness, while purple can represent creativity.
- Colorful writing: Encourage kids to write about their feelings using different colored pens or markers that correspond to different emotions. This can help them identify and express their emotions more clearly.
- Mood boards: Have children create mood boards by selecting images and colors that represent different emotions. This can be a fun and creative way to explore the relationship between colors and moods.
- Colorful conversations: Use different colors to represent different emotions during conversations with kids. For example, use yellow when talking about positive feelings like happiness and love, and red when discussing negative feelings like anger or frustration.
These activities can help children to develop a vocabulary for expressing their emotions and can empower them to better understand their feelings. Additionally, they can also help to foster a greater appreciation for color and art as a means of self-expression.
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