An Edible Art Lesson

OK, So yesterday at our homeschool co-op day I learned some very important lessons.  First off, I learned that if you attempt to teach the can-can to a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds until they are tired out, and you happen to be as old and out-of-shape as I am...you will pay for it later.  Ouch!

Secondly, classical music is considered very boring to 7 and 8 year olds unless it is accompanied by very silly lyrics.  In that case, it is considered highly entertaining.  Also, most 7 and 8 year olds think that Beethoven is a dog in a movie.  Well, who knew?

My third discovery yesterday was that edible art is more fun than non-edible art.  Color mixing is easier to teach with icing than paint.  Which leads to my project.  I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I found it somewhere on an art blog.  I'll tell you where if I find it again.  It was a keeper.

The Edible Color Wheel:

Here's what you need:
three containers of icing,  red, yellow and blue food coloring,  round cookies,  popsicle sticks or butter knives, small plastic plates for the pallete, and a plate to put the color wheel on.  If you're doing this project with just a couple kids, I think one can of icing would be enough.

Ruthie volunteered as my helper, since there was food involved.  : )

It helps if you explain the color wheel first.  We did that lesson last week.

On to the icing fun...
We started out with the primary colors: red, yellow and blue icing on each palette.  After icing those three cookies and arranging them in a triangle shape, the kids learned how to create the secondary colors and then the colors in-between by experimenting.  I liked the way the colors could be rearranged until the order was right.  It's surprising to me that kids don't always know how to make green.

They took the whole thing pretty seriously.  I expected a lot more goofing around. 

The girls are always pretty serious, though.

This artist didn't want his picture taken until he was finished.

Elijah and his buddy, "Now can we eat them?"

 Yes, you can eat them.

going, going...almost gone!

cleaning up....   yep, that's what I'm doing.  : )

Yummo!