Ahh, yes. The color wheel. The lesson where half the kids are bored because they’ve done it with every art teacher they’ve ever had, and the other half are in the corner asking, “Wait, if I mix blue and green, does that make yellow?” It is a lesson that needs an incredible amount of differentiation because of the various skill sets with which students enter, and I, for one, am always looking for new ideas to pique their interest.
Enter the Kolormondo color globe. It is a hands-on way to visualize color–it displays and organizes hue, saturation, and brightness all at the same time. Putting it together piece-by-piece helps show the ways in which colors interact with one another.
The design is incredibly intuitive, both complex and simple at the same time. My kids put it together in less than 5 minutes when I let them take a look; it took my father-in-law closer to 10, but that’s because he was endlessly fascinated by the design. It works great for my classroom full of high schoolers, my primary-age kids love it at home, and even my friends are enthralled by it when they stop by the house.
In addition, the Kolormondo App is both entertaining and useful. My students have downloaded it onto their phones (as have I), and in just a few weeks it has been used as a reference for color wheels, value scales, grayscales, paint matching, and color scheme planning. In the app, you can rotate the sphere, slice it horizontally or vertically, and see how the colors transition from one to the next.
If there is any way for you to get your hands on a Kolormondo sphere, I would absolutely encourage you to do so. I like the smallest size, because it is small enough to handle but big enough to be seen by every student at the table. I see the bigger ones as being an incredible decoration AND visual reference for the art room.
Short of the getting your hands on the real thing, however, the app is a great alternative to place on your own or your students’ devices. You don’t get the tactile experience of constructing the globe or the understanding that comes with that experience, but you do get a great color reference and another tool that enhances your students’ learning.
For a chance to win your very own 16cm Kolormondo color globe, make sure you enter the giveaway today!
What tools do you use to help students understand color?
Are there any other color apps you would recommend?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
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