Presentation mode. Choose what to show your class.
Gift this lesson to a teacher friend to give them free access for 30 days!
Share lessons with your friends and colleagues for free. Learn more
Downloading may not be your best option. Be sure you are looking at the most up-to-date version by always viewing your resources online.
Bookmark or save the link to this lesson so you can find it quickly! Click on the format below to continue download.
Understanding how Romare Bearden uses warm and cool colours to communicate ideas.
New statutory RSHE guidance is here. We’re creating our brand new RSE & PSHE scheme ready for September 2026. Learn more
Art and design
Pupils should be taught to:
History (KS1)
Pupils should be taught about:
Check all images, videos, links and presentation slides are suitable for your class.
Print in advance of the lesson.
The Knowledge organiser provides a visual summary of the key facts and vocabulary for the unit. The children can use it as directed to check keyword meanings or spellings and to help them remember important information when completing an activity. However, be aware that sharing the outcomes of the planned enquiries at this stage of the unit may spoil the discovery element of the practical work. Find further ideas for using the Knowledge organiser to support adaptive teaching here.
Subject knowledge
Warm and cool colours
The temperature of a colour is relative to its position on the colour wheel rather than a fixed property. Across the full spectrum, some colours (such as yellow or green) can be described as warm or cool depending on which colours they lean towards.
At Key stage 2, it is appropriate to categorise:
This simplified grouping supports understanding of mood, atmosphere and visual impact.
Useful resources
For further information about Bearden’s life and art, explore the following resources:
Misconceptions
The children may think that:
Ask the children to find something in the room that is a primary colour. Take feedback and name the primary colours together: red, yellow and blue.
Show the Presentation: Primary and secondary colours. Ask the children what colour is made when red + yellow are mixed together.
Click to reveal the answer. Repeat with the other combinations. Recap that secondary colours are made by mixing two primary colours.
Show slide 1 of the Presentation: Romare Bearden. Read the key information about the artist.
Continue to slide 2. Ask the children to look quietly at the artwork for one minute.
Ask:
Take feedback.
Explain that Bearden’s artwork is a collage, which is an artwork made by sticking different materials onto a surface.
Click to enlarge the image. Ask:
Take feedback. Emphasise that artists use colour and texture to communicate (share ideas, feelings or information with other people) or to help tell a story.
1. Show slide 1 of the Presentation: Warm and cool colours.
Look at the first image and ask pairs to discuss which side of the colour wheel it belongs to. Invite children to drag and drop the image to the corresponding colour.
2. Repeat with the remaining images.
3. Explain that in art, colours can be grouped into warm or cool categories. Warm colours are red, orange and yellow. Cool colours are blue, green and purple. Cool colours often remind us of cold things, while warm colours remind us of heat and sunlight.
Tell the children that artists use warm and cool colours to create different effects in a painting.
4. Continue to slide 2. Look carefully at the images and ask the children:
Click to show the labels and recap how warm and cool colours can make people feel.
Applying the colour wheel to Bearden’s work
5. Show slide 3. Instruct the children to look at the colours used.
Ask:
Take feedback, discussing how colours can remind people of different things and create different feelings.
6. Explain that artists carefully choose colours to convey mood or feeling and to help viewers understand the story.
Ask the children to look at Bearden’s artwork again and show, with a gesture, whether they think the artwork feels happy or sad (for example, thumbs up for happy, thumbs down for sad). Invite a few pupils to explain their reasons.
7. Put the children in pairs and hand out the Resource: ‘Untitled’ by Romare Bearden, 1985 to each pair. Give them time to point out warm and cool areas in Bearden’s collage. Circulate and check understanding.
8. Hand out the Activity: Colour wheel (one each), scissors (one each) and a glue stick (one between two). Place crayons, pastels or colouring pencils on each table.
9. Ask the children to:
Ask pairs to look at their Activity: Colour wheel and discuss:
Take brief feedback to reinforce understanding of colour and mood.
Learning objective
Success criteria
Vocabulary
Using the extended display mode will allow you to view your lesson plan on one screen, while displaying presentation mode on the other.
Follow this guide or watch our explainer video to extend your display.
How to extend your display to view the lesson page and presentation mode simultaneously. Choose your operating system below to watch the video
If you need further support with extending your display,
please contact [email protected].
Extended-mode explainer video: For Mac
Extended-mode explainer video: For Windows
Pupils needing extra support:
Pupils working at greater depth:
Pupils with secure understanding can:
Pupils working at greater depth can:
An artwork made by sticking different materials onto a surface.
To share ideas, feelings or information with other people.
A colour that gives a feeling of cold, such as blue, purple and green.
The feeling or emotion an artwork gives to the viewer.
A colour that gives a feeling of warmth, such as red, yellow and orange.
We welcome your feedback to help make our resources even better
Created by:
Maintained by: Kapow Primary team
Last update: 24th July, 2026
Understanding how paint can be used to create texture and pattern.
Understanding how colour and texture can be arranged to communicate ideas in collage.
Revisiting collage to add detail, evaluating and improving artwork.
Understanding how textured surfaces can be used to create rubbings.
