Use red, blue and yellow cellophane to make a color wheel that teaches kids about combining the primary colors. Have your child see how many colors can be made by overlapping the colored cellophane layers. For even more colors, the color wheel doubles as a spy glass that your child can look through to see the colors of things change.
This craft is well-suited for family, group or classroom craft time, and with preparation by the adult or teen leader, can be used with younger children.
Related craft: For more fun with colored cellophane, see the Multicolor Binoculars craft project.
Gather the materials needed for making the color wheel. If you are doing this project with a group of young children, pre-cut the cardstock and cellophane.
Cut a 2" by 3" piece of scrap paper. Fold the paper in half lengthwise, then unfold. Use the 1" circle punch to punch a circle in the center about ½" from the top. With the paper folded, draw a larger semi-circle around the hole, then draw a handle shape at the bottom of the circle. Cut out your pattern and unfold. For a larger circle punch, increase the paper scrap rectangle proportionately.
Tip: Make a pattern from cardstock for the children to share. Some children may have trouble using the paper pattern.
Trace around the pattern six times on cardstock. Cut out each traced pattern. Try to trace and cut accurately.
Use the circle punch to punch a hole in each piece of cut cardstock. Use the paper pattern as a guide for where to punch. It is important that the holes in all the cardstock pieces line up!
Cut out the cellophane pieces. Cut them just smaller than the outside of your cut pieces, but larger than the punched circle.
Sandwich a colored piece of cellophane between two pieces of cut cardstock. Glue together to make a spy glass. Repeat until all three spy glasses are made.
When the spy glass pieces are dry, punch a hole in the center of the handle end. Be sure to punch each piece in the same place. Use the first punched spy glass piece as a guide for the other two.
Stack all the spy glass pieces on top of each other, aligning the cellophane circles and punched handles. Fasten them together with a paper fastener to make your color wheel.
How many colors can you make with different combinations of two layers?
That's it! Your color wheel is complete!
Tip: Change the color of things around you by looking through the Spy Glass Color Wheel.
Tip: It's easy to make fancier Spy Glass Color Wheels using die-cuts. This spy glass was made with flower die-cuts in primary colors and a leaf die-cut used as a handle.
