Teaching about colors
Activities for Teaching Colors - The OT Toolbox
There are so many ways to include multisensory play in teaching colors to children. Here, you’ll find hands-on, creative ways to teach colors of the rainbow using play that helps kids develop skills, move, and grow. Use these color activities in preschool or to teach toddlers colors. It’s a fun way to develop visual discrimination skills in young children.
Teaching colors and coloring goes hand-in-hand. Our resource on the best crayons for toddlers is a huge help, especially when deciding on the type of crayon to use at the age of teaching colors to toddlers and young children.
I’m including color activities for kindergarten and school-aged children, as well, because this color themes can be used in therapy activities or to help kids develop handwriting, or visual motor skills in the older grades. There is a lot of fun, hands-on activities listed here that help children learn colors and explore through play!
Teaching Colors to Toddlers
Toddler play and development is all about the hands-on exploration of the world. We have a lot of toddler activities designed to develop motor skills and learning here on the website that you’ll want to check out.
To teach colors to toddlers, it’s all about making things fun. These toddler activities will get you started with hands-on development activities.
So many color activities in the toddler years involve sorting colors, identifying colors, and pointing out colors. All of these activities lay the building blocks for visual discrimination that kids will use in reading and writing down the road.
Try these activities for teaching colors to toddlers:
Toddler Color Sorting with Toys– This activity uses toys and items that are found around the home, making the color identification part of every day life. You can use items that the child uses and sees every day.
Teach Color Sorting Activity– This simple color sorting activity is great for families that have a preschooler and a toddler. The preschooler can cut foam sheets and work on scissor skills and then both the preschooler and toddler can sort the paper scraps by color. This is a nice activity that allows siblings to work together to learn concepts and grow skills together.
Color Sort Busy Bag– Toddlers love to drop items into containers, and put things into buckets, bins, and bags…and then take them back out again. It’s all part of the learning process! This color sorting busy bag gives toddlers colored craft sticks or dyed lollipop sticks and has them sort by color. It’s a great activity for developing fine motor skills and coordination, too.
Cup Sorting for Toddlers– This color sorting activity uses items in the home, like plastic toddler cups! There is just something about toddlers playing in the kitchen with baby-safe items…and this one builds pre-literacy and pre-math skills that they will use long down the road…through play!
Talk about colors– Pointing out colors during play, conversation, in reading books, and going for walks…there are so many ways to teach colors to babies and toddlers through everyday conversation. It’s as simple as saying, “look at that blue flower” to add descriptive terms to kids.
Color with painting– Incorporate all of the colors of the rainbow in multisensory activities from a young age. These art play activities incorporates colors into play and learning through art with toddlers.
Teach colors with a ball pit– Use ball pit balls in a baby pool. You can bring a baby pool indoors as a baby ball pit to teach colors.
Teaching Colors in Preschool
In the preschool stage, learning occurs through play! These color learning activities are designed to promote learning through hands-on exploration, because those are the ways that learning “sticks”…when hands are busy and developing motor skills that they will later need for holding and writing with a pencil. Let’s look at some ways to teach colors in the preschool years:
Color by Letter Worksheets– These are great for the preschool age because they are getting the exposure to letters in uppercase and lowercase format but not through writing. the coloring builds hand strength and fine motor skills needed in kindergarten and beyond.
Teaching Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks by Fun-A-Day- This activity is fun because it uses the heavy weight of rocks to teach colors and shapes. But, kids are also strengthening their hands and gaining motor feedback about objects as they explore colors and other discriminating factors like weight and size.
Color and shape sorting– This preschool color sorting activity gives kids fine motor experiences with wikki stix. Ask preschoolers to copy the shapes, too for extra fine motor skill building and visual motor integration.
Fine Motor Color Sort– Grab an old spice container or cheese container, and some straws. This color sorting activity lays the groundwork for fine motor skill development and math skills. Kids can count the straws as they drop into the container and work on sorting colors while developing open thumb web space, separation of the sides of the hand and arch strength.
Color Matching Water Bin– This color learning activity is a sensory motor activity that also teaches letters. It’s perfect for preschool and kindergarten or even older grades as kids are immersed in multi- sensory learning with letters and pre-reading skills.
Clothespin Color Match– Children will love this fine motor activity that builds hand strength in a big way.
Bear Sees Colors Book and Activity– We used a snack to explore colors with a beloved preschool book. This is multisensory learning at its finest.
Gross Motor Color Games– There are many ways to explore and teach colors using games. Try some of these to add movement and play into learning colors at the preschool level:
- Color I Spy- Call out a color and kids can run to touch something that is that color. Add variations of movement by asking kids to skip, hop, leap, crawl, or bear walk to touch the colors.
- Color Simon Says- Call out directions based on clothing colors that kids are wearing. Add as many variations of movement and auditory challenges. This is a great activity for building working memory skills in preschoolers.
- Color Tag- Kids can play tag and when they tag another player, they need to say a color for that person to go to. Another variation is having the players who are tagged run to a color that the tagger calls out.
Teach Colors in Kindergarten and older grades
Once children are school-aged, teaching colors doesn’t end. In the school years, children explore color mixing, learning about primary colors, and more. Look at all of these color experiences that kids learn during the school years:
- Spelling color names
- Learning Primary Colors
- Learning secondary colors
- Color mixing
- Color theory
- Color wheel
- Complimentary colors
Try some of these color activities for older children:
Color I Spy free therapy slide deck- This color themed scavenger hunt will get kids up and moving, using the items they have in their home as they work on visual perceptual skills, handwriting, and more. Kids can visually scan around their home to match the colors on the slide deck. Then, there is a handwriting component. This is a great slide deck for anyone working on handwriting skills with kids, virtually.
Color Exercises– Use gross motor exercises and stretches as well as fine motor exercises to get kids moving while working on SO many skill areas: bilateral coordination, motor planning, strengthening, core strength, precision, dexterity, visual motor skills…
Rainbow Deep Breathing Exercise– This free printable PDF is super popular. There’s a reason why: kids love the deep breathing activity and We love the mindfulness, coping skills, calming, and regulation benefits. Great for all ages.
Rainbow Binoculars Craft– Kids can use paper towel tubes in a craft that helps them look for and identify colors. Use these rainbow binoculars in visual scanning, visual discrimination, visual figure-ground, and other perceptual skills.
Colored pencils activities– All you need is a couple of colored pencils (or substitute with a regular pencil if that’s all you’ve got on hand) to work on pencil control, line awareness, pencil pressure, and letter formation.
Benefits of coloring with crayons– Just grab a box of crayons and build so many fine motor and visual motor skills.
Make crayon play dough– Explore colors with heavy work input through the hands and arms using all the colors of the rainbow. This crayon play dough recipe is a popular sensory recipe here on the website.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L is an occupational therapist with 20+ years experience, graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. As the creator, author, and owner of the website and its social media channels, Colleen strives to empower those serving kids of all levels and needs. Want to collaborate? Send an email to [email protected].
10 Activities for Teaching Colors in Kindergarten
Curriculum | Featured
Teaching colors in kindergarten is an important and fun skill to teach. These kindergarten color activities will make learning hands-on and engaging all year long. Plus, your students will work on math, literacy, fine motor, and problem-solving skills along the way.
Colors and Color Word Activities for Kindergarten
Teaching colors and color words in kindergarten helps students to visually discriminate colors and begin working with colors in different subjects, such as math, literacy, and art.
From sorting, graphing, reading color words in sentences, and identifying colors in art, teaching colors is an important life skill for young learners.
#1. I Spy!
I Spy! is a kid-favorite when it comes to kindergarten color activities. This game can easily be incorporated anytime of day, whether it’s a morning warm-up, carpet game, or quick time-filler activity.
To play, one person is the “spy.” They look around the room and say “I spy something (green/blue/red).” Students then take turns raising their hand and guessing what it is. The first student that guesses correctly is the next “spy.”
Using color games with students is an effective way to engage them and practice skills in a fun way.
#2. Scavenger Hunt
Another way to get your students active and engaged in the learning is to do a color scavenger hunt. To play, draw different colored circles in the middle of various notecards. You can use as many colors as you’d like to work on.
The students will draw a notecard, identify the color, and go around the classroom to find something in that color. When they find something in the matching color, they stop and raise their hand in place.
Once everyone has found a match, go around the room calling on students one at a time and have them share their color and what the object is. Have them return to their seats, pass their cards to the left, and repeat the scavenger hunt again with their new colors.
Another option is to do this activity in small groups. Give students 2-4 notecards and have them go around the room and collect objects. Then, they return to the small group table and match the object to the correct color notecard before switching cards.
#3. Color Patterns
Whenever you can combine your kindergarten color activities with math, that’s a teacher win! Practice identifying colors and making patterns with different colored counting bears, color links, or plastic cubes.
You can call out a pattern and have students model it with their manipulatives. You can also use pattern cards to help students model various patterns, such as AB, AAB, ABB, ABC, and AABB patterns.
#4. Color Sorts
A simple yet effective kindergarten color activity is to have students practice sorting by color and saying the colors out loud.
You can give students a handful of manipulatives, such as pattern blocks, colored cereal, plastic cubes, mini erasers, color links, etc. Have them sort the manipulatives by color and identify the color by saying it out loud.
To take it a step further, ask students to count how many are in each category to practice math skills.
Another variation of this activity would be to have different colored cups or containers and have students sort their pile into the proper cup or container.
If you don’t have different colored cups or containers, you can write the color word in a colorful marker on a sticky note and stick it to the outside of any cup or container you have on hand. This would help students learn their color words as well.
#5. Egg Carton Fill
This color activity uses both color knowledge and fine motor skills. Prepare an egg carton by coloring a circle on the bottom of each space in an egg carton. You could also use a colored circle sticker instead and stick it in the bottom of the spaces.
Have students use jumbo tweezers to sort colored pom poms into the correct spaces in the egg carton, matching the colors of the pom poms to the circles. This would be a great small group or fine motor center activity.
#6. Play Dough Color Count
Play dough is a great manipulative to keep on hand when teaching colors. Students can practice identifying colors and counting at the same time.
To prepare, write different color words in the corresponding color with marker on notecards. Students will draw a color card to determine which play dough color they’ll use. Then, they’ll roll a dot cube and count the dots. Finally, they’ll form that many play dough balls in the correct color, counting as they go.
Students can do this activity at a small group table or desk or with a color matching mat.
#7. Color Call Out
The next kindergarten color activity is another super easy, no prep game that can be played at any time.
To play, stand in circle as a whole group. One person calls out a color. Starting with the person to the left of them, each student says a real world object that is that color. After every student has said an object, the whole class spells the color word together.
Students take turns being the “caller” and calling out the next color.
#8. Roll and Match Colors
Color Roll and Cover is a fun game for students that makes practicing colors super fun.
You can use a color cube or a dry-erase cube to write color words or draw colored circles on. Students will roll the cube and cover a space on their roll and cover mat with a matching colored manipulative. The first student to cover the most spaces wins.
This activity is one of the activities found in the Let’s Learn Colors Mini Unit.
#9. Bingo Dabber Activities
Bingo dabbers are perfect for several kindergarten color activities. You can give students a white piece of paper and have them write color words using the matching color of bingo dabber. This also gives students a little fine motor practice while forming the words.
Another option is to have students dab freely on a white piece of paper and have them say the color word each time they dab.
To practice spelling the color word, they could even say a letter each time they dab to spell the color word. Once the word is complete, they switch colors.
#10. Color Boom Cards
Using digital kindergarten color activities is another way to practice colors while engaging your students. Students can practice color recognition with real world objects or even color discrimination with Boom Cards.
They’ll hear the color words in the audio directions, giving them even more exposure to colors and color words.
I hope these 10 kindergarten color activities have given you some fresh ideas that you can implement with your students.
Looking for more colors and color words activities for kindergarten? Check out my Let’s Learn Colors Bundle, complete with color activities, centers, games, and no prep pages.
Post Tags: #color words#colors
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Read online The Teaching about Color by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - LitRes
War'nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,
Wie könnten wir das Licht erblicken?
Lebt'nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,
Wie könnt'uns Göttliches entzücken? [1]
Preface
When you are going to talk about colors, the question naturally arises whether you should not mention light first of all. We will give a short and direct answer to this question: since so many different opinions have been expressed about light up to now, it seems superfluous to repeat what has been said or multiply the statements that have been so often repeated. nine0018
Actually, all our efforts to express the essence of some thing remain in vain. Actions are what we perceive, and a complete history of these actions would cover, no doubt, the essence of the thing. In vain do we try to describe the character of man; but compare his actions, his deeds - and you will get a picture of his character.
Colors are deeds of light, deeds and suffering states. In this sense, we can expect them to explain the nature of light. Colors and light stand, it is true, in the most exact relation to each other, but we must represent them to ourselves as characteristic of all nature: through them, nature is wholly revealed to the sense of sight, to the eye. nine0018
In the same way, the whole nature is revealed to another sense. Close your eyes, open, refine your ears, and from the gentlest breath to the deafening noise, from the simplest sound to the greatest harmony, from the most passionate cry to the meekest words of the mind - you will hear nature, and only nature that speaks, that reveals its being, its strength, his life and his relationships, so that the blind, to whom the infinite visible world is closed, can embrace the infinitely living world in what he hears. nine0018
This is how nature speaks to other senses, both familiar and unconscious and unfamiliar sensations; thus she speaks to herself and to us through a thousand manifestations. To the careful observer, she is nowhere dead or mute; and even to an inert earthly body she gave a breastplate - a metal, in the smallest parts of which we could see what is happening in the whole mass.
No matter how long-winded, confusing and incomprehensible this language may often seem to us, its elements remain the same. Quietly tilting first one, then the other side of the scale, nature oscillates here and there, and in this way two sides arise, there arises an up and down, before and after, and all the phenomena that we encounter in space and time are determined by this duality. nine0018
We perceive these general movements and definitions in the most varied ways: either as a simple repulsion and attraction, or as a peeping and again disappearing light, as the movement of air, as a shaking of the body, as oxidation and deacidification; but always they connect or separate, set things in motion and serve life in one form or another.
Assuming that these two directions are unequal to each other in their effect, they tried to somehow express this ratio. Everywhere they noticed and called plus and minus, action and reaction, activity and passivity, advancing and restraining, passionate and moderating, male and female; this is how a language arises, a symbolism that can be used, applying it to similar cases as a likeness, a close expression, a immediately suitable word. nine0018
To apply these universal designations, this language of nature also to the teaching about colors, to enrich and expand this language, relying on the variety of phenomena studied here, and thereby facilitate the exchange of higher views among the friends of nature - this is the main task of this work.
The work itself is divided into three parts. The first gives an outline of the doctrine of colors. Innumerable occurrences of phenomena are subsumed in this part under the known basic phenomena, arranged in the order which the introduction is to justify. Here it can also be noted that, although we everywhere adhered to experience, everywhere we laid it as the basis, nevertheless we could not pass over in silence the theoretical view according to which this selection and order of phenomena arose. nine0018
And in general, the demand sometimes put forward, although it is not fulfilled even by those who put it, is extremely surprising: to present the results of the experiment without any theoretical connection and leave the reader, the student, to form a conviction for himself to his liking. But when I only look at a thing, it does not move me forward. Every looking turns into looking, every looking into thinking, every thinking into binding, and therefore it can be said that already with every attentive look thrown at the world, we theorize. But we do and apply it consciously, with self-criticism, with freedom and - to use a bold expression - with a certain irony: such a device is necessary so that the abstraction that we fear is harmless, and the experimental result we are waiting for is sufficiently alive and useful. nine0018
In the second part we deal with the exposure of Newton's theory, which imperiously and influentially closed the way to a free view of color phenomena so far; we contest a hypothesis which, though no longer considered valid, still retains traditional authority among men. In order that the doctrine of colors should not lag behind, as hitherto, so many better processed parts of natural science, the true meaning of this hypothesis must be clarified, old errors must be eliminated.
Since this second part of our work will seem dry in content, perhaps too harsh and passionate in presentation, then, in order to prepare for this more serious matter and at least somewhat justify this lively attitude towards it, let me give here the following comparison. nine0018
Newton's theory of colors can be compared to an old fortress, which was first founded with youthful haste by the founder, subsequently gradually expanded and furnished by him according to the needs of the time and circumstances, and strengthened to the same extent due to hostile collisions.
So did his successors and heirs. We were forced to enlarge the building: to add on here, to complete construction there, to build an outbuilding somewhere else - we were forced to because of the growth of internal needs, the pressure of external enemies and many accidents. nine0018
All these alien parts and outbuildings had to be connected again with the most amazing galleries, halls and passages. What was damaged by the hand of the enemy or the power of time was immediately restored again. As needed, deeper ditches were made, walls were raised and did not skimp on towers, towers and loopholes. Thanks to these careful efforts, a prejudice arose and was preserved about the high value of this fortress, despite the fact that architecture and fortification during this time were greatly improved and in other cases people learned to arrange much better dwellings and fortifications. But the old fortress was in honor, especially because it had never been possible to take it, that many assaults had been repulsed by it, many enemies had been put to shame, and it had always kept a virgin. This name, this glory does not die to this day. It never occurs to anyone that the old building has become uninhabited. Everyone is again talking about her remarkable strength, her excellent device. Pilgrims go there to worship; sketched drawings of her are shown in all schools and instill in the receptive youth respect for the building, which meanwhile already stands empty, guarded by a few invalids who quite seriously imagine themselves fully armed. nine0018
Thus, there is no question of a long-term siege or strife with a dubious outcome. In fact, we find this eighth wonder of the world already as an abandoned monument of antiquity, threatening to collapse, and immediately, without any roundaboutness, we begin to demolish it, from the ridge and roof, in order to finally let the sun into this old nest of rats and owls and reveal to the eyes of the astonished traveler all this an incoherent architectural labyrinth, its appearance for the sake of temporary needs, all its random heaps, everything deliberately contrived, somehow patched in it. But to throw such a glance is possible only if wall after wall falls, vault after vault, and the garbage is removed as soon as possible. nine0018
To carry out this work and, if possible, to level the place, and arrange the extracted material so that it can be used again in a new building - this is the difficult task that we charged ourselves with in this second part. But if we manage, with joyful use of possible strength and dexterity, to tear down this bastille and acquire a free place, then it is not at all our intention to build up again and burden it immediately with a new building; no, we want to use it to present to the eyes of the viewer a marvelous series of diverse figures. nine0018
The third part is therefore devoted to historical research and preparatory work. If we said above that the history of man paints us his appearance, then it can also be argued that the history of science is science itself. It is impossible to achieve pure knowledge of what one possesses until one is familiar with what others have possessed before us. Those who do not know how to appreciate the advantages of the past, will not be able to truly and sincerely rejoice in the advantages of their time. But writing a history of flowers, or even preparing material for it, was impossible as long as Newton's teachings remained valid.0008 [2] . For never before has any aristocratic conceit looked at all those who did not belong to its guild with such unbearable arrogance with which the school of Newton rejected everything that was created before it and next to it. With annoyance and indignation, you see how Priestley [3] in his history of optics, and others before and after him, count the years of the “saved” world of flowers from the era of split (in their imagination) light and shrug their shoulders, looking at the ancient and newer writers who calmly followed the right path and left us individual observations and thoughts that we could not have been better able to produce and more correctly formulate. nine0018
From someone who wants to tell us the history of knowledge in any field, we have the right to demand that he tell us how people gradually became acquainted with phenomena, what fantasies, conjectures, opinions and thoughts arose about this. To state all this coherently presents considerable difficulties, and to write a history of any subject is always a risky business: with the most truthful intentions, there is a danger of becoming untruthful; more than that: whoever undertakes such a presentation announces in advance that he will bring something to the light, and leave something in the shade. nine0018
Nevertheless, the author was pleased with this work for a long time. But since for the most part only the plan stands before our soul as a whole, and its fulfillment usually succeeds only in parts, we have to give instead of history - materials for it. They consist of translations, excerpts, own and others' judgments, indications and allusions, and this collection, if it does not meet all the requirements, is nevertheless made - this will not be denied to him - with a serious and loving attitude to the matter. However, for a thinking reader, such materials, although to some extent processed, but not processed, will, perhaps, be all the more pleasant because he will be able to compose something whole out of them in his own way . ..
In conclusion, it remains for us to mention the tables attached to this work [4] . And here we face the incompleteness and imperfection that our work shares with other similar works.
If a good theatrical play can be much, much more than half created on paper, but most of it is given over to the brilliance of the stage, the personality of the artist, the strength of his voice, the originality of his movements, even the development and mood of the spectator, then even more can be said this is about a book that deals with the phenomena of nature: in order to derive pleasure and benefit from it, the reader must, either in reality or in living fantasy, have nature before him. For the writer, in fact, should first give his listeners a visual representation of the original - phenomena that partly appear before us, in addition to our participation, partly can be deliberately and at will caused by special devices; after that, any commentary, explanation, interpretation would not be devoid of living action. nine0018
A very imperfect substitute for this is the tables usually attached to works of this kind. A free physical phenomenon, acting in all directions, cannot be contained in lines and outlined in a section. No one would think of illustrating chemical experiments with figures; with physical, closely related, this has become a custom, since something is achieved in this way. But very often these figures depict only concepts; they are symbolic aids, a hieroglyphic mode of transmission, which little by little takes the place of appearance, the place of nature, and serves as a hindrance to true knowledge, instead of promoting it. We also could not do without tables; but we have tried to arrange them in such a way that they can be used with a clear conscience for didactic and polemical purposes, and some of them even be considered part of the necessary instruments. And so it only remains for us to point to the work itself, prefaced by only one request, to which more than one author has resorted in vain and which is so rarely carried out, especially by the German reader of the Modern Times:0018
Si quid novisti rectius istis,
Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum [5] .
Introduction to an essay on the doctrine of colors
Si vera nostra sunt aut falsa, erunt talia, licet nostra per vitam defendimus. Post fata nostra pueri qui nunc ludunt nostri judices erunt [6] .
The thirst for knowledge first awakens in a person when he sees significant phenomena that attract his attention. In order for this attention to be preserved for a longer time, a deeper interest must be revealed, which gradually makes us more and more familiar with objects. Only then do we notice the great diversity pressing against us in a discordant mass. We are forced to divide, distinguish and compare again; it is through this that an order finally arises, the survey of which more or less satisfies us. nine0018
To accomplish this, at least to some extent, in any area, diligent and systematic studies are needed. That is why we find that people prefer by some general theoretical view, by some method of explanation, simply to eliminate phenomena, instead of taking the trouble to study the individual and build something whole.
The experiment of establishing and comparing color phenomena was made only twice: the first time by Theophrastus [7] , the second by Boyle [8] . The real experience won't be denied third place.
History tells us the next. Here we will only note that in the past century there was nothing to even think about such a comparison, since Newton based his hypothesis on a complex and derivative experiment, to which they artificially reduced, pedantically placing them around, all other imposed phenomena, if they could not be silenced. and eliminate: this is what an astronomer would have to do if he would take it into his head to place the Moon at the center of our system. He would have had to make the Earth and the Sun with the rest of the planets move around the secondary body and, by artificial calculations and ideas, cover up and embellish the fallacy of his first assumption. nine0018
Let's go now, not forgetting what was said in the preface, further. There we took the light as a given, here we do the same with the eye. We have said that all nature is revealed through color to the sight. We now assert, although it sounds somewhat strange, that the eye does not see form at all, and only light, darkness, and color together constitute what distinguishes for the eye object from object, and one part of the object from another. Thus, from these elements we build the visible world and thereby create the possibility of painting, which is able to call on the canvas a visible world, much more perfect than the real one. nine0018
The eye owes its existence to light. From the indifferent animal auxiliary organs, light brings to life an organ that should become its likeness; thus the eye is formed with the help of light for light, so that the inner light comes out to meet the outer.
At the same time, we are reminded of the ancient Ionian school, which repeated everything with such significance that only like can know like; so are the words of the ancient mystic, which we will convey in these rhymes:
nine0004 War'nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,
Wie könnten wir das Licht erblicken?
Lebt'nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,
Wie könnt'uns Göttliches entzücken? [9]
No one will deny this direct relationship between light and the eye; but to imagine them as one and the same is already more difficult. It will, however, be more understandable if we say that a resting light lives in the eye, which is excited at the slightest provocation from within or without. With the power of imagination, we can conjure the most vivid images in the dark. In a dream, objects appear to us in full daylight. In reality, we notice the slightest external influence of light; and even with a mechanical shock, light and colors arise in this organ. nine0018
But perhaps those who are accustomed to adhere to a certain order will notice here that we have not yet clearly stated what light itself is. We would like to avoid this question again and refer to our exposition, where we have shown in detail how color appears to us. Here we have no choice but to repeat: color is a regular nature in relation to vision. And here we must admit that a person has eyesight and knows the effect of nature on him: there is nothing to talk about colors with a blind man. nine0018
But lest it seem that we are already very cowardly avoiding explanation, we will state what has been said in the following descriptive way: color is an elementary phenomenon of nature, which is revealed to sight and is found, like all others, in division and opposition, confusion and combination, transmission and distribution, etc. , and in these general formulas of nature can best be contemplated and understood.
We cannot impose this way of imagining an object on anyone. Whoever finds it convenient, as it is for us, will gladly receive it. We also have little desire in the struggle and disputes to defend it in the future. For it has long been somewhat dangerous to speak of color, so that one of our predecessors ventures to say: when a bull is shown a red handkerchief, he becomes furious; the philosopher, on the other hand, begins to rage as soon as you talk to him about color in general. nine0018
To give, however, some account of our presentation to which we refer, we must first of all show how we have separated the various conditions under which color appears. We have found three kinds of phenomena, three kinds of colors, or, if you like, three aspects, the difference of which can be expressed in words.
First of all, we considered colors as belonging to the eye and based on its action and reaction; then they attracted our attention by themselves, as we noticed them on colorless media and with the help of these latter; finally, they interested us, insofar as we could consider them as inherent in objects. We named the first physiological, second - physical, third - chemical colors. The former are imperceptibly fleeting, the latter are transient, but nevertheless persist for a while, the latter are distinguished by great strength.
Dividing and demarcating them as naturally as possible for the sake of a didactic exposition, we have at the same time arrived at the result of an uninterrupted series, where fleeting colors are associated with temporary, and the latter, in turn, with permanent ones, and thus at the beginning thus carefully drawn distinctions were again abolished for a higher level of contemplation. nine0018
Following this, in the fourth section of our work, we gave a general expression to everything that had been said before about flowers under various, special conditions; here, in fact, an outline of the future doctrine of colors is given. At the present moment, we, looking ahead, will say only the following. Light and dark, light and dark, or, to use a more general formula, light and non-light are needed for color to arise. In the immediate vicinity of the light arises the color which we call yellow; the other arises directly near the darkness, we designate it with the word "blue". These two colors, when taken in their purest state and mixed with each other so that they are in perfect balance, create a third color, which we call green. But even separately from these two colors, a new phenomenon can arise when they thicken or darken. They then acquire a reddish hue, which can reach such a high degree that the original blue and yellow color can hardly be recognized. However, the brightest and purest red color can be obtained, mainly in physical cases, by connecting both ends of yellow-red and blue-red. Here is a living view of the appearance and emergence of flowers. But it is also possible, next to the specifically finished blue and yellow, to take the finished red and get regressively, by mixing, what we have achieved progressively, by means of intensification. With these three or six colors, which are easy to include in one circle, the elementary teaching about colors is the only one to deal with. All the rest, infinitely changing shades, belong more to the applied area; their place is in the technique of the painter, painter, in general - in life. nine0018
Let's express one more general property: any color should be considered, undoubtedly, as half-light, half-shadow; that is why, when different colors, mixing, mutually cancel out the specific properties of each other, something shady, gray is obtained.
In the fifth section, we tried to set out those family ties in which our teaching about colors would like to be with other areas of knowledge and activity ...
On the part of the philosopher, we, it seems, deserve gratitude for the attempt to trace phenomena to their primary sources, to that point where we find in them only appearance and being, and where they do not lend themselves to further explanation. He must also be pleased that we have arranged the phenomena in an easily observable order, even if he does not fully approve of this order. nine0018
1. If the eye had not its own sunshine, how could we see the light? If the original power of God did not live in us, how could the Divine delight us? (German)
2. Isaac Newton (1642–1727) – English mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Goethe rejected his experience with the decomposition of white light into a spectrum using a prism and the theoretical conclusions from it and disputed point by point in the polemical part of his doctrine of color.
3. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) - English naturalist, known mainly as a chemist (discovered nitrogen, some of its compounds, etc.). nine0018
4. Since the essay is abbreviated, only the drawing in the chapter "Integrity and Harmony" is reproduced.
5. If you know anything better than this, share it with me; if not, use it with me (lat.). Quoted from the Epistles of Horace (Episties I: 6.67-68).
6. Whether our cause is true or false, one way or another, we will defend it all our lives. After our death, the children who are now playing will be our judges (lat. ).
7. Theophrastus (c. 370 BC - between 288 and 285 BC) - ancient Greek scientist, student and follower of Aristotle, "father of botany"; Goethe translated his doctrine of color and included it in the third part of his book (“Materials for the history of the doctrine of color”). nine0018
8. Robert Boyle (1627–1691), Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, physicist, chemist and theologian.
9. If the eye had not its own sunshine, how could we see the light? If the original power of God did not live in us, how could the Divine delight us? (German.)
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Johann Wolfgang Goethe
The teaching of color
War'nicht das auge sonenhenhaft,
wie könten wiral das ? nine0004 Lebt'nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,
Wie könnt'uns Göttliches entzücken?[1]
Preface
When one is going to talk about colors, the question naturally arises whether one should not mention light first of all. We will give a short and direct answer to this question: since so many different opinions have been expressed about light up to now, it seems superfluous to repeat what has been said or multiply the statements that have been so often repeated.
Actually, all our efforts to express the essence of some thing remain in vain. Actions are what we perceive, and a complete history of these actions would cover, no doubt, the essence of the thing. In vain do we try to describe the character of man; but compare his actions, his deeds - and you will get a picture of his character. nine0018
Colors are deeds of light, deeds and suffering states. In this sense, we can expect them to explain the nature of light. Colors and light stand, it is true, in the most exact relation to each other, but we must represent them to ourselves as characteristic of all nature: through them, nature is wholly revealed to the sense of sight, to the eye.
In the same way, the whole nature is revealed to another sense. Close your eyes, open, refine your ears, and from the gentlest breath to the deafening noise, from the simplest sound to the greatest harmony, from the most passionate cry to the meekest words of the mind - you will hear nature, and only nature that speaks, that reveals its being, its strength, his life and his relationships, so that the blind, to whom the infinite visible world is closed, can embrace the infinitely living world in what he hears. nine0018
This is how nature speaks to other senses, both familiar and unconscious and unfamiliar sensations; thus she speaks to herself and to us through a thousand manifestations. To the careful observer, she is nowhere dead or mute; and even to an inert earthly body she gave a breastplate - a metal, in the smallest parts of which we could see what is happening in the whole mass.
No matter how long-winded, confusing and incomprehensible this language may often seem to us, its elements remain the same. Quietly tilting first one, then the other side of the scale, nature oscillates here and there, and in this way two sides arise, there arises an up and down, before and after, and all the phenomena that we encounter in space and time are determined by this duality. nine0018
We perceive these general movements and definitions in the most varied ways: either as a simple repulsion and attraction, or as a peeping and again disappearing light, as the movement of air, as a shaking of the body, as oxidation and deacidification; but always they connect or separate, set things in motion and serve life in one form or another.
Assuming that these two directions are unequal to each other in their effect, they tried to somehow express this ratio. Everywhere they noticed and called plus and minus, action and reaction, activity and passivity, advancing and restraining, passionate and moderating, male and female; this is how a language arises, a symbolism that can be used, applying it to similar cases as a likeness, a close expression, a immediately suitable word. nine0018
To apply these universal designations, this language of nature also to the teaching about colors, to enrich and expand this language, relying on the variety of phenomena studied here, and thereby facilitate the exchange of higher views among the friends of nature - this is the main task of this work.
The work itself is divided into three parts. The first gives an outline of the doctrine of colors. Innumerable occurrences of phenomena are subsumed in this part under the known basic phenomena, arranged in the order which the introduction is to justify. Here it can also be noted that, although we everywhere adhered to experience, everywhere we laid it as the basis, nevertheless we could not pass over in silence the theoretical view according to which this selection and order of phenomena arose. nine0018
And in general, the demand sometimes put forward, although it is not fulfilled even by those who put it, is extremely surprising: to present the results of the experiment without any theoretical connection and leave the reader, the student, to form a conviction for himself to his liking. But when I only look at a thing, it does not move me forward. Every looking turns into looking, every looking into thinking, every thinking into binding, and therefore it can be said that already with every attentive look thrown at the world, we theorize.