Then there are colors in pictures, trees, besides colored wools, beads, tablets, etc.
Ask for flowers and fruits of certain colors, e.g., what flower is yellow? What fruit is red?, etc. Also colors of birds and animals, and let the children say what colors look nice together. In summer this may be shown by arranging a number of flowers in a bouquet.
In the flowers themselves colors always harmonize, e.g., forget-me-not is blue, and has a yellow center, because blue and yellow look pretty together.
Spring flowers are mostly yellow, and have pale green leaves, for green and yellow look pretty together.
The red poppy and blue cornflower look pretty among the yellow corn, and there are yellow flowers among the corn also.
Harmony of color may be further illustrated by the dressing of a doll, or a story of a little girl who was taken to the shop by her mamma. The little girl was to have a new dress, cloak, and hood; what colors would her mamma choose?
Secondary Colors.—Teach that red, blue and yellow are the first or primary colors, from which other colors may be made. A child’s box of paints and six small tumblers are required for the following illustration.
Pour a little water into each tumbler, and mix a little red paint in one, a little blue in the next, and a little yellow in the third. These are the primary colors.
Let us see what can be made by mixing two of them together. Take an empty tumbler. Pour in a little blue water and a little yellow. Mix together and the children will see that green is produced. Now take another tumbler and mix blue and red in it; this makes purple.